Based in Highworth, SN6
Highworth's local bricklayers
and general builders,
up the road since 1988.
We're not a Swindon firm claiming to cover Highworth, we live here. Our yard's on Windrush, our vans are on Highworth streets most days, and if you're inside SN6 we're usually with you within 24 hours of the call.
Free site visit. Written estimate in 3–5 working days. £5m public liability. Family-run for three generations of tradesmen.
We serve Highworth
We live here: that changes the timescale.
Highworth is home. Our address is 329 Windrush and our postcode is SN6. When a Highworth homeowner rings, the site visit is almost always the same week: often the same day if we're already on a nearby job.
Response times to Highworth
Enquiries from Highworth (SN6) are answered the same working day, and for storm damage or urgent structural issues we're often on site inside a few hours.
Property types in Highworth
The Highworth housing stock we know inside out: the older stone and brick cottages around the High Street and the Square, Georgian and Victorian frontages on Sheep Street and Brewery Street, post-war and 1970s housing on Windrush and Blackworth, and the newer builds at Redlands, Westrop and off the Shrivenham Road.
Common Highworth jobs
Regular Highworth jobs: repointing on older frontages, single-storey extensions on the 70s stock, stone garden walls on the Cotswold edge properties, driveway aprons in reclaimed brick, and full pitched re-roofs on estate houses now hitting fifty years old.
Services available in Highworth
The full family-run trade list, in Highworth.
Every service below is handled by the same three-person family team.
Bricklaying in Highworth
Fair-faced brickwork, garden walls, arches and repairs: built by the family that's been doing it since 1988.
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Stone Laying in Highworth
Natural Cotswold stone walling and cladding, laid with the eye and hand of a specialist.
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Extensions in Highworth
Full home extensions handled start to finish: groundworks, brickwork, roofing, plastering.
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Plastering & Render in Highworth
Smooth internal plastering and clean external render by the same three-person family team.
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Pitched Roofing in Highworth
Tiled and slated pitched roofs: repairs and full re-roofs. (We don't take on flat roofing.)
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Patios & Hard Landscaping in Highworth
Patios, garden walls, turfing, decking and fencing: the outdoor build, handled in-house.
Read moreWhy choose us in Highworth
Why the neighbours book us.
In a town this size, reputation is the only marketing that matters. A bad job on Sheep Street is talked about at the Saracen's Head by the weekend.
Our name is above the door.
Dale Smith isn't a trading name. He's the man who comes to your quote, runs the job, and answers the phone if something needs sorting after.
Nearest genuine local builder.
Not travelling in from Swindon or Oxford. We're already in town: that means shorter travel, faster call-backs, and no van fuel on your invoice.
Three generations, one family.
Dale learned from his father. His two sons are on the tools alongside him, three generations of standards on every job. That's rare in this trade, and it shows in how the work is finished.
Local building issues
Common Highworth building problems.
Highworth's mix of older stone-and-brick and 70s estate housing throws up a familiar set of issues.
Cement pointing on lime-built frontages.
A lot of the older Highworth stone and soft-brick frontages were re-pointed in cement in the 80s and 90s. The stone is now spalling behind it. Correct fix: rake out and re-point in a lime mix.
Bulging render on 70s estate housing.
Windrush and Blackworth housing was largely rendered in sand-and-cement. After fifty years of freeze-thaw it maps, cracks and blows. We hack off, re-mesh over the cracks and re-render.
Failing concrete-tile roofs.
Original roofs on 70s Highworth stock are at the end of their life. Slipped tiles, sagging felts, rotten battens. Full strip-and-relay pitched re-roof is usually the honest answer.
Wobbly boundary walls with no footing.
Older garden walls between properties on Blackworth, Windrush and off the Shrivenham Road were often built without a proper concrete foundation. When they lean, the only real fix is take-down and rebuild on a new footing.
In depth
Building in Highworth.
Highworth is a small market town on a hill north-east of Swindon, at the edge where the Cotswold stone belt meets the Wiltshire red brick country. That means we've got two entirely different building materials in play, sometimes on the same street. The older properties around the High Street, Sheep Street, Brewery Street and the Square lean towards soft brick and rubble stone, laid in lime mortar, with timber lintels and clay tile or slate roofs. Get onto the post-war estates and it's cement mortar, standard machine-made facing brick, concrete lintels and concrete interlocking roof tiles.
This split matters because the trade skill needed for one is not interchangeable with the other. Fair-faced facing brickwork on a modern extension is one job, matching a Georgian bond in reclaimed soft red brick and lime mortar to blend with an existing Highworth frontage is a different job entirely. Same with stone: a modern reconstituted-stone quoin block goes down in minutes; a proper piece of Cotswold rubble stone with a lime bed and a lime pointing takes longer, costs more, and lasts a century. We do both. The site visit is where we tell you which one you've actually got.
Because our yard is inside Highworth, the practical stuff is easier here than anywhere else on our patch. Access surveys are quick. Skips get delivered fast. If we've forgotten a bolt we're not driving twenty miles for it. And when the job finishes, we're still in town: if anything needs looking at a year later, you're not chasing a firm two counties away.
Our process
The same four-step process, whether you're in Highworth or up the road.
Repeatable, honest, and identical for every job: a garden wall or a full extension.
- 01
Free site visit
We come out to your Highworth property, walk the job with you and answer questions in person.
- 02
Written estimate in 3–5 days
Itemised, in writing, with staged payments set out. No verbal quotes.
- 03
Booked in and started
Materials sourced, timing agreed. The same three-person team on site from day one.
- 04
Snagged and handed over
Site cleared, snag-list walked with you, aftercare explained. We stay reachable after the job.
Recent works
Recent projects in and around Highworth.
Nearby areas
Also serving these Wiltshire towns and villages.
Do you cover the whole of SN6?
Yes: Highworth itself and the SN6 villages around it: Hannington, Stanton Fitzwarren, Sevenhampton, South Marston and up towards Watchfield and Shrivenham.
How fast can you get to a Highworth job?
For urgent damage in Highworth, often within a few hours. For quoted work, a site visit inside the same week is standard.
Can you match older Highworth brickwork?
Yes. For repairs on older Highworth frontages we source reclaimed soft red brick and match the mortar mix to the original. Modern brick against a Georgian frontage looks wrong immediately: we don't do that.
Do you do stone laying in Highworth?
Yes: natural Cotswold stone walling, cladding and repairs. Highworth sits right on the eastern edge of the Cotswold stone belt so a lot of the older properties are part-stone.
Are you the same DR Smith building people my neighbours have used?
Very possibly, after four decades in one small town there aren't many streets we haven't worked on. Ask around.
Cost of a typical Highworth extension?
Priced only after a site visit and written up as an itemised estimate inside 3–5 working days. Staged payments, nothing due before we start.
Do you work Saturdays in Highworth?
Standard hours are Mon–Fri 8am–5pm. Saturday work is available for smaller jobs by arrangement: repointing, a bit of walling, guttering.
Ready when you are
Get a free estimate for your Highworth job.
Free site visit at a time that suits. Written, itemised estimate in 3–5 working days. Staged payments, nothing due before we start.