Renovations in Southall

Interwar semis are forgiving houses to work on, and Southall has street after street of them. Between the Broadway, Southall Park and the Grand Union Canal the UB1 stock is mostly cavity walled, hipped roofed and set on plots with a side passage and a decent garden, with older terraced streets mixed in closer to the station. Predictable construction means predictable work: spans repeat, roof structures repeat, and we can usually say what sits inside a wall in advance. GS Renovation gives free no obligation quotations after measuring up, and every installation we carry out comes with a five year guarantee.

Fitting More House Into the Same Plot

The briefs we are given in Southall are mostly about making a family house work harder. That means combining projects rather than choosing between them: a rear extension for a larger kitchen and dining space, a loft converted into bedrooms above, and the ground floor reorganised so the two connect sensibly. Doing them together is more efficient because the scaffold, the skip and the building control application cover the whole scope at once, and the disruption happens in one period instead of three. It also means the structure is resolved as one design rather than as a series of patches on top of each other.

The hipped roof is the thing that shapes a loft conversion here. A hip slopes in on the side elevation and takes away exactly the head height a staircase needs, so many of these conversions involve building the hip out to a gable and forming a dormer at the rear. That is structural work, designed by an engineer, and it changes the outside of the house, which makes the planning position worth confirming with Ealing Council before anything is drawn up in detail. Inside, a new floor structure is needed, since the joists spanning below were sized for a ceiling, not for a bedroom.

Cavity Walls, Foundations and Working From the Side Passage

Opening a cavity wall is a different job from opening a solid one. Two leaves have to be supported, the cavity has to be closed and a tray installed where the new structure meets the old so water tracking down the cavity is directed out rather than into the room. Lintels have to suit both leaves. None of this is complicated, but it is regularly done badly, and the symptom appears a year later as a damp patch beside a new opening. We build these details as the engineer specifies and building control inspects them before they are covered.

Site logistics are easier here than in inner London, and that is worth using. Most houses have a driveway that can take a skip, and a side passage means bricks, sand and waste never cross your hallway carpet. Foundation depth is set by the engineer after trial holes, because ground conditions and nearby trees vary from street to street even where the houses look identical. Deliveries on the busier routes near the Broadway are timed away from peak traffic, and the frontage is kept clear so the pavement stays usable throughout.

Where most Southall projects start: whole-house refurbishment in Southall, everything we cover across Ealing, renovations in Acton, renovations in Hanwell and building regulations explained.