Building work in Tooting: area guide

This is our area guide to building work in Tooting (SW17, Wandsworth): the housing, the council rules that apply (Wandsworth Council for planning) and every service we offer here. For whole-house refurbishment go to Home renovation in Tooting.

Street after street in Tooting was built to the same drawing: bay fronted Victorian terraces, two rooms deep with a back addition, laid out in long uniform runs between Tooting Common and the Broadway. The same faults and opportunities repeat, so the job is usually recognisable from the front door. On VOA figures, most homes here are flats, and in a flat the freeholder's consent comes before any opening. Across SW17 we appoint engineers for structural openings and house extensions and coordinate Wandsworth Council building control inspections.

The Council Tax list puts Tooting at about 23,930 homes, 62% flats against 38% houses; 67% went up before 1919, 8% between the wars and 24% after 1945. VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for all 7 statistical areas in Tooting. Counts rounded by the VOA.

Sorting a Tooting terrace's list by job

Most houses that stay whole reach us at the point of sale, when a family has just bought and wants the work done before moving in. The list is predictable: a rewire because the circuits and consumer unit are decades past their design life, new pipework and heating, replastering where past patching has left a wall like a relief map, and removing the small dark rooms that made sense when the kitchen was a scullery. That last item is load-bearing wall removal where the wall carries the floor above. Insulation, ventilation and draught sealing go in while the fabric is open, so the house is stripped back once.

A list that long is the home renovation route, and order keeps it affordable in time. Structural work and first fix services go in before any plaster, the kitchen and bathroom follow, decoration last, and floors are lifted once rather than three times. The same team carries it from strip out to snagging, and the notifiable electrical and structural stages are booked with building control in step with the programme. Where a family is moving in on a fixed date, that date drives the programme backwards from handover.

Tooting Broadway permits set the strip out date

Deliveries around Tooting Market and the Broadway need timing, and the residential streets either side are largely permit controlled. A skip on the public highway for the rubble of a chimney breast removal or strip out needs a permit from Wandsworth Council, and where a frontage is too narrow we arrange a suspended bay or move to bagged collections. Scaffold over a footway needs its own licence and a protected pedestrian route, booked with the same lead time as the scaffold itself. Lead times on permits and licences are built into the start date rather than chased afterwards.

Inside the house, the practical measures matter: floor protection down the hall and stairs, a sealed dust screen rather than a taped sheet, tools cleared at the end of each day, and the waste route agreed before demolition starts. Where you are staying in the house, we keep a bathroom and a kitchen point running as long as the sequence allows and agree noisy stages with you a week ahead. Neighbours either side are told what is happening and when the noisy weeks fall.

Where to go next for work in Tooting: kitchen renovation in Tooting, house extensions in Tooting, the Wandsworth area guide, building work in Balham, building work in Wimbledon and How Long a Renovation Takes.