Domestic refurbishment is an imprecise science. Delays in delivery, budgets that double and builders that go bankrupt on the job are common horror stories, while names of good contractors are squirreled away, not even shared between best friends. Here however are some of the best.

ALEXANDER MALTBY These are grown-up, English-speaking builders, dressed in clean and matching shirts, who always leave a man on the site and who actually employ permanent staff. Alexander Maltby is a university graduate, and it shows. His clients come back to him again and again, and are rich enough not to need to go tender. Their housekeepers guard the company's telephone numbers with their lives. 020 7207 3502