Renovations in Hendon

Two quite different kinds of home sit within a few minutes of each other in Hendon. Purpose-built blocks of flats line the wider roads near Hendon Central and towards Brent Cross, while the streets running back towards Sunny Hill Park and the RAF Museum are filled with interwar houses on regular plots. A renovation in one is governed by a lease and a freeholder; in the other it is governed by an engineer and a party wall. GS Renovation works across both in NW4, and the first conversation is always about which set of rules your address falls under.

Refurbishing A Flat In A Purpose-Built Block

Leasehold changes the order of operations. Before a design is finalised, the freeholder's licence to alter has to be obtained for anything affecting structure, layout, floor construction, drainage or the services shared with other flats, and that process takes time you should build into the programme. Permitted development rights do not apply to flats at all, so nothing about external alterations should be assumed either. We prepare the drawings and supporting information the managing agent asks for, provide our insurance details, and wait for the consent in writing before structural work begins.

The construction itself sets the rest of the limits. The soil stack position governs where a kitchen or bathroom can realistically sit, and a bathroom over another household means full tanking of walls and floor before tiling is not optional. Sound transmission to the flat below is worth addressing while the floor is up, using resilient layers rather than hoping a thicker carpet compensates. Materials and waste move through the communal stair or a single lift, so they are protected at the outset and the route is agreed with the managing agent before the first delivery.

Interwar Houses On The Streets Behind

The houses towards Sunny Hill Park share a familiar arrangement: a hipped roof, small separate rooms downstairs, chimney stacks sitting on the flank and party walls, and a rear kitchen that is too narrow for how families live now. Removing a chimney breast to reclaim a bedroom wall is one of the more common requests, and it is a structural job every time. What remains above still needs carrying, so an engineer decides between gallows brackets bolted into sound brickwork and a beam, and we fit whatever the drawing shows, with the redundant flue capped and ventilated to keep condensation out.

On a semi-detached pair, work against the shared wall brings duties under the Party Wall Act, and notice goes to the neighbour before anything is cut. Opening up the ground floor works the same way: the spine wall carries load, the beam and its bearings are designed rather than estimated, and Barnet Council building control inspects the steel and its supports while they are still visible. We book those visits at the point the work is exposed, because covering bearings up and reopening them later wastes everybody's week. The same holds for drainage alterations and insulation, both of which have to be seen before they disappear.

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