What a renovation means in Felpham
Most of the houses we are asked to renovate in Felpham are between fifty and a hundred years old and have had one owner for a long time. The 2021 census found half the homes in the parish owned outright and about three in ten residents aged 65 or over, and the village's own neighbourhood plan noted that around 60 per cent of residents had two or more rooms they hardly used, on 2011 census figures. When those houses change hands, or when the people in them decide to stay and make the house work, the job is a renovation: wiring, heating, plaster, floors, windows, kitchen and bathroom, often all at once.
The three Felpham house types each renovate differently. The 1920s and 30s estate houses on Summerley and the Beach Estate are solidly built and generously proportioned, and the work is mostly bringing services up to date without stripping out the character. The chalet bungalows on Hurstwood and elsewhere have rooms in the roof that were never insulated to a modern standard. And the flint and cob cottages in the old village need a different set of materials altogether.
Old village: flint, cob, lime and patience
The Felpham conservation area, designated in 1985, is built mainly of coursed flint cobbles, with orange and red brick, clay tile, some thatch, render and painted timber. Blake's Cottage, a seventeenth-century cottage of cob, flint and brick under thatch, is the best known building; it went on Historic England's Heritage at Risk register in 2021.
Houses of that construction have solid walls that manage moisture by letting it pass through. Renovate them with cement render, gypsum plaster and impermeable paint and the damp you were trying to cure gets worse. So in the old village we use lime: lime mortar for repointing flint, lime plaster inside, breathable paints, and insulation chosen for its vapour behaviour. It is slower and it costs a little more. It is also the only version that works.
Summerley and the Beach Estate: keep the house, replace the services
The Summerley Estate was laid out from about 1922 and called the chief estate in the parish by 1927. Its roads and verges are owned by the Summerley Estate Management Company, which also looks after the twittens. The Beach Estate had its first houses by 1918 and many by 1927. Renovating a house there usually means a rewire with a new consumer unit, a heating system with a modern boiler or heat pump, insulation where it can be added without spoiling the house, and new kitchen and bathroom. We plan the order so that the second fix of electrics and plumbing happens once, after the plaster has dried, not three times as each trade arrives.
Behind estate gates the logistics are part of the price. We put the delivery windows, the protection of private verges and the skip position into the quotation rather than finding out about them in week one.
Roads that flooded in 2012
When the June 2012 storms hit, 43 Felpham properties were recorded as affected: twelve on Felpham Way, nine on Wedgwood Road, seven on Davenport Road, six on Minton Road and a handful elsewhere. Felpham's neighbourhood plan identifies land either side of Wedgwood Road as at risk from river, sea and surface water, and its Policy ESD5 asks for a site-specific flood risk assessment where development is proposed in a surface-water risk area. A renovation inside the house does not need one. It can still be built to recover faster from a wet floor: tiled or sealed floors instead of laminate, plaster that tolerates water, sockets raised above the old skirting line, and the boiler and consumer unit not at floor level.
Chalets that are cold upstairs
A 1930s chalet bungalow has bedrooms built into the roof, with a sloping ceiling fixed to the rafters and very little between the room and the tiles. Renovating one is an opportunity to insulate those slopes properly. Approved Document L sets the target for a renovated roof element at 0.16 W/m²K, which on a shallow rafter usually means insulation between and under the rafters with a new plasterboard ceiling. The rooms lose a little height. They gain a great deal of comfort.
How we run a Felpham renovation
One person on the phone throughout: James. A written programme before we start. Payment by fortnightly valuation, so you pay for work that is done. A quotation itemised past two hundred lines, so that when you change your mind about a floor finish, the effect on the price is a single line you can see. The bands on our price guide put a whole-house refurbishment at £42,000 to £90,000 and upwards, including VAT, and the plus sign there is real.
The wider service is building works and renovations; the town page is renovations in Bognor Regis. If the renovation includes opening rooms up, see structural work and steel beams; if it includes more space, house extensions in Felpham or loft conversions in Felpham. The village is on builders in Felpham.
Walk James round the house with your list, and every item comes back priced on its own line, with the order we would do them in. Ring 07470 078236. £2m public liability, employers' liability, and a two-year guarantee on the workmanship.