Renovations in Ruislip

Applied timber boarding on a rendered gable, a tile hung upper storey, leaded lights and a steep front gable: the mock-Tudor semi is the signature house of Ruislip, and it is a house with opinions about how it should be altered. Behind that decoration sits ordinary cavity brickwork and a cut timber roof, so the structural work is conventional while the finishes are anything but. In the roads between Ruislip High Street, the Lido and Ruislip Woods the same details repeat with local variations. GS Renovation covers HA4 with no premises in the area and quotes free of charge.

Mock-Tudor detail and altering the elevations

The decorative work on these houses is applied rather than structural, which is good news for alteration and bad news for anyone who assumes it can simply be recreated. Boarding profiles, render texture, tile hanging courses and the pattern of leaded glazing vary from one builder to the next, so matching them when a dormer goes in, a bay is repaired or an extension is added takes sourcing rather than approximation. We match against the existing house and, where a section has to be replaced, we take a sample first so the new work reads as part of the original rather than a patch.

Roof alterations attract the most scrutiny for the same reason. A hip to gable conversion changes the shape that gives the house its character, so materials, tile type and the treatment of the new gable matter to the outcome and sometimes to the consent. Parts of Ruislip fall within conservation areas designated by Hillingdon Council, and a property inside one loses the permitted development route for roof work, so what looked like a straightforward loft scheme becomes a full planning application instead. Designation follows a boundary rather than a postcode, so we put the address to the council before drawings are commissioned rather than after, since the two routes lead to different schemes and very different timescales.

Ground floor openings and the roof above them

The hidden constraint in these houses is that the roof frequently leans on the internal walls. Purlins in a cut roof are supported by struts, and those struts land on first floor partitions and sometimes transfer down to ground floor walls, so a wall you want removed may be part of the roof structure rather than a divider. That load path is established by the structural engineer we appoint, working from what we expose in the roof space and behind the plaster, and it is the single most common reason a straightforward looking opening turns out not to be.

With the design in hand the build is methodical. Props stand on spread bearings, masonry comes down in courses, padstones go in exactly where specified and the load is transferred before any temporary support is struck. In a semi the new steelwork commonly lands in the party wall, so the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 applies and the notice goes out in your name rather than ours, with our drawings supporting it. Building control applications and inspections are coordinated with Hillingdon Council, and installations we carry out come with a five year guarantee.

Where most Ruislip projects start: whole-house refurbishment in Ruislip, everything we cover across Hillingdon, renovations in Uxbridge, renovations in Hayes and how to plan a renovation.