Renovations in Finchley

A house built in Finchley in the 1930s is generally sound in the ways that matter. Cavity walls, a hipped roof, regular spans, a decent plot. What has aged is everything threaded through it: wiring extended by three owners, plumbing patched around a boiler swap, ceilings overboarded instead of repaired, and windows on their second replacement. Most N3 renovations we are called to are therefore less about knocking things about and more about renewing the parts nobody sees. GS Renovation carries out that work as one coordinated programme, with the building control notifications and inspections arranged as part of the job.

Renewing The Parts You Never Look At

Open up a Finchley semi that has not been touched since the eighties and the list writes itself. Rubber or fabric insulated cable still feeding a lighting circuit in the loft. A consumer unit with no residual current protection. Dead pipework left in a floor void when a back boiler was taken out. Ceilings overboarded over cracked lath and plaster, which hides the problem and adds weight to joists never asked to carry it. A rewire and a heating replacement are disruptive precisely once, so they belong at the front of the programme, before plastering and long before anyone chooses a kitchen.

Sealing the house up is the other half of the exercise, and it has a consequence people are not warned about. Better windows, insulation in the loft and a tighter fabric reduce the accidental draughts that used to carry moisture out of the building, so ventilation has to be provided deliberately instead. Extraction that actually vents outside, background ventilation in habitable rooms and attention to cold surfaces where condensation would otherwise settle are all part of doing the job properly. Building control is notified for the electrical installation, the heating work and the insulation, and we book those inspections and keep the certificates.

Clay, Trees And What Happens Underneath

The ground beneath much of north London is clay, which swells when it is wet and shrinks when it dries. Mature trees near a building draw a great deal of moisture out of that clay in summer, which is why foundation depth on an extension near an established tree is a question for a structural engineer rather than a rule of thumb, and why building control inspects the open excavation before concrete is placed. On the streets around Ballards Lane and towards Stephens House and Gardens, established planting is part of the character, and it is a factor in the design rather than an obstacle to it.

Old drainage is the related problem. Clay pipework laid ninety years ago in short jointed lengths gives roots an obvious way in, and blockages that keep recurring in the same place usually mean the pipe rather than what went down it. A camera survey during a renovation costs very little and settles the question. If a new extension is adding roof area, where the surface water goes needs answering at design stage too, because connecting more run-off into an already tired run is how a working drain becomes a failing one.

Where most Finchley projects start: whole-house refurbishment in Finchley, everything we cover across Barnet, renovations in Hendon, renovations in Edgware and full house renovation cost.