House Refurbishment Kennington
Whole-house refurbishments in Kennington, every floor of the house renewed from the roof down, in the right order.
- Rated 4.9 from 31 reviews on MyBuilder
- UK guide: £43,530 to £110,350
- Free site survey, itemised quote
House refurbishment in Kennington is a smaller market than the flat work around it. The VOA counts 18% of homes here as houses, and 16% of all homes are terraced houses, so the job is nearly always a terrace, and the oldest sit around Georgian and Victorian squares such as Cleaver Square. We renew the whole fabric without re-planning the house: wiring, pipes, heating, plaster, floors, joinery, sashes and the roof repairs a survey calls for, in one programme under Lambeth's working hours.
For Kennington, 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 Kennington: we renew the wiring, pipework, heating, plaster, floors and joinery of the whole house under one contract, and a registered electrician certifies the rewire.
Price guide
| Work | Indicative range |
|---|---|
| Three-bed house refurbishment, UK average | £43,530 to £110,350 |
| Non-structural house refurbishment in London, per square metre, excluding VAT | £1,800 to £2,200 per square metre |
| Full rewire, two-bed to five-bed house | £4,500 to £10,500 |
| New heating system, three-bed house | £3,000 to £8,500 |
| Re-skim walls and ceilings, three-bed house | £5,000 to £12,500 |
Indicative ranges from published cost guides (Checkatrade, Bradley Van Der Straeten Architects and MyJobQuote, 2026), not a quotation. Most are UK-wide figures and London work usually costs more; a row marked London is a London figure. Prices checked September 2026. Full breakdown: House Rewire Cost.
Quick estimate from UK guide figures
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The Kennington terrace house and the fabric it comes with
The age of a Kennington terrace sets the materials list. The VOA dates 28% of homes here before 1919 and 12% between 1919 and 1939, while 60% date from after 1945, much of it on the council estates that surround the older squares. Pre-1919 houses usually have solid brick walls, lime mortar, lath and plaster ceilings and softwood floors on joists, so gypsum skims and cement patches are the wrong repair on those walls.
We open a Kennington house up in a set order. Strip out comes first, then the survey of what the floors and walls reveal, then first fix for the new cables and pipes, then plastering, then second fix, joinery and decoration. Rotten joist ends against damp party walls, cut-through joists from old plumbing runs and bowed lath ceilings are the common finds. Each is photographed and priced before it is closed up, so you decide with the evidence in front of you.
Housing in Kennington
Kennington has around 8,500 homes on the Council Tax list: 60% post-war, 12% interwar and 28% predate 1919, with 82% flats and 18% houses. A whole house in Kennington is refurbished as one building, roof down, which matters here because most homes are flats.
Rewiring, replumbing and heating a whole Kennington house
In a whole-house refurbishment in Kennington, the services are renewed together because the floors only come up once. Old rubber or lead-sheathed cable, iron gas pipe and lead water mains still turn up in terraces of this age. A full rewire is tested and certified by a registered electrician, the gas side is done by a Gas Safe engineer, and we coordinate both with the replumb so the new runs share notches and are not cut twice.
Heating renewal is the point to deal with Part L. When you replace a boiler, renew windows or strip a wall back, the new element has to meet current energy rules, and a building notice or full plans application may be needed. In Lambeth a building notice lets work start 48 hours after the council receives it. Insulating a suspended timber floor from below while the boards are up is simple in a Kennington house and awkward afterwards.
Sashes, roofs and the Kennington Conservation Area
Part of the older housing sits in Lambeth's Kennington Conservation Area (CA 08), first designated in 1968 and characterised by smart terraced housing. Its statement says no buildings within it are subject to an Article 4 Direction. That does not make front windows a free choice. Permitted development for a house only covers materials of similar appearance, and Lambeth has over 2,000 statutory listed buildings, where works affecting a building's character, inside or out, need listed building consent. So we repair original sashes, re-cord, draught-strip and splice in new timber where the box frames are sound, and your designer checks anything beyond like-for-like.
The roof is treated the same way. The conservation area statement calls the roofscape one of its most evocative features and says roof extensions are unlikely to be appropriate in most cases. For a refurbishment that means repair: relaying slates, renewing valleys and parapet gutters, rebuilding chimney stacks and repointing in lime as the survey requires. Where a stack is shared with the house next door, repairing or rebuilding it needs a party wall notice under the Party Wall Act, and the building owner serves the notice. We keep the roofline as it is and coordinate the roofer and scaffold into the main programme of a Kennington house.
Working hours, skips and scaffold on a Kennington street
A Kennington house refurbishment runs to Lambeth's permitted hours: Monday to Friday 8.00am to 6.00pm and Saturday 8.00am to 1.00pm, with no work on Sundays or bank holidays. Breaking out plaster, chasing walls and lifting floors are loud, so we put them early in the week and tell the neighbours on both party walls which days to expect. An empty house lets us run trades in parallel, while a lived-in one is phased floor by floor.
