Flat Refurbishment Kew

Flat refurbishment matters in Kew, because 43% of homes here are flats. Expect two kinds of building: Victorian houses divided into flats, and purpose-built blocks, with 31% of all Kew homes dating from after 1945. Either way the flat shares walls, floors and a staircase with neighbours, and the lease, the freeholder and the managing agent set the terms. We renew the kitchen, bathroom, electrics, heating and finishes inside the flat, to a programme the block can live with.

For Kew, 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 Kew: 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 lease and licence to alter for a Kew flat

In a Kew flat the lease comes first: where it requires the landlord's written licence to alter, that licence is needed before walls move, floors are lifted or the bathroom changes position. The managing agent may also set its own working hours, rules for the common parts and a method statement to approve before work starts. We supply the method statement and programme the owner needs for that application. Allow for that approval in the start date.

Read the lease for what it says about floor coverings, alterations to services and access to the roof void or riser, because a refurbishment often touches all three. In a converted Kew house the freeholder may be the leaseholders themselves, through a residents' company, which can make consent quicker or slower depending on who holds the post. In a purpose-built block a professional agent usually asks for a method statement, a risk assessment and a named site contact, and we provide those.

Housing in Kew

Kew has around 4,470 homes on the Council Tax list: 31% post-war, 6% interwar and 62% predate 1919, with 43% flats and 57% houses.

Floors, sound and leaks to the flat below in Kew

Floors are the sensitive point. Pulling up carpet to lay boards or tiles in an upper flat can make impact noise much worse for the flat below, and some leases forbid hard floors without acoustic underlay. We lay a resilient layer under any hard floor and keep it clear of the skirting, so sound does not bridge into the walls. In a converted Victorian house in Kew the timber joists carry sound further than a concrete slab does.

Water is the other risk to neighbours. A new bathroom or kitchen inside a Kew flat is kept on its existing footprint where possible, so wastes still fall to the same stack, and every joint is pressure tested before the floor closes. Where the flat sits over another, we form a tanked shower area and fit accessible isolation valves. If a leak from above has already stained the ceiling, the source is traced and fixed before we make good, otherwise the new plaster fails.

Working inside a Kew block: hours, common parts and deliveries

Richmond's standard limit for noisy work, weekdays from 8am to 6pm and Saturday mornings to 1pm, is the outer boundary; a managing agent can set tighter hours inside a block. In a Kew flat we put stripping out, drilling and tile cutting in the middle of the day and give the other residents a written programme. Nothing noisy happens on Sundays or Bank Holidays, and the quiet stages such as painting fill the early mornings.

The shared hall and stairs are protected before the first delivery: floor sheet on the treads, corner guards on walls and a lift lined if the block has one. Waste leaves in bags carried down each day rather than a skip, which suits a flat with no frontage of its own. A Kew street with controlled parking means a bay suspension is booked through Richmond for the days that plasterboard, a kitchen or a bath arrive, and we clear the common parts each evening.

Letting a Kew flat: EPC rules and fire safety in the block

A landlord refurbishing a Kew flat between tenancies has to meet the minimum EPC rating before re-letting. Since 1 April 2018 private landlords may not let domestic properties on new tenancies with an F or G rating unless an exemption applies, and since 1 April 2020 they cannot let or continue to let below E. The local authority enforces the rules and can fine per property. In a flat the usual gains are heating controls, an efficient boiler or electric heater, and draught stripping.

Fire safety in a block is shared. The flat entrance door and the compartment walls and floors are part of the block's fire protection. The lease decides who owns them, the responsible person has fire safety duties for the building, and we do not alter them without agreement. Where a Kew block is a higher-risk building under the Building Safety Act, building control for work there sits with the Building Safety Regulator rather than the council. Some work done under a competent person scheme is an exception, though not every scheme type can be used in a higher-risk building, so the installer confirms theirs. The managing agent can confirm whether the block is one.

• EPC improvements to meet the minimum standard for let flats
• Kitchen renewal within the flat footprint, drained to the shared stack
• Secondary glazing inside windows the lease keeps with the freeholder

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for Kew Gardens. Counts rounded by the VOA.

When comparing flat refurbishment in Kew with other work, it helps to read bathroom renovation in Kew, flat refurbishment across Richmond upon Thames, flat renovations in London, bathroom fitters in London for flats, our London flat refurbishment page and Engineered Wood or Laminate.

The GS Renovation Difference in Kew

Refurbishing a flat is as much about the neighbours as the flat. We read the managing agent's rules before pricing, give the owner the method statement and programme the licence application needs, and keep the common parts clean every day. Electrics inside the flat are tested and certified by a registered electrician, and any gas appliance is fitted by an engineer on the Gas Safe Register. One point of contact deals with the agent and the residents, and the quote is fixed after a site visit to the flat.

• Honest updates if a date or a detail has to move
• Acoustic floor build-ups laid to the specification in your lease
• The lease and licence to alter read before a flat is quoted

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