GS Renovation takes on whole house renovations in Hemel Hempstead, from a post-war house that needs rewiring, replastering and a new layout to an Old Town property where the consents come before the crowbar. One team runs the programme from strip out to final coat, and one point of contact answers for it.
What Dacorum has designated across the borough
Dacorum Borough Council states that there are 25 conservation areas in the borough. It records more than 2,000 listed buildings, 30 scheduled ancient monuments and four registered historic parks and gardens. Hemel Hempstead uses the postcode districts HP1, HP2 and HP3, and none of those designations follow postcode boundaries, so the check has to be made address by address before a renovation scope is written.
The people who answer that question sit in the town. Dacorum Borough Council's planning department is based at The Forum, Marlowes, Hemel Hempstead HP1 1DN, and its conservation team can be reached on 01442 228000. We make that check part of the survey rather than an afterthought, because a scope written without it can need rewriting once the scaffold is booked.
Listed buildings in the Old Town, and what listing covers
Charter Tower is the only scheduled ancient monument in the Hemel Hempstead Old Town conservation area, and it is also a Grade II* listed building. The Church of St Mary is Grade I listed. The Old Bell public house at 51 High Street is Grade II* listed, and is recorded as early 18th century on the site of an earlier inn of 1603. Designation in the Old Town is not confined to a handful of landmarks.
Listing also reaches further than people expect. Dacorum states that any structure in the grounds of a listed building that was there before 1948 is itself listed, even if it is not fixed to the listed building. It states that this also covers the boundary and garden walls and gates. Where a renovation touches any of that, Dacorum charges £560 including VAT for pre-application advice on an extension to a listed building, which is worth spending before drawings are commissioned.
Article 4 directions in Hemel Hempstead
There are directions in the town, but none of them is a householder direction. Dacorum Borough Council is the local planning authority, and it publishes householder Article 4 directions at named addresses in Berkhamsted, Northchurch, Ringshall, Tring and Little Gaddesden, and none in Hemel Hempstead. An Article 4 direction covering parts of Hemel Hempstead town centre was made on 29 July 2021 and confirmed on 12 November 2021. Directions covering Maylands Business Park, Doolittle Meadows and Park Lane came into force on 15 July 2022 with immediate effect, and were confirmed on 21 November 2022.
Those directions are about change of use, not about your rear extension. They remove Class MA permitted development, the change of use to Class C3 dwellinghouses. The 2022 employment area directions, including Doolittle Meadows and Park Lane, are limited to Class E(g)(i) commercial, business and service premises, while the 2021 town centre direction covers the whole of Class E. If you are converting a commercial unit rather than renovating a house, that is the paragraph that matters to you.
Renovating in the later New Town neighbourhoods
Grovehill began construction in 1967 and was completed in stages by the early 1980s. Woodhall Farm was built in the mid to late 1970s, on the former Brock's fireworks site. Where a house of that age has not been updated, the work is a services and layout job as much as a decorating one: wiring, heating, insulation, windows, and the wall between the kitchen and the dining room.
We sequence that properly. Strip out and structural work first, then first fix services, then plastering, then second fix and decoration, with the building control inspections booked into the programme rather than chased at the end. You get one contact for all of it, and a written programme you can hold us to.
- Damp treatment, tanking and timber repairs
- Structural alterations and load-bearing wall removal
- External rendering, repointing and masonry repair
- Staircase repair, replacement and balustrade work
- Complete property refurbishments and whole-house renovations
Trusted Home Renovation in Hemel Hempstead
Hemel Hempstead lies about 12.5 miles from our base in Potters Bar, which puts it inside the area we work in as a matter of course rather than a town we make a special trip for. That matters on a renovation more than on a one day job, because the same team needs to be back day after day for weeks. One contractor runs the whole programme, from the structural work to the final coat, with building control applications and inspections coordinated throughout. We are fully insured, registered in England under company number 14611254, and rated 4.9 from 31 reviews on MyBuilder.
- A written scope and programme agreed before work starts
- A snagging list agreed and worked through before handover
- A whole-house programme sequenced so no trade doubles back
- Free, no-obligation quotations
- Structural engineer instructed and coordinated on your behalf
- Aftercare and snagging support once the job is finished