Renovations in Mitcham

Mitcham mixes 1930s semis with older terraces around the Cricket Green and Figges Marsh, and the two age groups fail in different ways. What they have in common is that many of them have not been touched properly in decades. When we survey a house here the interesting information sits behind the finishes: what the wiring actually is, whether the rear addition has any foundation worth the name, what carries the bay window, and how many previous owners have had a go at the kitchen. A renovation is only as good as what is found before the design is fixed.

What a 1930s House Gives Up When You Strip It

Open one of these houses and a familiar list appears. Rubber or early PVC wiring still in circuit, an old back boiler flue serving nothing, a bay window carried on a lintel that was undersized when it was built and has cracked since, and a rear addition or old conservatory sitting on a slab that goes down barely a spade's depth. None of it is unusual and all of it changes the scope. We record what is found, have the structural engineer look at anything load bearing, and agree the revised scope with you in writing before carrying on.

The floors tell their own story. There is often suspended timber at the front over a ventilated void and a solid slab at the back where a scullery was rebuilt, which is why levels rarely match. Airbricks have usually been blocked by later paths, patios and render, and that alone accounts for a great deal of the damp and joist decay we find. Clearing ventilation, replacing decayed joist ends, insulating the floor while it is open and reinstating a proper damp proof course line change how a house feels far more than a new worktop does.

Extending on a Repeating Plan

Because the 1930s plan repeats along the street, an extension design here can borrow from what has already been proved next door, but the ground underneath never copies itself so obligingly. On the shrinkable clay found across much of this part of south London, mature trees near the footprint draw moisture out of the soil and cause it to shrink and swell with the seasons, so foundations close to them go considerably deeper than a standard trench. The structural engineer sets the depth after trial holes, and the open trench is inspected before any concrete is placed.

Drainage decides the rest of the layout. Rear gullies, the soil stack position and any inspection chamber in the garden all constrain where a kitchen or a bathroom can sensibly sit, and moving them is a job in itself rather than a detail. We survey the existing runs at the start, plan new connections with proper falls and access, and set the extension out so no inspection chamber ends up under a fitted unit. Settling that before drawings are finished avoids an awkward conversation halfway through the build. Rainwater from the new roof needs somewhere to go as well, whether that is an existing surface water run or a soakaway sized for the area it serves.

Where most Mitcham projects start: whole-house refurbishment in Mitcham, everything we cover across Merton, renovations in Wimbledon, renovations in Morden and renovation order of works.