Home Renovations

A renovation can mean a full strip-out of a 1970s house back to blockwork, or it can mean two rooms reworked properly while the family stays living around it. Either way the sequence is the same: understand what is behind the plaster, fix the structure and the services first, and only then spend money on what you can see.

That usually covers structural alterations and steel where walls come out, rewiring, replumbing and heating, insulation and airtightness upgrades, window and door replacement, new bathrooms and kitchens, floors, stairs, joinery and decoration. On older houses it often also means addressing damp, ventilation and cold bridging that were never dealt with — the unglamorous work that decides whether the finish still looks right in ten years.

Renovation carries more unknowns than a new build, so we spend longer at the survey stage. We open up where we need to, check joist ends, wall construction and existing services, and tell you what we find rather than pricing around it. Where the scope could go two ways we set that out clearly at estimate stage so a decision later is not a surprise.

We are also honest about phasing. Not every house needs to be done in one go. If it makes more sense to complete the structural and service work now and the second fix later, we will say so and design the programme so the second phase does not undo the first.

You get an itemised written estimate and a programme before we start, and one point of contact throughout. If you are living in the house we agree in advance which rooms stay in use, how dust is contained, and when the water, heating or power will be off. Deliveries and skips are planned so the driveway is not blocked for weeks.

Anything uncovered mid-job is brought to you with options and a price before the work proceeds. We finish with a walkthrough and close out the snag list before the final payment.

Electricians, plumbers and heating engineers, plasterers, tilers, roofers and glazing suppliers are booked against the programme and supervised by us. Carpentry is our own trade — floors, stairs, doors, structural timber and second fix — and joinery covers built-in wardrobes, panelling and bespoke trim. Kitchens and interiors are fitted as part of the same run of work, and painting and decorating closes it out with surfaces prepared properly rather than sprayed over.