Fenwick Automation is a bespoke AI automation agency based in Sevenoaks, Kent. We build systems that do the repetitive paperwork in UK construction and trade businesses. They run on that business’s own rules, and a person still checks anything that matters. I’m Blake Fenwick. I founded it in 2026.
This page explains what that means on a normal week in your office, and when it isn’t worth doing.
What AI automation means in a construction business
Take the hype out and it is this: a system that reads what comes in, does the copying and the drafting, and puts the result in front of the right person to check.
In most firms a job goes like this. An enquiry arrives. Someone reads it and retypes it. They find the last similar job, copy it and change the details. They chase what’s missing and send it for a signature. Then the same details get typed again into the job system, and again into the report at the end of the month.
Claude, the software we build on, is one step inside that. It reads an email or a PDF and pulls out the facts. It drafts a document in your format. The rest is ordinary system work: moving details to the right place, applying your rules, and stopping when something is missing.
It does not make the decisions that cost money or safety. The price, the safe method of work and the sign-off stay with a person.
Why off-the-shelf software often doesn’t fit
Most firms already have software. A job system, an accounts package, a CRM, a shared drive and a lot of spreadsheets. The problem is rarely a missing tool. It’s the gaps between them.
- It doesn’t know your rules. How you price access. Which client wants which format. What has to be in place before a job can start.
- It doesn’t stop a half-specified job. It stores what you type, gaps included.
- It doesn’t talk to your other systems. So a person copies between them.
- Your clients’ paperwork differs. One main contractor wants a different method statement layout. One site wants its own permit form. A generic template fails the first time a client asks for something different.
Bespoke means the system is built on your pricing rules, your document formats and your approval steps. Not a template with your logo on it.
What we build
If someone in your business does the same thing by hand more than once a month, it’s a candidate. The builds we’re asked for most often take one of these shapes: Lead qualification, Estimation, RAMS pre-fill, Automating CRM updating, Reporting and Pipeline automation. We build them one at a time.
In plain terms, that covers work like this.
- Turning enquiries into quotes. The system reads the enquiry and its attachments. It pulls out the scope, site, dates and client, flags what’s missing, prices the standard lines against your rate card and drafts the quote. The estimator prices the awkward parts and sends it. More in how to automate a construction quote without getting the price wrong.
- Preparing method statements. It drafts from your own template with the site details already in, and attaches the certificates and data sheets for that job. A competent person decides the safe method of work and signs. More in how long a method statement takes by hand.
- Permit packs. It assembles the pack, chases the missing certificate and keeps the register. A person authorises the permit. More in what you can automate in a permit pack.
- Client reporting. It pulls the month’s figures from where they already sit and drafts the report in the client’s format. A person reads it before it goes.
- Document creation. Handover packs, cover letters and one-pagers, built from your own templates.
- Pulling information out of emails and PDFs. Purchase orders, delivery notes, certificates. The system reads them and puts the facts in the right field, with the original attached.
- Chasing information. It drafts the chaser for the missing drawing or signature, to the right person, at the right time. Anything going to a client is seen by a person first.
- Updating systems. Once a job is won, the details move into the job record and the CRM without being typed twice.
Every build does one of three things. It checks: it stops a job that’s missing something. It drafts: it writes something for a person to finish. Or it assembles: it puts a pack together from pieces you already have.
You can see what we have running on the Work page.
There are ten more practical examples in 10 construction admin tasks you can automate.
We build around your existing software
You keep the systems you have. We don’t ask you to replace your job system or move your files.
The system runs on a Claude seat in your own Claude Team plan. It works alongside your email, shared drive, spreadsheets and job system. Where your software lets another tool read and write to it, the system does that directly. Where it doesn’t, the system drafts the entry and a person pastes it in. We find out which during the audit, before you’re quoted.
Because the plan and the seat are yours, you own what runs. Keep paying for the seat and it keeps running. Remove the seat and it stops, the same as cancelling any software.
How much admin time this takes up
Nobody publishes a reliable figure for construction firms your size, and I won’t make one up. The number that matters is yours. It’s quick to work out: hours a week on the task, times the people doing it, times the weeks you work.
There’s a worked example in how much time automation can save a small construction business. The calculator emails you a report on your own figures.
If your number is small, it isn’t worth automating. We’ll tell you that.
Who it’s for
UK construction and trade businesses with up to 25 staff. General contractors, electrical, mechanical, building services, groundworks, fit-out and maintenance. It fits best where paperwork is needed on every job and differs from client to client.
If you have more than 25 staff, we’re probably not the right fit, and we’ll say so on the call.
How it works
- The 10-minute call. Free. You tell me which document eats the most time. I say whether it fits and give you a rough estimate. Not a quote.
- Paid audit. We look at your real documents and data, work out what the paperwork costs you a year in your own figures, and write down what to build first.
- Quote. A fixed price for one route, from the audit, with three options.
- Data check and build.
- Parallel run. The new system runs alongside the old way until your team trusts it.
- Go-live and training, then monthly running.
Signature to live is from 4 weeks, depending on the size of the job.
What will go wrong
- Your data has gaps.
- Two people on your team describe the same rule differently. Both are right about their own jobs.
- Somebody’s spreadsheet is load-bearing.
- Version one will be wrong in a way only the person who does the job spots. That’s what the parallel run is for.
In one line
Fenwick Automation builds bespoke automation for UK small businesses weighed down by paperwork. We take the repetitive document work - quotes, forms, process documents, client reporting - and turn it into a system that runs on your own rules, with a person still checking anything that matters.
Next step
Book the 10-minute call. Tell me which document takes your team the longest and roughly how many you produce a month. You’ll leave knowing whether it’s worth building and a rough estimate of what it would cost.