Flat Refurbishment Paddington

Flat refurbishment is the main refurbishment work in Paddington. Across the VOA area that also takes in St George's Fields and Bayswater East, 92% of homes are flats. They range from floors of divided stucco townhouses to post-war blocks and the 19% of homes built since 2000, and each type brings its own lease, managing agent and house rules. Refurbishing one means renewing the kitchen, bathroom, electrics, heating and floors inside your own walls without disturbing the flats around you. We plan the job around the licence to alter, the block's hours and the route from the street to your front door.

For Paddington, 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 Paddington: 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.

Three kinds of Paddington flat, three kinds of job

The kind of block decides the refurbishment more than the size of the flat. Across the VOA area covering Paddington, St George's Fields and Bayswater East, 42% of homes date from after 1945 and 19% from 2000 or later, while the older streets are Victorian stucco terraces converted into flats. A converted townhouse flat has lime plaster, timber floors and services shared with the flats above and below. A post-war or new-build flat usually has concrete floors, drylined walls and risers owned by the building.

In a converted house the survey looks for old wiring that crosses into a neighbour's flat, soil pipes running through other ceilings and floors that carry every footstep downstairs. In a newer Paddington block those questions are answered by the building's drawings, and the survey concentrates instead on the building's contractor rules, the sprinkler or alarm heads in your ceilings and where your flat's services meet the landlord's. We price each type differently for that reason.

Housing in Paddington

The valuation list shows roughly 11,790 homes in Paddington, of which 47% are pre-1919, 11% interwar and 42% post-1945, split 92% flats to 8% houses.

The lease, the managing agent and the licence to alter

Read the lease before designing anything, because it decides what you may change. A typical Paddington lease requires the freeholder's written licence before you move a kitchen or bathroom, alter a wall, replace windows or lay a hard floor. The managing agent usually handles the request and may ask for drawings, a method statement and details of the contractor. We supply the programme, the product data and our method so your application is complete first time.

Hard floors are the clause owners trip over most often. A lease in a converted townhouse may call for carpet or an approved acoustic underlay, because a timber joisted floor passes impact sound straight into the flat below. If you want timber or tile, we lay it on the specified resilient layer and keep a gap at the skirting so the floor does not bridge to the walls. The same care goes into kitchen and bathroom waste runs, since a leak lands in a neighbour's ceiling.

Working inside a shared Paddington block

A block sets its own working hours, often tighter than the council's. Westminster's normal hours for noisy construction are 8am to 6pm on weekdays and 8am to 1pm on Saturday, and a managing agent in a Paddington block may limit drilling further to protect residents. We book the lift, protect the common parts from the entrance to your door, and carry materials in at agreed times. Waste leaves in bags the same day rather than waiting in a corridor.

Fire safety in the common parts belongs to the freeholder or the building's responsible person. Your flat entrance door and the walls to the corridor form part of the building's fire compartmentation, so we do not change or drill them without the agent's agreement. Where the block is a higher-risk building, at least 18 metres or 7 storeys with two or more homes, the Building Safety Regulator acts as building control, although work by a competent person scheme installer does not need its approval. We confirm the building's status with the agent before the price is fixed.

Letting a refurbished Paddington flat: energy and licensing

A flat that is let must reach the minimum energy standard. Since 1 April 2018 private landlords may not grant a new tenancy on a property rated F or G without an exemption, and since 1 April 2020 no let can continue below E. The local authority enforces the rules and can fine a landlord for each property. A refurbishment between tenancies is the time to add insulation, better heating controls and efficient lighting in a Paddington flat.

Licensing also shapes the work. Westminster's Selective Licensing Designation No. 1 came into force on 24 November 2025 and runs until 23 November 2030 unless revoked earlier, requiring privately rented homes not already licensed as HMOs to be licensed in 15 wards. Whether your Paddington address sits in one of those wards is for you or your agent to confirm. Where it does, we set the refurbishment scope against the licence conditions.

• Electric heating upgrades: high retention heaters, or a heat pump where the building allows
• Decoration throughout, with waste bagged and carried out of the block
• Unvented cylinder replacement, notified to building control

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for Paddington & St George's Fields and Bayswater East. Counts rounded by the VOA.

Two or three things usually come up alongside flat refurbishment on a Paddington job: bathroom renovation in Paddington, flat refurbishment across Westminster, London builders who work inside occupied blocks, bathroom fitters in London for flats, how we handle flat refurbishment across London and Underfloor Heating Cost.

Trusted Flat Refurbishment in Paddington

A Paddington flat refurbishment depends as much on the building as on the flat. We read the lease and the block rules with you, provide what the managing agent needs for the licence to alter, and plan deliveries, lift bookings and noisy work around the neighbours. Inside the flat we run strip out, first fix, plastering and finishes as one sequence, and the registered electrician and registered gas engineer we bring in hand over their own certificates.

• Neighbours given notice before the noisy stages
• Noisy days agreed with the managing agent and flagged to neighbours in advance
• Consumer unit and circuits certified by a registered electrician at completion

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