I.C Developments, Design & Build
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Two I.C Developments team members in hi-vis and hard hats fitting ductwork beneath a steel beam on a Surrey extension
About I.C Developments

Surrey design & build, since 1996.

A Reigate design and build company. Ian Caplen has been building since 1996 and set the company up in 2001, and he is still the person you deal with. One team, one programme, and one name answerable for the whole job.

Work with us See our work
CHAS Accredited SSIP Assessed Fully Insured Building since 1996
Our story

We are a Reigate design and build company, and the name on the board belongs to the man who turns up at your house.

I.C Developments is a small, settled building company based in Reigate. Ian Caplen has been building since 1996. He set the company up in 2001, and it has worked across east Surrey ever since, taking on new homes, extensions, refurbishments, loft conversions, kitchens and bathrooms, and the careful repair of older property. Some jobs are large and some are small, but the care that goes into them is the same.

Most of what we do is for people who are staying put. They like the road, the school run works, and moving would cost more than building. So the job is not simply to add square metres. It is to hand back a house that works better than it did, finished properly, with the new part sitting comfortably against the old. You can see the sort of thing we mean on our recent work page.

Design and build means we take a project from the first survey through to handover under one agreement. Where drawings are needed we work alongside your architect, and if you do not have one we can introduce you to architects and designers we trust. From the ground up, the building work is ours, with one programme, one price and one person answerable for it. Our services page sets out the work we take on.

Most of our work arrives by recommendation, from one family to the next along the same handful of Surrey roads. That is a slow way to grow a company and a good way to keep one honest, because every job is in a small way an audition for the next one. It is also why this page tells you who we are and where our edges lie, rather than how remarkable we think we are.

Who you are dealing with

The person whose name is on it.

Plenty of building companies are hard to pin down. Here is who runs this one, and who you will be speaking to.

01A completed brick and tile hung new build house with an oak framed porch and a gravel drive, built by I.C Developments
Ian Caplen

Founder and owner

Ian has been building since 1996 and set up I.C Developments in 2001. He owns the company, and he is the person who comes to the first visit, walks the site, prices the work and answers the phone while the job is running. You will not be passed to a sales team or handed an account manager once the paperwork is signed.

That matters more than it sounds. When one person has seen the ground, written the price and set the programme, decisions get made on the spot rather than travelling up and down a chain. If something on site needs a straight answer, you get one from the person who is able to give it.

  • Building since 1996. The company was set up in 2001 and has worked out of Reigate ever since.
  • One number to ring. The same person from the first visit through to the final walk round.
  • Answerable. If something needs putting right there is no committee to go through. It is his name on the company.
02A carpenter cutting timber on a mitre saw during a fit out, with a second joiner working at the bench behind him
How we work

One team, groundworks to handover

The work is carried out by directly employed people and by skilled craftsmen we have used for years. Groundworkers, bricklayers, carpenters, roofers, plasterers, electricians, plumbers and tilers, most of whom have been on enough I.C sites to know how we expect a job to be left at the end of the day.

Nobody is picked off a list because they happened to be free that week, and that is the whole point of a settled team. The plasterer knows what the carpenter will want. The electrician knows where the kitchen is going before the units arrive. The work fits together instead of being argued over, and one programme covers all of it.

  • One programme. Every trade booked around a single schedule, not squeezed in whenever they turn up.
  • One point of responsibility. The trades answer to us, and we answer to you. No gaps for a job to fall into.
  • Long standing trades. People we have worked alongside for years, on site because they are right for the job.
How a project runs

A calm, considered process.

Every project is different, but the path we follow is the same. Five clear stages, one team, and no surprises along the way.

01

Consultation

We come and see you, look at your site, and listen to what you want from the space. We are honest about what will work and what it is likely to cost from the very first conversation.

02

Design

We work alongside your architect or designer as the plans take shape, feeding in the buildability and the cost as we go. If you do not have one, we can introduce you to architects and designers we trust.

03

Planning

Applications, structural calculations and building control are all dealt with, and a clear programme is set out. Everything is arranged and signed off before a spade goes in the ground.

