A renovation is a different discipline from an extension. There is no new footprint to set out; instead there is an existing building — usually a Victorian terrace or a 1930s semi altered piecemeal for decades — that needs taking back to a sound shell and rebuilding around how you actually live. Our recent work includes a complete refurbishment with an open-plan rear reconfiguration in south-west London, run exactly this way: one design, one consent strategy, one price, one project lead.
What does a full house renovation include?
A genuine full renovation runs from strip-out to snagging, and the order matters more than most homeowners expect. Services and structure come first, because a rewire after the walls are skimmed means chasing out finished plaster, and a steel installed after the kitchen is fitted means taking the kitchen out again. We sequence every job the same way:
| Stage | What happens | What it settles |
|---|---|---|
| Strip-out | Failed plaster, dead services and tired finishes removed back to the shell | The building's true condition, before money goes on finishes |
| Structure | Steels in, walls out, floors levelled and strengthened to our engineer's calculations | The layout you will live with for decades |
| First fix | Full rewire, new plumbing and heating runs, ventilation and extraction routed | Services renewed once, invisibly, while the walls are open |
| Insulation and boarding | Thermal and acoustic insulation, plasterboard, skim | Warmth, quiet and Building Regulations compliance |
| Second fix | Circuits tested and certified, sanitaryware on, heating commissioned, kitchen and bathrooms fitted | A working house |
| Finishes | Joinery, flooring, tiling, decoration | The part you see — done last so nothing damages it |
| Snagging and sign-off | Defects closed, Building Control completion certificate issued | The paperwork a future buyer's solicitor will ask for |
Not every project needs every line at full depth. A refurbishment of a structurally sound house might keep the layout and renew the services, insulation and finishes; a harder programme rebuilds the plan itself. Your itemised quote shows exactly which lines your house needs, and why.
Renovation with reconfiguration — the move that changes London houses
Most London houses do not lack space so much as hold it in the wrong places. The Victorian terrace puts the kitchen in a narrow rear addition and leaves a dark middle room doing very little; the 1930s semi boxes the kitchen off from the dining room behind a single skin of brick. Our signature move is to take down the back of the plan: the kitchen relocated into one wide, garden-facing space, steels designed by our engineer carrying the old rear wall, drainage and extraction repositioned on the drawings before anyone lifts a tool.
Reconfiguration is where a renovation earns its money, because it changes how the house works rather than just how it looks. And where the brief grows — more volume as well as better volume — an extension joins the same programme, with one drawing set and one price. That combined scope is covered on our whole-house transformations page.
Do you need planning permission to renovate a house?
Usually not. Internal work — walls moved, kitchens relocated, rewires and replumbs — needs no planning permission, because planning bites on external changes, extensions and listed buildings. Conservation areas restrict external alterations only, subject to Article 4 directions on some streets, and listed building consent is a separate regime that is always required before altering a listed building, inside or out. If your renovation includes an extension, the householder application (£548) runs alongside the internal design, with the council's 8-week decision period built into the programme rather than discovered halfway through it.
Building Regulations are a different matter: they apply regardless of planning. Structural alterations, electrics under Part P, plumbing, insulation and fire safety all fall within them, and the completion certificate at the end is what proves the work was done properly. Structural work on a wall shared with a neighbour also brings in the Party Wall Act — notice served two months ahead for party structure work, and surveyors typically £1,000–£2,500 per affected neighbour where agreement is not reached. The mechanics are set out in our party wall guide; we prepare the notices as part of the job.
How we run a renovation
The same rules we apply to extensions apply here, because they are the rules that keep a fixed price fixed.
- Survey. We measure and inspect the whole house — structure, damp, services, drainage — because a quote is only as honest as the survey behind it. The visit is free.
- Design and drawings, in-house. Our architect team draws the reconfiguration and our engineer calculates the structure. You approve drawings, not descriptions.
- One fixed, itemised quote. Every line of work named and priced, so you can see what is included and compare it properly — what a proper quote should include and the cost guide are worth reading before you compare anyone's. Start with a free site visit.
- Staged payments. You pay for completed stages, not promises, with no outsized deposit up front. Our guide to deposits and stage payments shows how those stages map to what you pay and when.
- One project lead. A single person runs your job from strip-out to snagging, holds the programme and answers your questions the same day.
Who we renovate for
Most of our renovation work sits in the housing stock North London is made of: Victorian terraces in Enfield, Haringey and Barnet, 1930s semis along the Piccadilly line suburbs, Edwardian houses that have not been touched since the eighties. Whole-house programmes travel further — the south-west London refurbishment above is one — so we take on full renovations across North and South London where the scope justifies it. If your project is one missing room rather than a whole house, our extension pages cover that ground; if it is both, this is the page. Call 020 3051 9430 or book the visit and we will tell you honestly which it is.