Bespoke homebuilding · Cheshire · Since 1998
We design and build one-off houses across Cheshire and south Manchester. Two directors, one permanent site team, and no subcontractor you haven’t met.
1998
Building since
94
Homes completed
25mi
Of Knutsford
We’re a small firm on purpose. Ian Halstead and Peter Rowe started Halstead & Rowe in 1998 after fifteen years apiece on other people’s sites, and they’ve kept it deliberately small ever since. That means we take on four or five projects a year, not forty.
It also means the people who walk your plot and price the work are the people you’ll see on site. There’s no account manager, no handover to a delivery team you’ve never met, and no subcontractor we haven’t worked with for a decade.
We’re not the cheapest quote you’ll get. We’re usually the one that doesn’t move.
One-off houses on private plots, from foundations to final fix. We take the design through planning, build it, and hand you the keys with a ten-year structural warranty.
From £450k · 12–20 months
Rear extensions, side returns, loft conversions, and the whole-house reconfigurations that come with them. Most of our extension work is on houses we’ve already surveyed and know inside out.
From £85k · 4–9 months
Period property brought back without stripping out what makes it worth keeping. Lime plaster, sash repair, and the sort of work that needs someone who has done it before.
From £120k · 6–14 months
Concept drawings, planning applications, and building regulations packages, produced in-house. You can use this on its own if you’d rather build with someone else.
From £4.5k · 8–16 weeks
The most common thing that goes wrong on a build is that nobody agreed what was going to happen. Here’s what happens with us.
01
We come to the plot or the house, walk it with you, and talk about what you’re actually trying to achieve. No charge, no obligation, and we’ll tell you honestly if we’re the wrong firm for it.
Typically 1 visit
02
We put a realistic cost range on paper before anyone commits to drawings. If your budget and your brief don’t meet, this is where we say so.
Typically 2 weeks
03
Our design team produces the drawings, we submit the planning application, and we handle the back-and-forth with the local authority on your behalf.
8–16 weeks
04
You get a full specification, a fixed price, and a week-by-week build programme. Everything is agreed before a single brick moves.
Typically 3 weeks
05
Our own team builds it. You get a site visit and a written update every Friday, and a named contact who answers the phone.
4–20 months
06
We walk the finished house with you, work through the snagging list together, and hand over the warranty and building control paperwork. We come back at twelve months to check everything’s settled.
12-month check
Mobberley
A derelict brick dairy on a working farm, converted into a four-bedroom family home. The original trusses were sound enough to keep, so we opened the roof up and left them exposed across the whole first floor.
2,140 sq ft · 16 months · Completed 2024
Alderley Edge
A new-build on a steep, awkward plot that two previous buyers had walked away from. We stepped the house down the slope in three levels rather than fighting the gradient with retaining walls.
3,380 sq ft · 19 months · Completed 2023
Knutsford
A 1930s semi that had been extended badly twice. We took both extensions off, rebuilt the rear in glass and brick, and reworked the entire ground floor plan.
1,760 sq ft · 9 months · Completed 2025
One team
No subcontracted build
The people who quote your job build your job.
Fixed price
Agreed before we start
Our final invoice matches our quote on 91% of projects.
10 years
Structural warranty
Insurance-backed, transferable if you sell.
Every Friday
Written site update
Progress, spend against budget, and what’s happening next week.
“They told us in the first meeting that our budget was about eighty thousand short of our brief. Nobody else had said that. We trusted them from that point on.”
“Nineteen months on site and I think we had two things go wrong, both of which Peter had flagged before they happened. The Friday updates were worth their weight.”
“We’d had a bad experience with a previous builder and were nervous about the whole thing. Halstead & Rowe were the opposite in every way that mattered.”
We stay close to home because it’s the only way to have someone on site every day. If you’re outside this area, call anyway — we’ll tell you who we’d use.
Knutsford · Wilmslow · Alderley Edge · Prestbury · Hale · Bowdon · Mobberley · Chelford · Macclesfield · Congleton · Tarporley · Northwich
No obligation and no charge for the first visit. We’ll come out, walk the site, and tell you honestly whether it’s a job for us.
Start a conversation01565 000 118 · hello@halsteadandrowe.co.uk