Renovations in Fulham

Fulham houses hold more original fabric than people expect. Under the later carpets and boxing in the SW6 streets between Bishops Park, Fulham Palace and Fulham Broadway there are usually pine floors worth saving, cast iron fireplaces still in their openings and shutter boxes that were plastered over decades ago. A renovation here is as much about deciding what stays as what changes. GS Renovation works through that with you room by room, appoints a structural engineer where anything load bearing is involved, and builds strictly to the design issued. Free no obligation quotations are given after a proper look at the property, not over the phone.

Chimney Breasts and Structural Alterations in SW6

A Fulham terrace can carry four or more chimney breasts, and they take real floor area out of rooms that were never generous to begin with. Removing them one at a time is the usual approach, and it is a structural job every time. Whatever is left standing above the removal has to be carried on gallows brackets or a lintel that an engineer has sized. The flue must be capped and ventilated so the remaining stack does not sweat, and the roof needs to be sound where a stack has come out entirely. Because stacks are commonly shared, notices under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 are part of the process rather than an optional courtesy.

The other alterations follow the same logic. Widening the opening between reception rooms, forming a new opening into the closet wing, or taking out a wall to relocate a bathroom all move load somewhere it was not before. The engineer sizes the beam and specifies the bearings, we form the padstones, prop while the masonry comes down, and check for movement before releasing anything. Building control inspects the work at the stages that matter and signs it off at completion. That certificate is what a buyer's solicitor will look for in ten years, and it is worth having.

Roofs, Valley Gutters and Water Getting In

A lot of what presents as an internal problem in a Fulham house begins on the roof. Many of these terraces have a valley behind the front parapet, and the gutter that runs down that valley is the single most common source of damp we trace in SW6. It silts up, the lead or felt beneath it fails at a joint, and water tracks along a joist for months before it appears on a bedroom ceiling. Renewing that lining properly, with the outlets cleared and the falls right, resolves problems that repeated redecoration never will.

The back of the house is the second culprit. Closet wing roofs are often low pitch or flat, patched several times over, with rainwater goods that discharge against a wall rather than into a hopper. Once water gets into solid brickwork it stays. When we renovate a whole house we deal with roof, gutters, downpipes and any rendered elevation before internal finishes start, because there is no sense in plastering a wall that is still being fed. Scaffolding is already up for the roof, which makes it the cheapest moment to sort the windows and the pointing as well.

Where most Fulham projects start: whole-house refurbishment in Fulham, everything we cover across Hammersmith and Fulham, renovations in Hammersmith, renovations in Shepherd's Bush and renovation order of works.