Renovations in Brentford

Brentford has changed shape faster than most of west London. Along the Grand Union Canal and the river towards Kew Bridge, apartment blocks framed in concrete and steel now sit alongside the older terraces behind the High Street, and the two demand completely different renovation approaches. In a framed flat the structure is fixed and the rules come from the lease and the management company. In a period house they come from the fabric and the council. GS Renovation works across TW8 on both, coordinating engineers and Hounslow Council building control as required.

Fitting out a flat in a modern block

In a concrete or steel framed building the internal partitions are typically carrying nothing, which gives real freedom to change a layout, while the columns, cores and slabs are untouchable without a designed solution. Drainage is the other fixed element, because every waste run needs a continuous gradient back to the stack the building already has, and the slab cannot be cut to help it. That usually means planning kitchens and bathrooms around where the pipework can actually go, sometimes on a raised plinth or with a pumped system. Everything else follows from those two fixed points.

Ventilation and heating are frequently communal too. Mechanical ventilation units, heat interface units and riser cupboards belong to the building rather than the flat, so a new kitchen extract or a moved radiator has to work with the system that is already there. We establish all of this at survey, before a layout is drawn, which avoids the familiar situation where a beautiful kitchen design turns out to be undeliverable once the risers are opened. Where a riser has to be opened, the management company is involved from the outset.

Managing agents, access and the older streets

Estate and block management sets the practical terms of a TW8 flat renovation. Working hours, lift bookings, protection of communal floors, parking for a van and how waste leaves the site are all determined by the managing agent, and skips are rarely permitted on private estates at all. Your lease will also require a licence to alter for anything structural or for moved services, and the freeholder's appointed surveyor will expect a drawing pack, a written method statement and proof that your contractor is insured before granting it. We supply that documentation as a matter of course.

The Victorian and Edwardian terraces behind the High Street and towards Brentford station operate under the ordinary rules instead. Solid walls, suspended timber floors, load bearing spine walls and shallow foundations, with structural openings designed by an engineer and inspected by Hounslow Council building control. Here the constraints are on the street rather than in a lease: narrow frontages, permit parking and a skip that needs a highway licence before it can be delivered. We apply for that licence, and deliveries are timed around the school and commuter peaks on the surrounding streets.

Where most Brentford projects start: whole-house refurbishment in Brentford, everything we cover across Hounslow, renovations in Chiswick, renovations in Isleworth and full house renovation cost.