Renovations in Shepherd's Bush

A large share of W12 addresses are flats inside houses. The period terraces around Shepherd's Bush Green, the market and the streets running towards Westfield London and Television Centre were mostly divided into maisonettes and conversions long ago, and much of the renovation work here happens one floor at a time within somebody else's building. That brings leaseholds, freeholder consents and neighbours directly below the work into every decision. GS Renovation is used to it. We coordinate building control applications and inspections, carry full insurance, and give you one named project manager for the whole job.

Kitchen and Bathroom Renovations in a Converted Flat

The single biggest constraint in a W12 conversion is drainage. Waste needs fall, and the existing soil connection was placed to suit a layout somebody else designed, often with the pipework run externally down the rear elevation. Moving a bathroom across a flat sounds simple until the fall is measured and the floor build up needed to achieve it eats the ceiling height below. We check what the existing runs can give before a layout is agreed, and where a pumped solution is genuinely necessary we say so at the design stage rather than discovering it once the old suite is in a skip.

Floors are the second constraint. Cutting joists to run pipework is how a lot of existing damage was done in these houses, and there are limits to where a notch or a hole can go before the joist is weakened. New wet areas need proper tanking and a floor that does not flex, or the tiling and the grout will tell on you within a year. Since the ceiling below belongs to a neighbour, we take the opportunity to improve acoustic separation while the floor is open, which costs very little then and a great deal afterwards.

Extending at the Back of a Shepherd's Bush Terrace

Where the ground floor comes with the garden, a rear extension is the obvious way to gain a proper kitchen. The complication in W12 is what is buried in that garden. These terraces were built with shared drainage, so a public sewer or a lateral drain serving several houses often runs directly under where the extension wants to go. Building over or close to it requires an agreement with the water authority, and the foundation design has to respond to the pipe rather than pretend it is not there. This is checked at survey, not on the day the excavation starts.

Beyond drainage the usual sequence applies. Foundations are dug to a depth the engineer sets after the ground and any nearby trees have been considered, the structural opening into the existing house is designed and built to that design, and building control inspects excavation, damp proofing, structure and insulation as the work proceeds. Access in these streets is normally through the house, so floors and the hallway are protected from day one. Where the property is a flat rather than a whole house, the freeholder's licence to alter comes before any of it.

Where most Shepherd's Bush projects start: whole-house refurbishment in Shepherd's Bush, everything we cover across Hammersmith and Fulham, renovations in Hammersmith, renovations in Fulham and renovation order of works.