The appalling price of perfection

Building a property to the standards you want takes blood, sweat and tears – and plenty of money. Penny Jackson reports

Through open doors, the sculptural shapes of tropical plants suggest anything but south London. A room flooded with light from above and running the full width of the uniquely modern house make it seem a far cry from its traditional neighbours.

Its very position, set back from the Wandsworth street, was what first attracted Ron Redel to the site which back then, in the mid-1990s, was nothing but a ramshackle collection of old garages. "Whenever I visited the friends next door for dinner they would urge me to buy it, and there was no doubt that it had potential. But I was broke at the time and the property market was still in recession."

Redel, a producer of commercials, already had a reputation among friends for taking on projects. That this one might prove more of a challenge than even he had imagined was not immediately apparent.

"The terraced house at the front was run-down and had squatters, but the land with the old buildings backed on to a huge, empty site. I managed to buy it at a reasonable price because it did not come with planning permission," explains Redel.

His dream of building a house from scratch is shared by a growing number of people but the difficulties of finding a site, especially in London, make it unrealisable for most. "I was prepared to take a gamble on the basis that if you put forward sensible plans and you consult the planning authorities it is highly unlikely that they will object. At the very least, I would have a house with an extremely large garden."

As he had hoped, the planning side did not prove a problem and his gamble paid off. Permission was given for his house and one other, to be built by a friend. In the meantime, Ron and his wife Megan revamped the terraced house and moved in.

It was then that the strain of commissioning his own house kicked in: "We knew exactly what we wanted, and even though we had a good architect and went to the best suppliers, at every stage there was a hassle. We always had to get someone back to finish a job properly."

Glass had to be returned, the front door was too short, the kitchen was not exactly as ordered and the unusual but striking finish on some walls and floors took four attempts. "We ended up having a row about it until it was done correctly. Everybody blames someone else and even if a mistake costs time and money, all you ever get is a 'sorry'. No one really wants to pay attention to detail."

Redel finds it particularly galling that in order to achieve the quality he wanted he had to pay bespoke prices. "We are talking large sums, but they still got things wrong and the after-care is generally appalling. People will comment on how much we must have made on the house but even though it was obviously far cheaper to build it from scratch, they have no idea of how stressful and demanding it was. It took far longer and cost far more than we expected."

Now that the completed four-bedroom house, stunning in its contemporary simplicity, with underfloor heating, double, even triple, height ceilings, roof terrace and galleried dining-room is as he envisaged it, he and his family are moving on. The house is on the market with Foxtons for £1.45m. "I just wish that what should have been a great experience had not proved to be such a nightmare."

The American owners of a house in Bracknell Gardens, in Hampstead, north London would echo that. They had to return to the States before their home was finished and have never lived in it. The purchasers will be taking on a property where perfection can be seen in the smallest detail, but which was achieved with "blood, sweat and tears" according to Simon Barnes, property consultant, who is handling the sale.

"They thought they had bought their perfect home but found so many problems with the workmanship that they gutted the interior and rebuilt it within its period facade. Everything has been done to the highest possible standard, but with a practical purpose. There is an enormous kitchen and dining area, each bedroom has a bathroom and there is a swimming pool within the house, which opens into the garden."

Barnes says that over the four years it has taken, the owners were constantly dismayed at the low standards of workmanship. What they expected as a matter of course in the United States proved nothing but a battle in the UK as they struggled to explain why making do was not acceptable. "The owner would get tired of being told that if he just twiddled this or that it would work. He was paying for and wanted the best. He would make a special trip from the States to find nothing had been done and everybody blaming everyone else. His standards were extraordinarily high – even the screws had to face the same way."

The guide price of £7.5m demands an exceptional quality but although in the case of Bracknell Gardens this will be met, Simon Barnes points out that too often buyers of new or redesigned properties are paying for a finish that starts to disintegrate after a year: poor workmanship and cheap materials will eventually reveal themselves, whereas if work has been done well the house will look as good as new for years.

When Madonna, in exasperation, famously criticised the British builder for his working practices, she received some criticism. Not, one suspects, from anyone who has tried to set new standards.

Foxtons, Putney, London SW15 (020-8355 1000); Simon Barnes: 020-7499 3434