Renovations in Bermondsey

A renovation in Bermondsey is usually a fit out inside somebody else's structure. The converted warehouses off Bermondsey Street and the newer riverside blocks towards Southwark Park are framed in concrete or steel, the flats within them are leasehold, and the walls you want to move may be doing nothing structural at all while the one you assumed was a stud is a shear wall. GS Renovation works across SE16 on kitchens, bathrooms, internal reconfiguration and full apartment refurbishments, dealing with managing agents, block rules and Southwark Council building control where the work is notifiable.

What can actually move inside a framed building

In a frame building the loads travel down columns, cores and slabs, so most internal partitions are non structural and can be taken out without any beam at all. The exceptions matter enormously. Concrete walls around lift shafts and stairs are usually stabilising the whole building, and cutting a doorway into one is not a decision for a site meeting. Slabs are another red line, because chasing into a post tensioned floor to sink a drain or a cable can sever a tendon with consequences well beyond your flat. None of that is a judgement made on the day.

The way we work around that is to establish the structure before the design is fixed. Where record drawings exist, the managing agent normally holds them, and where they do not, the structural engineer we appoint surveys and advises. Anything that touches the frame gets a design we build to, never a judgement call. Weight is checked too. Stone worktops, a walk in shower tray on a raised plinth and a screed thick enough for underfloor heating add up, and slabs have a loading limit like anything else. We confirm the loading position before heavy finishes are ordered.

Leases, licences and block logistics in SE16

Before a tool comes out of the van, the paperwork chain has to be settled. Most SE16 leases require the freeholder's licence to alter for anything beyond decoration, and the freeholder's surveyor will want drawings, a method statement, our insurance details and often an undertaking on costs. Leases commonly specify floor coverings as well, requiring carpet or a rated acoustic underlay over a defined proportion of the flat, which is worth reading before you fall in love with engineered oak throughout. We read the lease with you before pricing rather than afterwards.

Then there is the building itself. Working hours are set by the management company rather than by us, the goods lift is booked in slots, protection has to go down over communal floors and lift interiors, and waste leaves in bagged loads through a route agreed with the concierge rather than into a skip at the kerb. Deliveries around Maltby Street Market and the narrow approaches to Bermondsey station need timing. We plan all of it into the programme so the flat below never becomes the reason a week is lost.

Where most Bermondsey projects start: whole-house refurbishment in Bermondsey, everything we cover across Southwark, renovations in Peckham, renovations in Dulwich and building regulations explained.