GS Renovation refurbishes whole houses and flats across New Barnet, mostly Victorian terraces that have had a hundred years of piecemeal alteration and one bad 1980s modernisation. One team takes it back to sound fabric and rebuilds it in the right order, from the structure and the services through to plaster, joinery and decoration.
Refurbishing a Victorian terrace in New Barnet
The order matters more than anything else in a full refurbishment. Structure first, then the roof and the rainwater goods, then first fix electrics and plumbing while the walls are open, then plaster, then second fix, kitchen, bathroom and decoration. Doing the pretty end early is how people finish a house twice. In a New Barnet terrace we usually start above head height, because a leaking valley gutter between two back additions has generally been the cause of the damp that everyone blamed on rising groundwater.
Damp in an EN4 terrace is rarely what the ad says it is. Nine times out of ten the ground outside has been raised above the internal floor by a patio or a path, the airbricks to the suspended floor are blocked or painted over, a cement render is trapping moisture in the brickwork, or the gutter is overflowing behind the downpipe. Fix those and the wall dries. We say that plainly rather than sell a chemical injection course, because a chemical course into a wall with an external ground problem does nothing at all.
Flats, leases and building control in EN4
A good number of New Barnet's Victorian and Edwardian houses were converted into flats, and refurbishing one is a different project from refurbishing a house. The lease sets what you may touch, the freeholder's licence to alter covers anything structural, and the managing agent will want method statements and the contractor's insurance before the first delivery. Most leases also restrict working hours, require a parking permit for the skip and forbid hard flooring over an occupied flat, which decides your floor finish long before you ever get to choose a colour.
Building control still applies either way. A whole house refurbishment in New Barnet typically triggers it several times over: any structural opening, the electrical work in kitchen and bathroom areas, a new or relocated boiler, insulation upgrades and any change to escape from the upper floors. We make a single application to Barnet Council or an approved inspector, book the inspections around the programme rather than after the fact, and hand over the completion certificate at the end along with the electrical certificates and the engineer's drawings.
- Planning permission and building control coordination
- Complete property refurbishments and whole-house renovations
- Waste clearance, dust protection and daily site tidying
- Damp treatment, tanking and timber repairs
- Central heating upgrades, new radiators and pipework
Why Choose GS Renovation in New Barnet
A full refurbishment goes wrong at the joins between trades, so New Barnet owners use GS Renovation to hold the whole sequence under one contract. We appoint the engineer where structure is involved, run the trades in an order that does not undo itself, deal with the freeholder and managing agent on flats, and take Barnet building control through to certificate. Founder led, 30+ years hands on.
- Original features protected, repaired or reinstated as you want
- Straight advice on what is and is not worth spending money on
- A whole-house programme sequenced so no trade doubles back
- Our own trades on site rather than a chain of subcontractors
- A snagging list agreed and worked through before handover
- Rated 4.9 from 31 reviews on MyBuilder