House Refurbishment Hammersmith

House refurbishment in Hammersmith is the smaller share of the work: 77% of homes here are flats and 23% are houses, with 18% terraced and 5% semi-detached or detached. In W6 those houses are mostly Victorian terraces and riverside period homes. For their owners we renew the whole fabric without re-planning it: rewire, replumb, heating, plaster, floors, joinery, sash windows, damp and roof repairs, then decoration.

For Hammersmith, 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 Hammersmith: we renew the wiring, pipework, heating, plaster, floors and joinery of the whole house under one contract, and a registered electrician certifies the rewire.

The Hammersmith house stock and what its age means for a refurbishment

Age decides the scope of a Hammersmith house refurbishment before any price is set. The VOA figures put 56% of homes here before 1919, 9% between 1919 and 1939 and 34% after 1945. A house from the first group has solid brick walls laid in lime, lath and plaster ceilings, timber ground floors over a void and stairs that have moved with the building. Each of those wants materials that let the fabric breathe, so the specification is written around lime and breathable paints rather than cement and vinyl.

An interwar house is closer to modern practice, with cavity or solid walls, gypsum plaster in places and sounder original wiring routes to follow. The post-war houses bring concrete ground floors, which limit where pipes and cables can run and push them into walls or ceilings. We survey the house room by room, list what is sound and what fails, and build the programme from that list. The survey decides whether ceilings are repaired or boarded, and whether floors are lifted whole or in strips.

Housing in Hammersmith

Of the 15,040 homes the valuation list records in Hammersmith, 56% were built before 1919, 9% between the wars and 34% since 1945; 77% are flats and 23% are houses. Most homes here are flats, and where most homes in Hammersmith are flats, a whole house is refurbished as one building, with a single intake for the services and one roof to keep sound.

Conservation areas, Article 4 and listed houses in Hammersmith

Before windows, doors or roof coverings on a Hammersmith house are replaced, check whether the house sits in a conservation area. Hammersmith and Fulham has 44 conservation areas covering about half of the borough, and inside one the council looks at how external changes affect the street. In Hammersmith Grove, Article 4 Directions restricting some permitted development rights have been made on some properties since the conservation area character profile was published, so a like for like repair is the safe starting point there.

Almost 500 buildings in the borough are on the statutory list. Altering a listed house inside or out without Listed Building Consent is a criminal offence, and that reaches original joinery, fireplaces, cornices and staircases as well as the front. Where consent is needed, the owner or their designer obtains it and we build to it. For sash windows in a protected Hammersmith house, repair with new cords, beads and draught strips keeps the original box frames, and in a listed house your designer confirms whether even that needs consent.

Noise hours, skips and scaffolding on a Hammersmith street

A Hammersmith house refurbishment runs its noisy stages within the council's hours: 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 1pm on Saturday, with none on Sundays or bank holidays. Prosecution for breaching them can bring a fine, so stripping plaster, lifting floors and chasing walls are booked into those windows. On a terrace your neighbours share the party wall with you, and a note to them before the strip out starts saves most complaints later.

Waste from a whole house strip out is heavy, and a skip on the road needs a licence that only skip companies can apply for, with a minimum period of 14 days. Roof, gutter and chimney stack repairs usually need scaffold, and the scaffolding licence is likewise applied for by the scaffolding company, with a deposit held by the council. We book both through the suppliers so they arrive for the weeks the work needs them and leave when those stages are done.

Sequencing a Hammersmith house refurbishment, empty or lived in

An empty Hammersmith house is refurbished as one sequence: strip out, first fix electrics and plumbing, plaster, second fix, floors, joinery and decoration. The registered electrician inspects the first fix before walls close, and a registered gas engineer renews the boiler and gas pipework. With every room open at once, the heating can be redesigned around new radiator positions and pipe routes can run under the lifted floors without disturbing finished work.

A house you live in is phased instead, usually top floor first, with one bathroom and a working kitchen kept until last. That takes longer and costs more in protection and cleaning, but it avoids renting elsewhere. Where a wall, roof or floor is renovated, Part L of the building regulations can require it to be insulated to a set standard where that is practical, and the council's building control service issues a completion certificate once it is satisfied. Keep that certificate with the deeds, because a buyer's solicitor will ask for it.

• Loft insulation topped up while the tank space is cleared
• Timber repairs where rot or beetle turns up at strip-out
• Pre-sale and probate refurbishments of empty houses

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for Hammersmith Broadway, Brook Green, Ravenscourt Park North and Ravenscourt Park South. Counts rounded by the VOA.

Once the house refurbishment work in Hammersmith is scoped, people usually go on to read home renovation in Hammersmith, house refurbishment across Hammersmith and Fulham, a building contractor for a whole-house refurbishment, which parts of a house refurbishment building control inspects, house refurbishment across London and Sash Window Replacement Cost.

The GS Renovation Difference in Hammersmith

Refurbishing a whole Hammersmith house is a long chain of trades, and most delays come from one trade waiting on another. We run it as one programme under one contact, from the survey through strip out, first fix, plaster and second fix to decoration. The price is set after we have seen the house and includes the skip, scaffold and protection. Electrical work is certified by a registered electrician, and gas work is done by a registered gas engineer.

• Photographs kept at each stage for your records
• Roof, gutters and chimney stacks looked at before the top-floor plaster is priced
• 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).