House Refurbishment Streatham

House refurbishment in Streatham means renewing an older whole house without re-planning it. Houses are 33% of homes here: terraced houses make up 21% of all homes, and semi-detached or detached houses 12%. With 43% of all homes built before 1919, lime mortar, lath ceilings, suspended timber floors and several generations of wiring are often where a job starts. We strip out, repair the fabric, renew the services and finish the rooms in one programme, run to Lambeth's permitted working hours.

For Streatham, 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 Streatham: 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 the fabric of a Streatham period house needs

A pre-1919 Streatham house needs repairs that respect how it was built. Solid brick walls laid in lime breathe, so patching them with cement render or gypsum traps moisture behind the new finish. We open up first, record what is sound, and agree with you which ceilings can be kept and which lath has failed before any plastering is priced. Where a ceiling has to come down, we protect the cornice and ceiling rose, or have them recorded and cast before removal so the room keeps its period detail.

The interwar houses, from a period that accounts for 27% of the stock, have different weak points: early cavity walls, steel window lintels that rust and crack the brick above, and wiring that has been extended more than once. After 1945 the concerns shift again, to flat roofs, asbestos in older boards and textured ceilings, and heating systems near the end of their life. The survey decides the order of works, and structural repairs always come before new finishes.

Housing in Streatham

Streatham's housing, as the Council Tax list records it, is about 27,640 homes: 33% houses, 67% flats, with 43% pre-1919, 27% interwar and 29% built since 1945. Where most homes in Streatham 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.

Renewing wiring, plumbing and heating through a whole Streatham house

In a Streatham house refurbishment the services are renewed while the floors and walls are open, because that is the only time it is cheap to do. The order is strip-out, then first fix for the rewire, the pipework and the heating, then plaster, then second fix and finishes. New circuits are tested and certified by the registered electrician who installs them, and any gas work on the boiler and pipes is carried out by an engineer on the Gas Safe Register.

Much of this falls under the building regulations, and in Lambeth you use either a building notice or a full plans application. Lambeth says a building notice lets work start 48 hours after it is received, which suits a house where the scope is clear from the survey. Where a large part of a wall, floor or roof is renewed, Part L can require that element to be insulated, so plan the loft, the floor voids and any internal wall lining into the same stage rather than after the decoration.

Windows, doors and roofs in Streatham conservation areas

The front of a Streatham house can carry rules the inside does not. Lambeth's list of conservation areas with Article 4 Directions on external alterations includes all or parts of Leigham Court Estate and Streatham Lodge. In those areas, replacing sash windows, a front door or roof coverings can need planning permission. Repairing the existing sashes, easing the boxes and renewing cords and beads is often the simpler route, and it keeps the house in character.

Two more conservation areas cover parts of Streatham: Streatham Common (CA 43), first designated on 16 June 1994, and Streatham High Road and Streatham Hill (CA 54), first designated on 7 December 1999. Lambeth says planning permission is required to demolish a building within a conservation area, and demolition without consent is a criminal offence. On a refurbishment that can catch a rear outbuilding or a front boundary wall, so check before anything external comes down. Roof, gutter and chimney stack repairs are scheduled as the survey requires, with scaffold booked once. A stack shared with next door is a party structure, so rebuilding it needs a party wall notice under the Party Wall Act and the building owner serves the notice.

Lambeth working hours, skips and parking on Streatham streets

Building work in Lambeth is allowed Monday to Friday 8.00am to 6.00pm and Saturday 8.00am to 1.00pm, with none on Sundays or bank holidays. We build the programme to those hours, which matters on a house refurbishment where strip-out, breaking and cutting fill the early weeks. The loudest tasks are booked for weekdays, so a short Saturday is kept for quieter work. If you are living in the house, we phase it floor by floor so one bathroom and a place to cook stay usable.

A skip on a Streatham road needs a licence, and in Lambeth only the skip company can apply. If the skip sits in a parking bay, the bay also needs suspending, and a standard suspension needs 10 or more working days' notice. Scaffolding, hoarding and materials stored on the road each need a highways licence. We book the skip, the suspension and the scaffold ahead of the start date, so the first day on site is spent working rather than waiting for a skip.

• Damp investigation, repair of the cause and making good
• Loft insulation topped up while the tank space is cleared
• New boiler, cylinder and radiators sized to every room, fitted by a Gas Safe registered engineer

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for all 7 statistical areas in Streatham. Counts rounded by the VOA.

Useful next reading for a house refurbishment project in Streatham: home renovation in Streatham, house refurbishment across Lambeth, a building contractor for a whole-house refurbishment, snagging a house refurbishment, our London house refurbishment page and Living In During the Work.

Why Streatham Homeowners Choose GS Renovation

A house refurbishment has many trades and one order that works. We run the strip-out, repairs, first fix, plastering and finishes as a single programme with one site lead, so you are not left coordinating trades yourself. GS Renovation is founder-led, and the survey sets the sequence before anything is priced. If you are living in the house, the phasing is agreed room by room before the strip-out starts.

• Empty and inherited houses secured and reported on while you are away
• Photographs kept at each stage for your records
• First fix cabling on each floor inspected by the electrician before the walls are closed

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