04

Build

Our own trades and trusted craftsmen carry out the work to a high standard, on time and on budget. The site stays tidy and safe, and we keep you updated at every stage.

05

Handover

We snag the work properly and walk the finished project round with you. Then the keys are yours, with our support still there should you ever need us again.

Accreditation and insurance

What the badges actually mean.

Three logos in a footer tell you very little on their own. Here is what each one was assessed against, in plain English, so you can judge it for yourself.

CHAS accreditation

CHAS stands for the Contractors Health and Safety Assessment Scheme. It is an independent assessment of how a building company manages health and safety, and it is judged on evidence rather than on a handshake. The assessor looks at the health and safety policy, at risk assessments and method statements for the kind of work the firm actually carries out, at training and competence records, at how accidents and near misses are recorded, at insurance, and at how the firm checks the trades working under it.

In plain terms, it means somebody outside the company has looked at how we run a site and satisfied themselves that it is done properly. It is renewed by reassessment rather than awarded once and kept for good, so the evidence behind it has to stay current. For a homeowner it is a reasonable guide to whether a builder is organised, because a firm that keeps its safety paperwork straight tends to keep everything else straight too.

SSIP assessed

SSIP stands for Safety Schemes in Procurement. It is the umbrella body that a number of health and safety assessment schemes belong to, CHAS among them. SSIP sets the common core criteria those schemes assess against, so that one proper assessment is recognised by the other member schemes instead of a contractor having to prove the same things over and over to different bodies.

So SSIP is not a second badge won separately. It is what makes the assessment count more widely. It matters most on larger projects and on work for commercial clients and local authorities, where being on an SSIP recognised scheme is often a condition of being allowed on site at all. For a private client it is simply more evidence that the safety side of the business has been looked at by people who do it for a living.

Fully insured

We are fully insured, and we will send our certificates over before any work starts so you can read them yourself. It is worth knowing what you are looking at. Public liability cover deals with damage to property or injury to other people arising from the work. Employers liability cover deals with the people carrying the work out, and any company with employees is required by law to hold it. The certificate shows who the insurer is, what is covered and when the policy runs out.

Ask us for ours, and ask every other firm you are speaking to for theirs. It is a short, polite question, and the ones who mind being asked are the ones worth minding about.

CHAS Accredited Contractor logo
CHAS Accredited
Accredited Contractor
SSIP member scheme logo
SSIP Assessed
Scheme assessed

  • Fully insured

    Cover in place on every project, with the certificates sent to you before we start.

  • Assessed, not self declared

    Our safety management is checked by an independent scheme, not simply claimed on a website.

  • Recommended

    Most of our work comes from people passing our details on to a neighbour or a friend.

On site

How we run a site.

A building site sits in the middle of somebody’s home and somebody’s street. It ought to behave like it.

03An I.C Developments site banner and safety notice board fixed to hoarding outside an old brick cottage at dusk

Ours are fenced, signed and tidied at the end of every day. Materials are stacked rather than scattered, waste goes into a skip or a bag instead of a corner of the garden, and the pavement and road outside get swept. None of that is difficult. It is simply a decision somebody has to make on the first morning and keep making.

Inside, we protect what is already finished before we start making a mess near it. Floors are covered, doorways are sheeted, and dust extraction goes on the cutting tools rather than being left to settle on your furniture. Where we break into an existing house, the dust screen goes up first. Fifteen minutes of work beforehand saves a day of cleaning afterwards.

Working hours are agreed with you before we start, and we keep to them. Your neighbours are told what is coming, particularly ahead of the noisy weeks, because a neighbour who has been warned rarely needs to complain. And you are told what is happening each week in plain terms, including the weeks when weather or a late delivery has put us behind.

Being straight with you

What we do not do.

Every company tells you what it can do. It is usually more useful to know where the edges are, so here are ours.

