Renovations in Borough

Renovating in Borough is an exercise in constraint. SE1 packs period buildings, upper floor flats over shops and restaurants, and contemporary apartments into streets where a lorry cannot stand still for long and Borough Market pulls traffic through from early morning. Very few of these properties have rear access, many share a single staircase with a business below, and the buildings are older and more altered than they look from the pavement. GS Renovation carries out structural alterations, refurbishments, kitchens and bathrooms here, with Southwark Council building control coordinated and every delivery planned rather than hoped for.

Flats above commercial ground floors

A flat above a shop is a different building regulations proposition from a flat above another flat. Fire separation between the commercial unit and the residential accommodation above has to be maintained, and the protected route out is often a single stair serving everything. That shapes what a renovation can do: openings cut in a compartment floor or wall need reinstating properly, downlighters punched through a fire rated ceiling need hoods or a different detail, and a door that looks like joinery may be a fire door doing a job.

The structure below is the other unknown. Ground floors along Borough High Street were opened out for retail decades ago, sometimes more than once, and the columns and beams that made that possible are frequently boxed into partitions and forgotten. Before we remove anything upstairs we establish what is carrying what, and the structural engineer we appoint issues a design that accounts for the earlier work rather than ignoring it. Building control inspects the bearings and the fire separation before the finishes go back. Nothing is closed up until the inspector has seen it.

Getting materials in and waste out of SE1

There is rarely anywhere to put a skip near Southwark Cathedral or the streets under the Shard, and where a skip is possible it needs a permit from Southwark Council and often a suspended bay as well. Our default here is bagged removal on a booked collection, timed outside market deliveries and the lunchtime crowds. Materials come in the same way: broken into carryable loads, brought up the stairs on protected treads, and stored inside the flat rather than stacked on a landing somebody else needs. Nothing is stored on a landing your neighbours need.

Steel is the item that catches people out. A beam long enough to span a reception room may not turn on a half landing, so it is designed in sections to be bolted and plated on site, which the engineer specifies from the start rather than as a rescue. Access agreements with the business downstairs are settled before the programme is issued. One named project manager holds those arrangements together, which on a site this tight is worth more than an extra pair of hands. The programme names the dates those arrangements depend on.

Where most Borough projects start: whole-house refurbishment in Borough, everything we cover across Southwark, renovations in Peckham, renovations in Dulwich and full house renovation cost.