House Refurbishment Paddington

House refurbishment in Paddington is a small part of the local work: across the VOA area that takes in Paddington, St George's Fields and Bayswater East, only 8% of homes are houses, and all of them are terraced. When a whole house does come up for renewal, it is one of the Victorian stucco terraces or townhouses that give W2 its character, usually on several floors. Renewing it means new wiring, pipework and heating, repairs to lime plaster, floors, sashes and joinery, and a roof and chimney check, all inside Westminster's heritage rules. We run it as one programme from strip out to decoration.

For Paddington, 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 Paddington: 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 few whole houses in Paddington and what they are made of

A Paddington house is almost certainly a terrace. The VOA figures, which cover the wider area of Paddington and St George's Fields with Bayswater East, show 8% of homes as terraced houses and none as semi-detached or detached. Across that area 47% of homes were built before 1919, 11% between 1919 and 1939 and 42% after 1945. The older streets are Victorian stucco terraces and converted townhouses, so a whole house in single ownership is most likely a period house. Expect party walls on both sides, a long stair and a small rear garden or yard.

The fabric of a Victorian terrace sets the method. Walls are brick finished in lime plaster, and ceilings are often lath and plaster that sags once it has been soaked or cut. Floors are timber joists into the party walls, and the stair is the spine of the house. We record the plaster, cornices and joinery before any strip out, keep what can be repaired, and match lime with lime so the walls keep drying outward through the original finish.

Housing in Paddington

Paddington's housing, as the Council Tax list records it, is about 11,790 homes: 8% houses, 92% flats, with 47% pre-1919, 11% interwar and 42% built since 1945. Where most homes in Paddington are flats, a whole house is refurbished as one building, with a single intake for the services and one roof to keep sound, which matters here because most homes are flats.

Heritage rules on windows, doors and roofs in Paddington

Check the designation before you order any windows. Westminster has 56 conservation areas covering over 76% of the City, and its Bayswater conservation area takes in the streets around Paddington Station. In a Westminster conservation area some alterations that would be free elsewhere need planning permission, and the council has also removed permitted development rights in eight conservation areas. New sashes, a replacement front door or a changed roof covering are the items to confirm first, which your designer or agent does.

Individual Paddington houses may also be on the statutory list, which holds around 11,000 buildings and structures in Westminster, or be recorded as unlisted buildings of merit in a conservation area audit. For a house refurbishment that usually steers the work toward repair: overhauling sashes with new cords and draught seals, refixing slates and lead, repointing in lime and repairing a chimney stack rather than taking it down. A listed house also needs listed building consent for works inside that affect its character, not only for the front. We price repair and renewal separately so you can see the choice.

The order of works in a Paddington house, lived in or empty

An empty house is the quicker job, because every floor can be stripped at once and the services renewed top to bottom in one pass. The sequence is strip out, repairs to floors and structure, first fix wiring and pipework, plastering, second fix, then joinery and decoration. If you are living in a Paddington house during the works, we phase it floor by floor instead, keeping one bathroom and a working kitchen live and moving you around the trades.

Building control runs alongside the programme. Westminster takes applications online as full plans, building notice or regularisation, and it must be told the start date at least 2 days before work begins. Its completion certificate is issued only once fees are paid and the electrical and gas certificates have been supplied. The registered electrician and the engineer on the Gas Safe Register we bring in issue those certificates, and we collect them before the final visit so nothing holds up sign off.

Skips, scaffold and working hours on a Paddington street

A terraced house refurbishment needs space on the street, and Westminster controls it. A scaffold for roof, chimney or gutter repairs, or fencing on the pavement, needs a temporary structure licence, and the footway must stay at least 1.5m wide around the works. In a narrow Paddington street with residents' parking that decides where the scaffold stands and whether a skip fits at all. Where it does not, waste leaves in bags on a collection round instead.

Noisy work keeps to Westminster's normal hours of 8am to 6pm on weekdays and 8am to 1pm on Saturday. Breaking out plaster or cutting floors outside those hours would need a Control of Pollution Act Section 61 application at least 28 days before starting, so we keep the loud trades inside the normal window. Where Westminster's Code of Construction Practice reaches a small Level 4 project, it asks for its principles to be followed with no formal approval, monitoring or fees.

• Loft insulation topped up while the tank space is cleared
• Part L insulation where outside walls, floors or roofs are renovated
• Panelled doors eased and rehung, skirtings and architraves pieced in to match

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for Paddington & St George's Fields and Bayswater East. Counts rounded by the VOA.

For the wider picture around house refurbishment in Paddington, see home renovation in Paddington, house refurbishment across Westminster, a building contractor for a whole-house refurbishment, building control on a house refurbishment, house refurbishment across London and New Boiler Cost.

Trusted House Refurbishment in Paddington

A Paddington house refurbishment touches old fabric, heritage rules and a crowded street at once, and it goes smoothly when one team holds the whole sequence. We survey the house, sample the plaster and check the roof before pricing. We programme the strip out, services, plastering and joinery in the right order, phase the work if you are living there, and gather the electrical and gas certificates that building control needs to close the job.

• Provisional sums for what lies behind the plaster shown as separate lines
• Dust screens and floor protection in occupied homes
• 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).