We are not architects
Architect is a protected title in the United Kingdom and we do not hold it, so we will never describe ourselves as one. What we do is build. We work alongside your architect, we price and construct what has been drawn, and we give the buildability side early so the drawings that go in are drawings that can actually be built. If you do not have an architect, we can introduce you to architects and designers we trust.
We do not work outside our area
Our work sits within a sensible drive of Reigate, across east Surrey, and that is deliberate. Being close means we can be at your house the same morning if a decision is needed, and it means our trades are not losing half a day in traffic. If you are well outside that, we would rather say so than take the job and run it badly from a distance.
We do not price a job we have not seen
Nobody can put an honest figure on a house from a photograph, a postcode or a set of drawings alone. The ground, the access, the drains and the condition of what is already there decide too much of the price. We come out, look at all of it, ask the awkward questions early, and then put a written figure to it. That visit is free and there is no obligation attached to it.
We are not a showroom
49 Vogan Close is our registered office rather than a shop, and there is nothing there for you to look at. Everything worth discussing is easier to talk about at your own house with the space in front of us. If you would prefer to meet at the office, that is fine, but please arrange it with us first.
We do not take on work we are not right for
If a project needs something outside what we do well, or the dates you need are dates we cannot honestly hit, we will tell you at the first visit rather than three months into the job. Saying so early is not lost work. It is the part of the job that protects everybody, you most of all.
Where we work

Reigate, and across east Surrey.

One patch, worked properly. Close enough to be on site the same morning, and familiar enough to know what the ground is likely to do.

We are based in Reigate and most of what we build sits within about half an hour of it. Reigate and Redhill first of all, then out through Merstham, Nutfield, Bletchingley and Godstone, up the hill to Caterham and across to Oxted, west into Dorking and Leatherhead, and north towards Banstead, Tadworth and Epsom. Horley and the villages south of it as well.

Working in one area has practical value. We know which roads are a problem for a lorry and which are fine, which streets sit on shrinkable clay with mature trees close to the house, and how the building control teams here prefer things presented. None of that is exciting and all of it saves time, which on a building site is the same thing as saving money. Our areas page lists the towns we cover, with a page for each one.

Reigate & Redhill

Out to the east

North and west

What you can count on

The way we do things.

The best projects are the calm ones. These are the habits that keep them that way, from the quotation through to the last item on the snagging list.

Good to know

Questions about us.

Who will I actually deal with?
Ian Caplen, who founded the company and owns it. He comes out to the first visit, prices the work, sets the programme and stays reachable while the job is running. There is no account manager in between. Day to day you will also get to know the trades carrying out the work, but the person answerable for the job does not change from the first conversation to the last.
Are you insured?
Yes, we are fully insured, and we will send our certificates before work starts so you can read them yourself. It is worth asking every firm you speak to for the same thing. Public liability cover deals with damage to property or injury to other people arising from the work. Employers liability cover deals with the people carrying the work out, and any company with employees is required by law to hold it. A builder who cannot produce insurance on request has given you your answer.
What does CHAS accreditation mean?
CHAS is the Contractors Health and Safety Assessment Scheme. To be accredited, a contractor has to submit evidence of how it manages health and safety and have that evidence assessed independently. It covers the safety policy, risk assessments and method statements for the work actually carried out, training and competence records, accident reporting, insurance, and how the firm checks the trades working under it. It is renewed by reassessment rather than awarded once and kept for good, so the paperwork behind it has to stay current. For a homeowner it is a fair sign that a firm is organised and takes the running of a site seriously.
Do you use subcontractors?
Some of the team are directly employed, and the specialist trades are people we have worked alongside for years, which is a very different thing from putting a job out to whoever is free that week. Groundworkers, bricklayers, carpenters, roofers, plasterers, electricians, plumbers and tilers all work to one programme set by us. Whoever is holding the tool, responsibility for the job stays with us, and so does the person you ring.
Can I speak to past clients?
Yes. Ask us and we will put you in touch with people whose homes we have worked on, with their permission first. Where a project is at a suitable stage we can sometimes arrange for you to see the work in person as well, which tells you a great deal more than photographs do. We would encourage it. Most of our work arrives by recommendation, so we would far rather you heard it from them than from us.
Explore more

Where to go next.

Services Our Work Areas We Cover
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Let’s build something lasting.

from the soil in the ground to the keys in your hand

Enquire now 07973 933125