A whole house renovation in Hertford crosses old fabric, protected buildings and a town where four rivers meet. We coordinate the structural engineer, the building control applications and the trades, and you deal with one person throughout rather than a list of numbers.
How old the buildings you are renovating are
Hertford's protected stock is weighted to the 19th century and earlier. The conservation area was first designated in 1967, revised in 1981 and further amended in 1996. Of the listed building groups inside it, 38 per cent date from the 19th century, 22 per cent from the 18th century and 18 per cent from the 17th century.
That spread matters because construction changes with the century. Lime mortar, solid walls, timber frames and later brickwork each want different treatment when services are rerouted, floors are lifted and plaster comes off.
Listed and locally important buildings in Bengeo
Bengeo has its own concentration of protected buildings. The Bengeo neighbourhood plan records at least one hundred listed buildings and structures in Hertford Bengeo ward. They include the 15th century Old Verger's House, the oldest surviving domestic building in Hertford.
Protection reaches buildings that are not listed as well. The Bengeo plan lists ten non listed buildings and structures of local historic or architectural importance, among them Bengeo Water Tower, the Old British School and the Lodge Close wall. In the wider conservation area, the 2017 appraisal lists 23 buildings as grade II star. One of those, the Friends Meeting House in Railway Street, was upgraded to grade I in May 2019, so 22 of that group remain at grade II star.
The rivers and the drainage
Water is a design input on a Hertford renovation. The Environment Agency runs four separate flood warning areas that name the town, one for each river. They are the River Beane at Hertford, the River Lee at Hertford and Ware, the River Rib at Wadesmill to Hertford, and the River Mimram from Tewin to Hertford.
Not all of the risk is river risk. The Kingsmead neighbourhood plan states that flood risk to properties in Mead Lane, Tamworth Road, Rowleys Road and Cromwell Road comes from heavy rainfall overwhelming the existing drainage capacity, rather than from river flooding. On a renovation that shapes floor build ups, damp proofing and where new rainwater and waste runs are taken.
The policy your renovation is judged against
East Herts District Council is the local planning authority, and it adopted its District Plan on 23 October 2018 for the period 2011 to 2033. Anything that changes the outside of the house is read against it.
Garden work has its own notice period. You must give the council six weeks notice under section 211 before carrying out work to a tree in a conservation area that is not already covered by a Tree Preservation Order. On a full renovation with scaffolding and access to arrange, those six weeks are booked at the start.
- Full and partial rewiring, certified under Part P
- External rendering, repointing and masonry repair
- Kitchen and bathroom design, supply and installation
- Bespoke joinery, wardrobes and fitted storage
- Project management from first survey to final handover
Why Choose GS Renovation in Hertford
Hertford is 8.3 miles from our base in Potters Bar, so it sits inside the area we cover as a matter of course. A renovation needs someone reachable while the house is open, with the structural engineer, the building control applications and the trades held in one programme rather than three. That is what we do: one point of contact, fully insured, rated 4.9 from 31 reviews on MyBuilder, and free quotations with no obligation.
- Clean, tidy and reliable tradespeople
- Fully insured, with cover in place on every site
- Room by room handover so you can move back in stages
- Neighbours given notice before the noisy stages
- Photographs kept at each stage for your records
- Notifiable electrical work certified under Part P