Home Renovations and Refurbishment in Chichester

Inside the walls, the money goes into what is already there

Almost nobody in the middle of Chichester is buying floor area. In the Georgian townhouses, the brick and flint cottages and the terraces east and north, the work is internal: high-end refits, structural alterations to make an old plan work for a family, fitted joinery, and putting old brickwork and timber sash windows back properly. It is a different business from extending a semi in the suburbs, and it is priced differently. Here is why.

Cement on a lime-built wall is the costly mistake

If a wall was built in lime and somebody points or renders it in modern cement, the moisture that used to leave through the mortar leaves through the brick instead. The faces blow off. Putting it right means taking the cement back off and returning to a traditional hydraulic lime — slower, weather-dependent, and it wants people who have done it before. Matching local flint is the same story.

So the labour rate per square metre on period fabric is higher than on a modern house, and we would rather show that in the quotation than bury it in a rate. The council's character appraisal sets out what an officer looks at: red brick with blue headers, painted stucco lined out to imitate stone, knapped flint with galleting.

Send photographs of the elevation and we will tell you what is happening to it. James on 07470 078236, free visit, building here since 2002.

Whyke Close: one house, done in stages

The loft came first, and only worked because the ceilings through the house came down and went back lower. What followed was a whole-house renovation delivered piece by piece — re-plastering below, oak fire doors on every opening, a full-width extension across the back, decking, the ground floor re-laid in LVT, new fencing, a new consumer unit. Roughly 20 weeks of building in all, and £110,000 + VAT for the lot. Contract values on this page are given before VAT. On a phased job the tax falls due alongside each valuation rather than landing in one lump at the end.

Copy the order, not only the scope. Structure goes in before the things structure would wreck: that LVT laid ahead of the ceilings would have been paid for twice. Read the Whyke Close loft conversion in Chichester.

Part L when you are improving rather than adding

Renovating an existing element is judged differently from building a new one. Approved Document L, 2021 edition with 2023 amendments, works on a threshold and a target:

• Roof — threshold 0.35, improved to 0.16
• Cavity wall — threshold 0.70, improved to 0.55
• Wall lined internally or externally — threshold 0.70, improved to 0.30
• Floor — threshold 0.70, improved to 0.25

Listed, or in the conservation area, and paragraphs 0.8 and 0.9 give real room: full compliance is not required where it would unacceptably alter how the building looks, but you go as far as is reasonably practicable. That is the honest answer on the front room and the cornice, and it is worth putting to Building Control in writing before the plaster comes off.

Living in the house while we work in it

The people who ring us here are professional couples, well-off retirees, and households that sold up in London or Surrey and came south. They expect short clear updates, a tidy site, proper dust barriers and a quotation itemised down to the line. That suits us, because it is how we work anyway.

Practically: fortnightly valuations against work in place, a 5% deposit as standard, 5% retention at practical completion, and a couple of hundred quotation lines with the exclusions written out. Renovation arguments are always about the thing nobody wrote down. Building control runs as north and south teams on two days' notice, so a phased job is notified phase by phase. See building works and renovations and our quotation process.

All workmanship guaranteed for 24 months from completion. Manufacturer warranties on all materials and installed products passed to you in full — many run to 10 years or more. Structural work is signed off by Building Control and covered by our £2m public liability insurance. We're working towards an insurance-backed guarantee scheme and will offer it as soon as we're eligible.

Got a long list? Arrange a free site visit and we will price it rather than guess. Company No. 16870716, £2m public liability and employers' liability.