Frequently asked questions

Between four and eight months for most pieces. Design and approval takes two to six weeks, fabrication or casting eight to twenty-four weeks depending on material and scale, sea freight four to seven weeks to Europe and North America, and installation one to five days on site. We issue a programme with the quotation so the dates sit alongside your own construction sequence.

Yes — most of what we produce is bespoke. Send a sketch, a reference image, a mood board or a written brief with the site dimensions and we will come back with a maquette proposal, an indicative price band and a programme. Catalogue pieces exist mainly to show what is achievable at a given scale and budget.

There is no formal minimum, but the engineering, drawing and approval work behind a piece does not scale down indefinitely. Below roughly one metre in bronze or marble the fixed costs dominate, and we will usually say so rather than quote something that represents poor value.

A site plan or location photograph, the intended height, the viewing distance and sight lines, the material preference if you have one, and the target programme. Budget band helps too. Without a viewing distance we can only guess at scale, and scale drives cost more than any other single variable.

Fifteen to twenty-five years with a UV-stable pigmented gelcoat and an occasional wash. Colour is in the gelcoat rather than painted on top, so a scuff does not expose a different colour underneath. It is not a hundred-year material like bronze, and we say so when a client is choosing between the two.

It can, during the first eighteen months while the oxide layer stabilises. We design a concealed drip edge into the base so runoff is directed away from adjacent surfaces, and we recommend a gravel or dark stone margin rather than pale limestone directly beneath a corten piece. After the patina stabilises, runoff effectively stops.

316L contains molybdenum, which resists chloride pitting. Within about five kilometres of the coast, or anywhere de-icing salt is used, 304 will show brown pitting within a couple of years while 316L will not. The material cost difference is small relative to the cost of refinishing a polished piece on site.

Yes, with two conditions. The block must be sound and correctly oriented for vein direction, and water must not be allowed to sit in a detail and freeze. We hone rather than polish anything that will run wet, and we design the base so the piece drains rather than ponds.

Corten for landscape and low maintenance, 316 stainless for coastal and for anything polished, cast bronze where the subject is figurative and the piece is expected to last centuries, marble where the setting is formal and the structure can carry the weight, and fiberglass where weight, budget or a temporary installation rules the others out. Our material guides compare all five directly.

Yes, with every piece over three metres and on request below that. Calculations are run against the site wind speed, terrain category and exposure, and issued signed. We also provide the resulting anchoring and foundation drawing so your ground works contractor is not designing to an assumption.

We issue the loading plan — vertical load, overturning moment and shear at the base plate — and the holding-down bolt layout. The foundation itself is designed by the project engineer against the local ground conditions, because we cannot know the bearing capacity of your site from here.

Yes. Signed structural calculations are issued with every commission, and where a jurisdiction requires local certification we work with a local engineer of record and provide everything they need to check and stamp the design.

In sealed plywood cases on fumigated timber bases, corner-protected, strapped and desiccant-packed where the sea route is long. Pieces above road width ship in designed sections with match-marked joints. We supply the packing list, weights, dimensions and centre of gravity for every crate.

EXW, FOB, CIF and DAP. Most international clients take CIF to their nearest port and handle customs locally, but we will quote DAP to site where that is simpler for you. Freight is quoted separately from the piece so you can see exactly what is being charged.

Four to seven weeks to Europe and North America, two to four weeks within Asia and the Gulf, six to nine weeks to South America and Oceania. Air freight is possible for smaller pieces and is quoted on request; it is rarely economic above about 300 kilograms.

Both options exist. We install directly wherever we can travel, and where we cannot we supervise a local rigging contractor and issue the full method statement, lifting plan and sequence drawings. Supervision-only is often the cheaper route once travel is factored in.

It depends entirely on the piece. Fiberglass work under 200 kilograms is usually a two-person lift with a tail-lift. Bronze and marble above a tonne need crane access, a hard standing for the outriggers and a clear swing radius. We issue an access requirements sheet early so this is resolved before the piece ships, not after.

One day for a single-piece installation onto a prepared foundation. Two to five days for a sectional piece requiring assembly, alignment and on-site finishing of joints. Water features add two to three days for commissioning the pump, filtration and lighting.

Design development, structural engineering, fabrication or casting, finishing, and export crating. Not included: freight, import duties, foundations and ground works, crane hire, and installation unless separately quoted. We list exclusions explicitly on every quotation rather than in small print.