House Refurbishment Deptford

House refurbishment in Deptford is a smaller trade than in much of south London, and it is worth being plain about why. Across the statistical areas covering Deptford and New Cross, only 15% of homes are houses, and 14% are terraced. Those houses include the terraces of the small Georgian core that sits among the post-war estates and new riverside flats. When one comes up for renewal, we rewire, replumb, replaster and repair the whole house without changing its plan, then hand it back ready to live in, let or sell.

For Deptford, published UK figures put a three-bed house refurbishment at £43,530 to £110,350, and London houses usually cost more, with a London architect allowing £1,800 to £2,200 per square metre before VAT (Checkatrade and Bradley Van Der Straeten Architects, 2026). GS Renovation Ltd, a building contractor based in Potters Bar, does the work in Deptford: we renew the wiring, pipework, heating, plaster, floors and joinery of the whole house under one contract, and a registered electrician certifies the rewire.

What a Deptford house is made of before you renew it

Age decides the materials behind the paint in a Deptford house. With 9% of homes built before 1919 and 4% between 1919 and 1939, the older houses here are a minority, but they are the ones that need a full refurbishment most. A Georgian or early Victorian terrace in SE8 will have soft brick in lime mortar, lath and plaster ceilings, timber stud partitions and suspended ground floors over a void that needs air to stay dry.

Each of those asks for its own repair. Lime walls are patched in lime, not in gypsum or cement, so moisture can still leave the wall. A sagging lath ceiling is either re-secured or taken down and replaced in board, a choice we make with you after a close look rather than by default. Joist ends buried in damp front walls are checked while boards are up. Doing this at strip out stage stops a new finish going over an old fault.

Housing in Deptford

The valuation list shows roughly 14,290 homes in Deptford, of which 9% are pre-1919, 4% interwar and 84% post-1945, split 85% flats to 15% houses. Since most homes here are flats, a whole house in Deptford is refurbished as one building, roof down.

Windows, doors and roofs under the Deptford Article 4 direction

Some Deptford houses cannot have their front windows, doors or roof changed freely, because Lewisham made an Article 4 direction for the Deptford High Street and St Paul's Church Conservation Area. It applies to 1-9 (odd), 12-16 (even) and 20 Watson Street and 11-17 (odd) Tanners Hill, London SE8. Lewisham's Article 4 directions in conservation areas only apply to houses that are in use as a single dwelling house, which is exactly the owner this page is for.

Lewisham lists alterations to the roof of a house and the addition of a porch, including infilling an open porch, as changes needing planning permission under an Article 4 direction. For a refurbishment, that means the sash windows, the front door and the roof covering are repaired like for like, or replaced only with the consent your designer obtains. We price sash overhaul, new cords and draught seals against full replacement so you can see which route keeps you inside the rules.

Running a Deptford house refurbishment from strip out to decoration

The sequence in a Deptford house is the same whatever its age: strip, open up and inspect, first fix, plaster, second fix, then decoration. First fix is where the value sits. The new cables, heating pipes and waste runs go in while every wall and floor is open. The registered electrician who certifies the rewire and the Gas Safe engineer who connects the boiler both work at this stage, before a trowel touches a wall.

Whether the house is lived in changes the order, not the steps. An empty house, such as a probate sale or a house bought to renovate, is stripped floor by floor in one pass. If you are living there, we work top down in zones, keep one bathroom and a working kitchen until their replacements are ready, and seal each zone off with dust screens. In a narrow Deptford terrace with one stair, the route for materials is planned before day one.

Working hours, skips and scaffold outside a Deptford house

A house on a Deptford street is refurbished inside Lewisham's noise hours: 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 1pm on Saturdays, with no work on Sundays or bank holidays. We put the loud stages, breaking out plaster, cutting chases and lifting floors, into weekdays, and leave Saturday mornings for quieter work if they are used at all. Your neighbours through the party wall hear the plan from us before the strip out starts.

The street needs its own lead time. Lewisham skip licences are charged by the month, and a skip in a controlled parking zone also needs a temporary parking suspension, applied for at least five working days before the start date. Scaffold for a roof, chimney or gutter repair needs a licence requested at least five days ahead. We book these with the hire firms and set the strip out date around them, so the first day on site is not spent waiting for a skip.

• Roof, gutter and chimney-stack repairs coordinated as the survey requires
• Whole-house replumbing, including old lead and galvanised supply pipes
• Loft insulation topped up while the tank space is cleared

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for Deptford North, Silwood & Pepys and New Cross & Deptford South. Counts rounded by the VOA.

If this is your first project in Deptford, these are worth a look: home renovation in Deptford, house refurbishment across Lewisham, builders in London for house refurbishment, building control on a house refurbishment, our London house refurbishment page and Living In During the Work.

Trusted House Refurbishment in Deptford

A whole house refurbishment is many trades in one tight order, and we run that order for you. Our founder has more than thirty years of hands-on building experience and oversees the work in the house. We survey first, open up where the survey says to look, and give you a written quotation and a programme in working days. A registered electrician certifies the new wiring and an engineer on the Gas Safe Register does the gas work, and you get their certificates with the keys.

• First fix cabling on each floor inspected by the electrician before the walls are closed
• Rated 4.9 from 31 reviews on MyBuilder
• Lime plaster kept on solid walls where gypsum would trap moisture

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