Renovations in Wimbledon

The period houses between Wimbledon Village, the Common and the station are large by London standards, and they hold their value on being kept properly rather than being maximised. Deep plans, tall storey heights, cellars beneath the front rooms and solid walls built to carry a good deal of load. What owners usually want here is the ground floor rethought, a rear extension that suits the house instead of fighting it, and the services brought up to date behind the scenes. The structural side is bigger than it looks, because long spans and heavy walls change what an opening needs.

Long Spans and Where the Load Ends Up

In a substantial SW19 house, the spine wall running through the middle of the plan is doing serious work. It carries joists from both directions, often a chimney stack, and sometimes the wall above it on the storey over. Take a large opening out of it and load that used to be spread along many metres of brickwork arrives at two points instead. That is why the engineer we appoint examines what is beneath the bearings as well as the beam itself, and why a pad foundation or a widened bearing sometimes forms part of the design.

Where the masonry underneath cannot take that concentration, the usual answer is a goalpost frame: a beam supported on steel columns with base plates taking load down to a designed foundation, rather than relying on existing brick piers. It sounds dramatic and it is routine. What matters is that the frame is fabricated to the engineer's drawing, that connections are made as specified, that fire protection to the steel is applied, and that building control sees the whole assembly before it is boxed in and plastered over. The frame is positioned and levelled while temporary support carries the structure above, and only then does the old wall come out beneath it.

Working in an Occupied House Near the Common

Most of these renovations happen while the family is still living there, which makes sequencing the most valuable thing we bring. Structural work and first fix come first, then plaster, then kitchen and bathrooms, then decoration, and we keep at least one bathroom and some kitchen function running for as long as the layout allows. Dust screens go up at the boundary of the working area, the heating stays on where it can, and the house is left secure each evening. One named project manager holds the programme so you are not coordinating trades yourself.

Access around the Village and the roads near the Common is manageable but not generous. Streets are narrow in places, many houses have a short driveway a skip can sit on, which keeps the road clear, and a few have no off-street space at all. For a fortnight each summer the Championships bring a great deal of extra traffic and parking restriction to the streets around the All England Club, so deliveries and skip exchanges are scheduled around it rather than losing days to a road we cannot reach. Any permit or bay suspension the job needs is applied for well ahead of that fortnight.

Where most Wimbledon projects start: whole-house refurbishment in Wimbledon, everything we cover across Merton, renovations in Mitcham, renovations in Morden and full house renovation cost.