Renovations in Orpington

The 1930s semi is the standard unit of housing in Orpington, and once you know how one is built you know how most of them are built. Cavity walls, a hipped roof, regular joist spans, a bay to the front and a plot generous enough to work on without fighting the street. In the roads spreading out from Priory Gardens and the High Street the plan repeats with small variations, which makes the work predictable in a way inner London never is. GS Renovation covers BR6 as a visiting contractor with no yard here, and quotations are free with no obligation to proceed.

Rear extensions and the standard 1930s plan

The original layout gives you a front room, a back room and a narrow kitchen in a rear outrigger, with a larder and an outside store that stopped earning their keep long ago. Almost every project here begins by removing that kitchen wall and building across the back, which produces the wide kitchen and dining space the house was never designed for. Because the outrigger roof and the first floor above bear on the walls being altered, the steel arrangement is designed by a structural engineer we appoint, and we build to that design with propping, staged demolition and inspected bearings.

Permitted development is often available on a semi-detached or detached house at three and four metres respectively, with a deeper single storey extension possible through the prior approval route where Bromley Council consults the neighbours. That has to be confirmed rather than assumed, since earlier extensions and designations can remove it. Foundations are then the engineer's call, and on these plots the depth is frequently driven by ground conditions and mature planting nearby. Building control inspects the open trench before concrete, and again as the damp proof course, structure, drainage and insulation go in.

Garages, side space and loft conversions

The attached garage is the most commonly wasted space in an Orpington house, and converting it is less straightforward than the empty shell suggests. Garage floors are often laid at a lower level, without insulation and sometimes without a damp proof membrane, and the walls may be a single leaf rather than a cavity. The opening left by the garage door needs a lintel arrangement and proper support to the brickwork above. All of it becomes habitable space governed by the Building Regulations, so insulation, ventilation, electrics under Part P and fire separation to the house are all inspected.

Lofts here start with a hipped roof, which is why so many conversions begin by building the side slope up into a vertical gable to gain usable width, then adding a dormer behind it. The old cold water tank goes, the roof structure changes from a series of struts and purlins bearing on internal walls into an engineered arrangement, and a new floor spans onto steel rather than resting on ceiling joists. A protected stair route with fire doors and interlinked alarms under Part B, and stair geometry under Part K, are settled before the work is priced.

Where most Orpington projects start: whole-house refurbishment in Orpington, everything we cover across Bromley, renovations in Beckenham, renovations in Chislehurst and full house renovation cost.