Renovations in Kensington

White stucco fronts, plans that run over five or six storeys, and mansion flats set back behind railings make Kensington one of the more demanding parts of London to renovate. GS Renovation works throughout W8, on houses in the streets off Kensington High Street and on flats a short walk from Kensington Gardens and Kensington Palace. Most of the fabric here is protected in some form and a great deal of it is leasehold, so the order in which consents are obtained shapes the whole programme. Founder Abdelaaziz Saaid brings over 30 years of hands on experience with London period property to every renovation we take on in the area.

Tall Houses, Narrow Plots and the Load Path Inside

A Kensington townhouse carries its weight down a spine wall that runs the depth of the building, with the staircase pushed to one side and the floor joists spanning between that spine and the flank walls. Open up the ground floor and you are interrupting a load path that continues for four or five storeys above your head. That is why forming an opening here is a different proposition to the same opening in a two storey house, and why we instruct a structural engineer at the survey stage rather than after the first section of wall has come down.

Getting the steel in is the other half of the problem. There is rarely room to bring a long beam through the front door in one piece, so the design has to account for how it will actually arrive, whether that means a spliced section bolted together in the room or a shorter span with an additional support. Bearings are cut into solid masonry, padstones are set, and needles and props hold the structure until the new steel is loaded and packed tight. Lath and plaster ceilings anywhere near the work need protecting or they will crack.

Mansion Flats, Leases and the Licence to Alter

Flats in W8 are leasehold, and a lease almost always requires the freeholder's written consent before structural or layout changes go ahead. That consent is the licence to alter, and it usually involves the managing agent appointing a surveyor to review your drawings at your cost. Permitted development rights do not apply to flats at all, so there is no shortcut around it. Blocks also set working hours, restrict the use of the lift for materials and expect protection to communal carpets and stairs. We build those conditions into the programme when we quote rather than discovering them in the first week.

Within those limits a great deal is still possible. Non structural partitions can be moved, a kitchen relocated, a bathroom stripped out and reformed, and service runs that have been patched for decades replaced properly. Waterproofing under a new shower and acoustic separation to the flat below both matter far more in a block than in a house, and both fall under building regulations rather than the lease alone. We coordinate the building control application and the inspections, keep one named project manager on the job throughout, and every installation we carry out is covered by a five year guarantee.

Where most Kensington projects start: whole-house refurbishment in Kensington, everything we cover across Kensington and Chelsea, renovations in Chelsea, renovations in Notting Hill and renovation order of works.