Overflow support for a WordPress build already underway
The deadline is close, the site is half built, and someone else wrote the code so far. Send access to the repository and get help finishing it under your name.
The same terms on every job
NDA signed first
Before designs, file access or a client’s name reach me.
No contact with your client
Questions, staging links and notes come to you, and stop there.
A fixed price, not an hourly rate
One figure for the build, confirmed before you quote.
What a half-finished build costs you before anyone new arrives
The date does not move
The client has the launch date already in their diary. The remaining work did not shrink because your developer left, fell ill or got pulled onto something else.
The code is somebody else’s
Whoever joins has to read decisions they did not make, on a platform they did not choose, and finish inside them rather than start again.
A rewrite gets proposed instead of a finish
The quickest answer for the person joining is to redo it their way. CarbonQ was a genuine rewrite off Elementor, and that was the brief; on a build mid-flight it is a way of restarting your clock.
Bringing someone in exposes the client
A freelancer who emails your client, appears in the theme header or shows the work in their portfolio turns your capacity problem into a relationship problem.
What joining an existing build looks like
What starting on someone else’s code actually involves, from first access to handover.
What I need to start
Access to the repository, a staging environment I can build against, and a written description of what "done" looks like for the remaining work.
The NDA comes first, same as on a new build. It is signed before I look at the code or the client’s name.
repository access and a staging environment
a written definition of done for the remaining work
the NDA signed before the code or the client’s name
the build tooling the project already runs on
How the work is reported while it runs
There is no design-quoting stage here, because the design already exists. Progress shows up on staging as it happens, so you see the remaining work close in real time.
On anything beyond a short fix, the invoice follows the same stages as the work itself.
progress visible on staging while it happens
no design-quoting stage, the design already exists
invoicing split across the stages of the work
questions come to you, never to your client
What I will not change on my own
The platform the project already stands on. If the remaining work calls for a page builder the site was not built with, that is a conversation before I start.
the platform the project already stands on
no fresh work built on Elementor, Divi or WPBakery
moving a site off a page builder is its own job, as it was on CarbonQ
What is left with you afterwards
The finished code, in the repository you gave me access to, with the same notes I write for a build I started from scratch.
No licence to renew and nothing that calls back to me. If the project needs more work later, it does not depend on me being the one who does it.
the finished code, in the repository you gave me access to
the same notes as a build started from scratch
no licence to renew and nothing calling back to me
later work does not depend on me being the one who does it
Before I join a live build
The ground rules for working inside code someone else started.
You keep the client
The work goes out under your studio name, on your invoice, with no email of mine reaching the client.
A short job starts within days
Finishing work on a live build fits between the queued projects, so help on a half-built site starts within a few working days.
An hour ahead of you
I work from Poland, one hour ahead of UK time, so a question sent at nine has an answer before lunch.
What happens instead
The same four points, answered in the order they were raised.
I start inside your date
Work on a site already underway fits between the queued builds, so the start is measured in days. Progress then shows up on staging while it happens, so you watch the remaining work close in real time.
I finish in the code that is there
The platform the project already stands on stays, and so does the build tooling it runs. Reading someone else’s decisions is part of the job, not a reason to reopen them.
A rewrite is a conversation, never a surprise
If the remaining work genuinely calls for something the site was not built with, you hear it before I start rather than after the invoice. CarbonQ was a rewrite because that was the brief.
Your client never learns I exist
No email of mine reaches them, my name is absent from the theme header, and the work stays off my portfolio. Questions and staging links go to you, and stop there.
Three sites I took over from another developer
CarbonQ arrived as a live multilingual Elementor site that had to keep its look and lose its load time. Adwil replaced a builder version with a real catalogue underneath it. Doors And Worktops has been in my hands since 2023, long after the migration that started it.
About joining a live build
What studios ask when the work is already half done and the date is fixed.
Finishing work on a site already underway fits between the queued builds, so it usually starts within a few working days of repository access and a written list of what is left. A full build from scratch is the one that needs one to two weeks of notice.
Then I finish inside it anyway and tell you what I found. Reading decisions I would not have made is part of this job. If the remaining work genuinely cannot be done without reworking something, you hear the reason and the cost before I touch it, never after the invoice.
I read the repository and work out what is left before quoting, and that costs you nothing. What comes back is a written list of the remaining work and one figure for finishing it. If the state of the code makes an honest figure impossible, you hear that instead of a number I would have to revise halfway through.
Not from me. My name goes nowhere near the repository history you hand on, the theme header or the client. What you tell the person who started the build, and when, is your call entirely.
Keep reading
How I work with a design studio
NDA first, no contact with your client, and a fixed price before you quote. This is what a build with me looks like end to end.
Figma to WordPress, coded by hand
Send a finished Figma file and get back a WordPress theme built to match it, with no page-builder kit underneath it.
Online shops coded from your design
WooCommerce and PrestaShop built to the artwork rather than bent out of a bought store theme, including the views a platform does not hand you.
Work I am allowed to show
These are the case studies I am free to show. Most of my work goes out under a studio’s own name, so the full count runs higher than this page. Each one below follows the same structure: what came in, what I built, and what it changed.
Half a build and a date that will not move?
Send repository access and a written description of what is left. You get a start date back, and short jobs start within a few working days.