Renovations in Camden Town

Renovations in Camden Town rarely start with an empty house. A large share of the Victorian stock within walking distance of the market and the Regent's Canal was divided into flats decades ago, and along the busier streets there are shops at pavement level with living space stacked above them. That decides a great deal before anyone lifts a tool. Ownership can run horizontally as well as vertically, consent may sit with a freeholder rather than with you, and the only route in for materials is often one shared staircase. GS Renovation works on those terms across NW1, appointing the structural engineer, coordinating building control and putting one named project manager on the job.

Opening Up Inside a Converted Terrace

The partitions in a flat carved out of a Victorian house are not all partitions. The original spine wall usually runs the depth of the building and carries joists on both sides of it, so the wall between your hallway and living room may be holding up everything above. Chimney stacks complicate matters further, because a breast removed on one floor leaves masonry overhead that has to be picked up and carried somewhere. We appoint a structural engineer to survey and design the support, we set the steel and its padstones precisely as drawn, and the opening is inspected before it is closed in.

Consent is the other half of the job. Most leases require written permission before a layout changes, and the freeholder or managing agent will want drawings, the engineer's design and our insurance details before granting it. Where a floor is disturbed, the sound separation between your flat and the one below has to be reinstated properly rather than patched over. We sheet the shared staircase, move debris in sealed bags rather than open barrows, keep the entrance usable for everyone else in the building, and agree the noisy stages with your neighbours before they start.

Making a Site Work Beside the Market

This is one of the harder parts of London to get materials into. Streets near the market and the canal are busy from mid morning onwards, parking is controlled, and a terraced house has no rear access, so every bag of sand and every length of steel travels through the front door. We book skip permits and bay suspensions with Camden Council in advance, plan deliveries into the quieter part of the day, and take steel in bolted sections that two people can carry up a stair rather than specifying a single beam that would need a crane and a road closure.

Storage is the other constraint. There is nowhere to stockpile on a street like this, so materials arrive in stages against the programme and the property takes only what the coming week of work needs. Floors and staircases are protected before anything comes in. In an occupied flat we set a dust barrier at the entrance to the working area and keep a kitchen or bathroom usable for as long as the sequence allows. The aim is that the building carries on functioning normally while the work goes on inside it.

Where most Camden Town projects start: whole-house refurbishment in Camden Town, everything we cover across Camden, renovations in Hampstead, renovations in Kentish Town and renovation order of works.