Renovations in Kennington

Some of the oldest domestic brickwork we work on anywhere in south London stands within walking distance of Cleaver Square. Kennington is not one thing though. The early terraces with their railed lightwells and pavement vaults give way, closer to Kennington Park and the Oval, to ordinary bay fronted Victorian streets built decades later on very different principles. Get the era wrong and you price the wrong job. GS Renovation renovates across SE11 as a visiting contractor with no office in the area, we appoint the structural engineers rather than write calculations ourselves, and every quotation is free with no obligation attached.

Lower ground floors, vaults and damp

Plenty of Kennington houses have a lower ground floor opening onto a front lightwell, with brick vaults running out under the pavement. These are the spaces owners most want back, and they are also where the trouble concentrates. Failed tanking, gulleys blocked by decades of leaf fall, external ground raised above internal floor level and air bricks rendered over by a previous owner all push moisture into solid walls that were never designed to be sealed. We investigate the cause before specifying a finish, because a dry lining hung over an unresolved source of water simply hides the problem for a season.

Making the lower ground properly habitable is structural as often as it is cosmetic. Widening the opening between front and rear rooms, or forming new doors out to the garden, means cutting into old brickwork on shallow footings, and the temporary support matters more than in later houses. The engineer we appoint sets out the propping and the beam, and we follow it. Drainage below the level of the sewer needs pumping rather than gravity, which the design has to allow for. Building control applications and inspections are coordinated with Lambeth Council so the finished space is properly certified.

The later Victorian streets and where the two eras meet

Away from the squares, much of Kennington Road and the streets towards Kennington Park is standard bay fronted Victorian terracing with a rear closet wing, a side return and a spine wall carrying the joists. Here the work is the familiar sequence: an engineer designs the beam, we prop, cut in stages, set padstones into sound masonry and transfer the load before anything is struck. The construction is harder and less forgiving than the earlier brick a few streets away, and the approach changes accordingly. Identifying which of the two you own is the first thing our survey settles.

Chimney breasts come out of these houses regularly and they deserve more caution than they usually get. The stack normally sits within the wall shared with next door, so removing a breast at ground or first floor while keeping the masonry above means supporting it on gallows brackets bolted into that shared wall, or on a beam where the brickwork will not take brackets. Work of that kind is notifiable under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, and the duty to serve notice sits with you as the building owner. Redundant flues are capped with ventilation left low down so nothing traps damp.

Where most Kennington projects start: whole-house refurbishment in Kennington, everything we cover across Lambeth, renovations in Brixton, renovations in Clapham and how to plan a renovation.