Renovations in Teddington

Roof space is the most underused part of a Teddington house. The period terraces and semis across TW11 generally have a cut timber roof with purlins rather than modern trusses, which means the loft can often be converted without rebuilding the roof from scratch. GS Renovation converts lofts and renovates the floors beneath them throughout the area, in the streets running between Teddington High Street and the Thames towpath and out towards Bushy Park and Teddington Lock. Every conversion is designed by a structural engineer we appoint, built strictly to that design, and inspected by building control at the stages they set.

Converting a Cut Timber Roof

In a traditional cut roof the rafters are supported partway up by purlins, and those purlins are propped by struts that drop onto load bearing walls below. A conversion has to take the new floor load somewhere else entirely, so new joists are installed to span between the flank walls, usually sitting on steel beams at each end so the weight bypasses the old ceiling joists that were never meant to carry a room. Those steels have to be got into the loft, which on a terrace means through a window or a temporarily opened roof.

Usable head height decides everything else, and it is measured from the proposed finished floor to the underside of the ridge, not from the existing ceiling. Rooflights preserve the roof line but add nothing to the floor area, while a rear dormer creates full height space and changes the planning position. Insulation at rafter level eats into the height too, so it is specified early. A conversion also brings fire safety requirements: a protected stairway down to the final exit, fire doors to the rooms off it, and mains linked alarms throughout.

Below the Loft: Services, Kitchens and Bathrooms

A new loft room nearly always comes with a bathroom, and that is where the plumbing question starts. The existing boiler or cylinder may not have the capacity for another shower, mains pressure at the top of the house is often marginal, and the waste has to reach the soil stack at a workable gradient without crossing the new floor structure. New circuits are needed for lighting, sockets and smoke detection, which is notifiable electrical work. While the floors are open, it is the obvious moment to replace tired pipework instead of building a new room over it.

The same logic applies downstairs. Structural work should always precede finishes, so a wall comes out before a new kitchen goes in, not the month after it was fitted. Extract ventilation from a kitchen or bathroom is ducted to outside air rather than into a void, and its route needs to be planned alongside the structural layout. Most of a loft conversion happens above your head, so families often stay in the house until the staircase opening is formed, which is the disruptive week we programme and warn you about.

Where most Teddington projects start: whole-house refurbishment in Teddington, everything we cover across Richmond upon Thames, renovations in Twickenham, renovations in Kew and building regulations explained.