Renovations in New Malden

Look along a New Malden street and the rooflines tell you what is available. The 1930s semis spreading out from the High Street and towards Beverley Park were built with cut roofs, purlins carried on struts, and hips that lose a useful amount of volume at the side. Read that structure correctly and a loft becomes a storey rather than a cupboard. GS Renovation carries out those conversions and the rear extensions that usually accompany them across KT3, appointing the structural engineer for the design and taking the building control application through to the completion certificate.

Roof Space In A 1930s Semi

A hipped roof slopes on three sides, which is handsome from the pavement and unhelpful once you are standing inside it, because the usable width is squeezed at the flank. Rebuilding the hip as a gable recovers that width and gives the new floor somewhere sensible to land, and a rear dormer then provides the head height for a stair and a bathroom. A cut roof of this age relies on its purlins and struts for support, and those members frequently pass straight through the space you want, so the sequence of removing them and replacing their function has to be designed before anything is cut.

The new floor spans between loadbearing walls on steels rather than sitting on the existing ceiling joists, which were only ever asked to hold up a ceiling. A structural engineer produces that design and we build to it, propping as they specify. Head height over the new stair is generally what constrains the layout, and a protected escape route with fire doors and interlinked alarms comes with the extra storey under the building regulations. Kingston Council building control inspects the structure and the fire provisions at the defined stages, and we book each visit and meet the inspector rather than leaving that arrangement with you.

Extending Across The Back And What Runs Beneath It

Rear extensions on these houses are more predictable than in older stock. Regular spans, cavity walls and a consistent original plan mean the beam sizes and bearing arrangements tend to come back sensibly from the engineer, and the geometry of the existing rear addition sets most of the design. A new opening in a cavity wall needs the cavity closed and a tray with stop ends above it so water crossing the outer leaf is discharged outwards, and where the extension abuts an original flat roofed addition the junction detailing is what determines whether it stays dry.

Below ground is where the surprises live. The existing drainage run and any inspection chamber in the path of the new foundations have to be located before design, not discovered by an excavator, and building over or near a public sewer brings its own approval process. Surface water from the additional roof area needs somewhere to go, and where the ground allows a soakaway, its position and size are worked out rather than guessed. Building control inspects the open trench before concrete is placed, and we book that visit into the programme so the groundworkers are not left standing about waiting for it.

Where most New Malden projects start: whole-house refurbishment in New Malden, everything we cover across Kingston upon Thames, renovations in Surbiton and full house renovation cost.