Flat Refurbishment Hammersmith and Fulham

Flat refurbishment is the everyday form of this work in Hammersmith and Fulham, where the VOA counts 77% of homes as flats. They run from period conversions of Victorian and Edwardian terraces to post-war blocks and the 16% of homes built in 2000 or later. Each flat is renewed inside a building shared with neighbours, so the lease, the managing agent and the flat below shape the job as much as the choice of finishes does.

For Hammersmith and Fulham, published UK averages put a full flat refurbishment at £33,000 to £48,000 and a basic one, with budget kitchen and bathroom fittings, at £15,000 to £18,000, and London flats usually cost more (Checkatrade and MyJobQuote, 2026). GS Renovation Ltd, a building contractor based in Potters Bar, does the work in Hammersmith and Fulham: we refurbish the flat within the terms of your lease and licence to alter, protect the common parts throughout, and a registered electrician certifies the new consumer unit and circuits.

The kinds of block you find in Hammersmith and Fulham

Three kinds of building come up again and again when a flat is refurbished in Hammersmith and Fulham. Period conversions sit inside houses from the 56% of the borough's stock built before 1919, with a shared stair, timber floors and a freeholder that may be a small company run by the leaseholders. Purpose-built blocks from the 34% built after 1945 usually have concrete floors and a professional managing agent. Newer blocks from the 16% built in 2000 or later should have their own fire strategy and as-built records.

The building type sets the method. In a Hammersmith and Fulham conversion, sound travels through joists and lath ceilings, so a new hard floor needs an acoustic layer, and moving a bathroom means lifting your own boards without disturbing the ceiling below. In a concrete block, chasing walls for new cables is loud and slow, and some managing agents limit it to set hours. In a newer block, cutting into walls or ceilings can breach a fire compartment, so we ask for the as-built drawings before anything is opened up.

Housing in Hammersmith and Fulham

On the valuation list Hammersmith and Fulham counts about 95,080 homes, 77% flats and 23% houses; 56% predate 1919, 9% are interwar and 34% post-war.

Leases, licences to alter and block rules in Hammersmith and Fulham

A flat refurbishment in Hammersmith and Fulham starts with the lease, not the tools. Leases differ: some bar structural alterations outright, many ask for the freeholder's written licence to alter before floors change or a bathroom is relocated, and some permit non-structural work without asking. The managing agent may also set its own working hours, ask for a method statement, and require a deposit against damage to the common parts. We supply the programme and paperwork they ask for, so the licence is not held up by missing detail.

Inside a block, the council's limits are only the outer edge. Hammersmith and Fulham Council aims to keep noisy work to weekday daytime and Saturday mornings, and block rules often narrow that further. We protect the stair carpet and the lift car before the first delivery, carry materials up at agreed times, and take waste out in bags rather than leaving it in the hall. Where a van must stand outside, the council needs 8 days notice to suspend up to six bays for up to three days, so the booking goes in with the programme.

Floors, leaks and fire safety in a Hammersmith and Fulham flat

Floors are where flat refurbishments go wrong. Swapping carpet for boards or tiles over a period timber floor can carry footsteps straight into the flat below, and a lease may forbid hard floors without an acoustic layer, so read it before choosing the finish. We lay resilient underlay or a floating floor where the lease or the neighbour below calls for it, and we protect the stairs and hallway each day. Keeping the common parts clean does as much for the licence to alter as any document does.

Water and fire are the other two risks to neighbours. In a Hammersmith and Fulham kitchen or bathroom renewal we pressure test new pipework before the floor closes, fit isolation valves and tank the shower area, because a leak travels straight down. The flat entrance door and the walls and floors around the flat belong to the fire strategy of the whole building, which the freeholder or responsible person manages, so they are not altered without that person's agreement. Hammersmith and Fulham Council runs its own building control service for notifiable work in an ordinary block.

Letting a Hammersmith and Fulham flat: EPC ratings and licensing

A landlord refurbishing between tenancies in Hammersmith and Fulham has to clear the energy rules as well as the snagging list. The E minimum applied to new tenancies from 1 April 2018, and since 1 April 2020 landlords cannot let or continue to let a property covered by the MEES Regulations below E without a valid exemption. The council enforces the standards with a compliance notice and then a financial penalty. A flat often has no roof of its own to insulate, so the gains come from heating controls, an efficient boiler or storage heaters, secondary glazing and draught stripping.

Licensing can reach a single let flat. Hammersmith and Fulham runs mandatory HMO, additional HMO and selective licensing, and a licence under any of them can carry property conditions. A converted house let entirely as flats can be a Section 257 HMO. Licensing of those is restricted to buildings where none of the flats is owner-occupied, the leaseholders do not run the building and the street is not a selective licensing street. The landlord applies for any licence, and we carry out the works a licence or inspection asks for.

• Decoration throughout, with waste bagged and carried out of the block
• Rewires inside the flat, signed off at the end by a registered electrician
• EPC improvements to meet the minimum standard for let flats

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for all 25 statistical areas in Hammersmith and Fulham. Counts rounded by the VOA.

If you are weighing up options for your Hammersmith and Fulham property, it is worth reading bathroom renovation in Hammersmith and Fulham, our Hammersmith and Fulham area guide, London builders who work inside occupied blocks, fitting a new kitchen inside the flat footprint, our London flat refurbishment page and Small Kitchen Ideas.

Trusted Flat Refurbishment in Hammersmith and Fulham

Refurbishing a flat is as much about the building as about the flat itself. We read the lease clauses you send, prepare the method statement and programme the managing agent asks for, and run deliveries and waste so the common parts stay clean. You get a written quotation after a visit and one point of contact throughout. The founder has more than thirty years of hands-on experience, a registered electrician certifies the new consumer unit and circuits, and a Gas Safe engineer handles any boiler work.

• Kitchens and bathrooms renewed within the existing footprint and drainage
• Building control applications and inspections coordinated for you
• New pipework pressure tested so nothing leaks into the flat below

Checked by Abdelaaziz Saaid, founder and director of GS Renovation Ltd (Companies House no. 14611254).