Building work in Wembley: area guide

This is our area guide to building work in Wembley (HA9, HA0, Brent): the housing, the council rules that apply (Brent Council for planning) and every service we offer here. For whole-house refurbishment go to Home renovation in Wembley.

Two very different sets of homes sit within a mile of each other in Wembley, and most are flats, on VOA figures. Around Wembley Park station, the arena and the Designer Outlet, the housing is modern apartments in framed buildings with concrete floors and a management company, where consent and the drainage stack decide the job. The residential streets away from the stadium are largely interwar semis: cavity walls, hipped roofs, a bay to the front, a side path and a garden long enough to build into. Little about the approach carries across.

For Wembley the Council Tax list gives about 17,140 homes; by type 71% flats and 29% houses, by age 63% post-war, 25% interwar and 12% older than 1919. VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for Wembley North, Wembley West, Wembley East and Wembley Park. Counts rounded by the VOA.

On the semis, garage and rear openings start with the beam

The interwar semi is a forgiving house to work on. Spans are regular, the plan repeats down the street, and there is usually a side path or an attached garage to build into. Common briefs are a house extension job across the back, a side infill taking in the garage, and an open-plan conversion job joining the front and rear receptions. Each forms an opening in a wall carrying floor and roof load, so it is an RSJ installation first: the engineer sizes the beam and specifies the bearings, and we install exactly what is drawn.

Cavity construction has details of its own and they matter. A new opening needs both leaves closed properly and a tray above it so any water crossing the outer skin is thrown back out, and the insulation line has to continue across the junction or the wall will show a cold stripe later. Garages raise a separate issue: the existing slab and footings were built for a car rather than for habitable rooms, so the engineer checks what is there and often specifies new foundations to a front infill and a rebuilt floor with insulation and a damp proof membrane.

In the newer blocks the stack places the room

Apartments around Wembley Park are framed buildings, so internal walls are usually non-structural partitions while the frame, the slabs and the cores are absolutely not to be touched. Drilling into a post-tensioned slab without approval is dangerous and does real harm, so any fixing into the structure is checked against the building's own information first. Relocating a bathroom or kitchen is limited by drainage falls and stack positions, not walls, so a bathroom renovation or kitchen renovation here starts at the stack, and the acoustic floor build-up and waterproofing above your neighbour below deserve as much attention as the finishes.

Building management rules then set the programme. Lifts are booked and protected, lobbies and corridors sheeted, working hours observed, and waste taken away by vehicle because there is nowhere for a skip. Deliveries go to a loading bay with a time limit rather than to your door. We give the managing agent insurance details and a method of working before starting, clean the common parts daily, and plan quantities so a flat with no storage to spare never holds more than the coming week requires. Other residents should notice little beyond the noise of an ordinary working day.

Where to go next for work in Wembley: kitchen renovation in Wembley, house extensions in Wembley, the Brent area guide, building work in Harlesden, building work in Willesden and Snagging List Guide.