Flat Refurbishment Merton

Flat refurbishment in Merton is work inside a building you share. Flats are 42% of homes in the borough, in buildings ranging from converted Victorian and Edwardian houses to purpose-built blocks, and 12% of all Merton homes date from 2000 or later. The lease, the freeholder's licence to alter and the managing agent's rules decide what you can change and when the noisy work happens. We plan the programme around those consents, the common parts and the neighbours, then renew the wiring, heating, kitchen, bathroom and floors inside the flat.

For Merton, 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 Merton: 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 come first in Merton flats

A leasehold flat refurbishment in Merton starts with the lease, not the tools. Many leases need a licence to alter from the freeholder for anything touching structure, services or the floor, and the managing agent will often set its own working hours and access rules for the common parts. We read the conditions with you and build them into the programme, including protection for the stairs, the lift and the entrance hall floor.

The licence usually asks for drawings, a method statement and a named contractor, and it can take weeks, so apply early. With 42% of Merton homes being flats, the borough has everything from a two-flat conversion with a small resident freeholder to a block run by a large agent. A small building may only need a letter from the other owner; a managed block may want a deposit, a method statement and a start date agreed in writing.

Housing in Merton

Merton has about 87,830 homes on the Council Tax list: 26% pre-1919, 37% interwar and 36% post-war, with flats making up 42% and houses 58%.

Noise, floors and the flat below in a Merton block

In a Merton block the neighbours hear the work through shared floors, so noise is managed by the clock. The council says noisy construction work should normally be restricted to 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 1pm on Saturday, and not on Sundays and bank holidays. Many managing agents set shorter hours inside the block, and where they do we work to the stricter of the two and post the loud days in the entrance hall.

A new hard floor is where a finished flat most easily falls out with the flat below. Many leases require carpet or an acoustic underlay above another flat, and some forbid timber or tile without consent. When we lift a floor in an upper flat, we lay a resilient layer and insulation between the joists before the new finish goes down. In the kitchen and bathroom we test new waste and supply pipes before boxing in, because a leak lands in the ceiling of the flat below.

Getting materials in and waste out of a Merton flat

Access is the hidden cost of a Merton flat refurbishment. Plasterboard, kitchen units and bathroom fittings have to go up a shared stair or lift, so we protect the treads, walls and lift car before the first delivery and remove the protection when we finish. Waste leaves the same way, in bags carried down daily, because a flat on an upper floor rarely has room for a skip outside and a pile in the hall breaks most block rules.

Where the lorry needs to stop near the door, a Merton residents' parking bay can be suspended for building materials, charged per day plus an admin fee. We book suspensions for the heavy days only. A new consumer unit and rewire inside the flat are certified by a registered electrician. Other notifiable work can use a building notice, which Merton offers for domestic projects with works not within 3 metres of a Thames Water sewer.

Letting a refurbished flat in Merton: EPC and licensing

If you let the flat, the refurbishment must bring it up to the energy standard. GOV.UK says that since 1 April 2020 landlords cannot let or continue to let a property covered by the MEES Regulations with an EPC rating below E without a valid exemption, and local authorities enforce this. In a Merton flat that usually means electric heating controls or a new boiler, low-energy lighting and draught-proofing to the windows the lease lets you touch.

Licensing can apply as well. Merton's Cabinet agreed that selective and additional landlord licensing would come into effect in September 2023, so check whether your flat falls within a scheme and what conditions it sets. The landlord makes any application. Fire safety of the flat entrance door and the compartment walls usually falls to the freeholder or responsible person, so agree any change to them before we fit a new door or cut a new opening.

• Rewires inside the flat, signed off at the end by a registered electrician
• Flat entrance door replaced as a certified fire door set, with the freeholder's written agreement
• Unvented cylinder replacement, notified to building control

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

Related reading for Merton homeowners planning flat refurbishment: bathroom renovation in Merton, our Merton area guide, flat renovations in London, fitting a new kitchen inside the flat footprint, how we handle flat refurbishment across London and Kitchen Renovation Cost.

Why Merton Homeowners Choose GS Renovation

A flat is refurbished around other people, and the job succeeds or fails on how the building is treated. We read the lease conditions with you, prepare the method statement and programme the managing agent asks for, and work inside the block's hours. A registered electrician certifies the rewire, and a boiler is fitted by an engineer on the Gas Safe Register. You get one contact who keeps the freeholder, the neighbours below and your own move-in date in step, and a finished flat with its paperwork.

• Void periods between tenancies planned to a fixed handover date
• Our own trades on site rather than a chain of subcontractors
• Acoustic floor build-ups laid to the specification in your lease

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