Rustington's houses have been looked after, and they are getting old
At the 2011 census, 36.8 per cent of Rustington residents were 65 or over, against 16 per cent across England, and in the census area covering East Preston and Rustington East the figure in 2021 was more than half. Nearly two-thirds of homes there were owned outright. Houses that have been owned by one careful person for thirty years are usually clean, sound and decorated, and their wiring, heating, windows, roof and drains are often as old as the purchase. When they are sold, or when their owners decide to make them work for another twenty years, they need renovating.
The village's housing falls into a few clear groups: the flint cottages around The Street, the 1920s and 30s houses on the Sea Estate and elsewhere, the 1950s and 60s bungalows and houses, and the newer homes of the late 1990s and 2000s. Each renovates differently.
Flint cottages in The Street
Rustington's conservation area runs from the south end of North Lane to The Lamb in The Street and holds the village's oldest houses: Sussex flint cottages of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, some of them thatched, in an area with fourteen listed buildings. They were built with lime and they need lime: lime mortar for repointing flint, lime plaster on solid walls, breathable paints, and no cement render or waterproof coatings that trap damp in the wall. Inside a listed cottage, renovation work that affects its character needs listed building consent. We would rather spend a day getting the consent right than a year putting a mistake back.
1920s and 30s houses: nearly a hundred years old
The Sea Estate was built in the 1920s and 30s on land that had been meadow and cornfield. Houses of that age are now approaching their centenary. Typical renovation work is a new roof covering with felt and battens, replacement of failed lintels and window frames, a rewire, a modern heating system and insulation where it can go without spoiling the house. The estate's residents' association expects building work on weekdays only and skips kept on drives, and we plan around that.
Post-war bungalows: everything at once
A 1950s or 60s Rustington bungalow that has never been fully modernised usually needs the same list: consumer unit and rewire, boiler and radiators, loft insulation, windows and doors, a kitchen, and a bathroom that is easier to use than the one it has. Done together it is cheaper than done in turns, because the walls and ceilings are opened and made good once. Many owners also take the chance to make the house fit for the long term: a level shower, a wider doorway, a step taken out at the back door.
Drains and the roads that have flooded
Overstrand Avenue flooded in March 2020 after heavy rain; Southern Water said its sewers there were vulnerable and raised the manhole covers. Residents surveyed for the neighbourhood plan named Station Road and the seafront ends of Sea Lane and Broadmark Lane as places where surface water collects. If you are on one of those roads, a renovation is the time to deal with it from your side: a CCTV survey of the drain, a non-return valve where the house connects, gullies that sit below the floor rather than level with it, and a ground floor that recovers from a soaking.
Structures of Character
Besides its thirty-eight listed buildings, Rustington recorded thirty-five locally valued Structures of Character in the neighbourhood plan's 2013 survey of the parish. They are not listed, so the rules are lighter, but changes that spoil them are weighed by the planners when an application is needed. Knightscroft, the Norman Shaw house on Sea Lane where Sir Hubert Parry lived from 1880 until 1918, is Grade II* and in a class of its own.
How we price and run a renovation
A whole-house refurbishment sits at £42,000 to £90,000 and upwards on our price guide, including VAT. A bungalow is usually toward the lower half; a cottage with a listed interior is not. You get a written programme, a quotation itemised past two hundred lines, fortnightly valuations, and James on the phone throughout. Our written-up projects are in Chichester, Bognor Regis and Guildford; previous projects shows them, with costs where we can publish them.
The wider service is building works and renovations; next door is renovations in Littlehampton. More space is under house extensions in Rustington, and the village is on builders in Rustington.
Walk James round with your list, and every item comes back priced, in the order we would do it. Ring 07470 078236. £2m public liability, employers' liability and two years' guarantee on the workmanship.