The street side needs booking before day one. In Lambeth only a skip company can obtain a skip licence, and a standard parking suspension for a skip needs 10 or more working days' notice. Scaffold on the pavement for chimney or front elevation work needs a highways licence. Where a Kennington terrace has a front area behind railings, we check at survey whether bags or a skip can sit off the road.
- Whole-house refurbishments for landlords re-letting a house
- Smoke, heat and carbon monoxide alarms fitted to current rules on every storey
- Decoration throughout the house, woodwork and ceilings included
VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for Lambeth Walk & North Kennington and Oval. Counts rounded by the VOA.
The GS Renovation Difference in Kennington
A whole-house refurbishment goes wrong at the handovers between trades, and in an old terrace every closed-up wall hides something. We run strip out, repairs, first fix, plastering, joinery and decoration under one site lead with a written programme, and we photograph what is found before it is covered. The registered electrician and Gas Safe engineer work inside that programme, so you have one contact from the first survey to the final clean.
- Asbestos sampling arranged before textured ceilings or old floor tiles are disturbed
- A top-floor-first programme when your family stays in the house
- Building control applications and inspections coordinated for you
George always kept to commitments and arrived on time. He offered helpful suggestions during his initial visit and promptly provided a reasonably…
We loved working with George and Ibrahim and would highly recommend them. They have done splendid job on our new kitchen refurb which including new…
George was brilliant. Lovely bloke, very reasonably priced and a perfectionist to boot. He completed our small kitchen renovation with care and great…
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions about House Refurbishment Kennington
How much does a house refurbishment cost in Kennington?
Published UK figures put a three-bed house refurbishment at £43,530 to £110,350 (Checkatrade, 2026), and London houses usually cost more: a London architect allows £1,800 to £2,200 per square metre before VAT (Bradley Van Der Straeten Architects, 2026). For a Kennington house the survey decides where the job sits, from the wiring and pipework to the plaster, damp and roof. Each trade is then priced as its own line.
How many homes in Kennington are houses rather than flats?
Relatively few. The VOA counts 18% of homes in Kennington as houses and 82% as flats, and 16% of all homes are terraced houses against 1% semi-detached or detached. A whole-house refurbishment here is almost always a terrace, and the oldest are the Georgian and Victorian houses around the squares.
Is there an Article 4 Direction on windows in the Kennington Conservation Area?
No. The Kennington Conservation Area Statement says no buildings within the conservation area are subject to an Article 4 Direction. The house is still in a conservation area and may be listed, so repairing original sashes is the safe course, and your designer confirms with Lambeth before any change of pattern or material on the front.
Can a roof extension be added while refurbishing a Kennington terrace?
Probably not. The Kennington Conservation Area Statement says roof extensions are unlikely to be appropriate in most cases because the roofscape is one of its most evocative features. A refurbishment keeps to repairs: slates, valleys, parapet gutters, flashings and chimney stacks, done like for like and in lime where the original work was lime.
Does a Kennington house refurbishment need building regulations approval?
Parts of it will. A new consumer unit and rewire, a replacement boiler, new windows and renewed thermal elements all fall under the regulations. In Lambeth you use either a building notice or a full plans application, and a building notice lets you start 48 hours after the council receives it. Registered installers can self-notify their own work.
Should we move out during the refurbishment?
If you can, yes. An empty house lets the electrician, plumber and plasterer work across all floors at once, which shortens the programme. Living in means phasing the house floor by floor, keeping one bathroom and a kitchen point running, and sealing dust at each doorway. We set out both programmes at survey so you can compare them.
When can noisy building work happen on a Kennington house?
Lambeth allows construction and building work Monday to Friday 8.00am to 6.00pm and Saturday 8.00am to 1.00pm, and not on Sundays or bank holidays. In a Kennington terrace the neighbours share both side walls, so we schedule the loudest strip out and chasing inside those hours and give them notice of the heavy days.
What should executors refurbish before selling an old Kennington house?
Start with what a buyer's survey will find. In a pre-1919 terrace that can mean old wiring, lead or iron pipework, a tired boiler, damp at the base of walls and loose ceilings, and those are the items that stall a sale. Decoration comes last. We survey the house empty, price the essentials separately from the cosmetic work, and keep the executors informed with photographs.
Can lath and plaster ceilings be saved in an old house?
Often, where the laths are sound and the plaster is still keyed. We tap and probe each ceiling, re-fix loose areas with ceiling buttons or adhesive, and patch and skim in lime. A ceiling that has dropped or been soaked by a leak is taken down and replaced, and we show you the condition first.
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