Renovations & Refurbishments in Northampton, priced in writing before anything starts.
Renovating in the older parts of Northampton means working on buildings that were designed around work rather than around comfort.
The terraces of the boot and shoe streets were built quickly, tightly and to a pattern, with solid walls rather than cavities and floor structures sized for the loads of the day. They are honest buildings and they have lasted well, but nothing about them was generous, and the alterations made to them over a century and a half were mostly made cheaply.
That is the recurring finding here. Openings formed without adequate lintels, chimney breasts removed downstairs with the stack above left sitting on very little, and floors patched where a previous trade needed a route. None of it is unusual and none of it is a reason to walk away, but it is a strong reason to open up and look before committing to a layout rather than after the ceilings are down.
Solid walls bring the usual conversation. Almost every energy improvement suggested for them has a moisture consequence if it is done without thought, and internal insulation in particular changes where the dew point sits inside the wall. We explain that once, at the start, rather than dealing with mould two winters later.
Where a property includes former industrial fabric, a workshop range, a loading door, a yard wall, the conservation area may be protecting exactly those features. Structural alterations are inspected under the Building Regulations and we arrange and meet those inspections through to sign off. More on our renovation and refurbishment page.
Four things we commit to on every job, rather than four things we say about ourselves.
Permitted development is not an exemption from Building Regulations. We arrange the West Northamptonshire Council inspections, meet the inspector on site at each stage and see the work through to sign off. We do not make the application itself, and we will tell you what is needed and when.
Free, and you get it before you commit to us. Party walls and skip licences are raised at quotation stage, not three weeks into the dig.
The same people do the groundworks, the brickwork and the fit out. Nobody hands your job to a subcontractor you have never met.
You get a straight answer rather than a padded price. It costs us a job occasionally and saves you a great deal more.
Process, specification and what moves the price are set out on our renovations & refurbishments page.
The answers that genuinely differ from one Northampton street to the next.
A full strip out generates more waste than any other job. In the terraced streets that means a skip on the carriageway licensed by the council, or a rear entry if the plot has one, and we establish which before the first room comes down.
Where the property is in a conservation area we photograph and record before anything is removed. It costs a few minutes and settles later questions about what was original, which on industrial fabric come up more than people expect.
Asbestos is worth naming on this stock. Anything refitted between the 1950s and the early 1980s may contain it, most often in textured ceiling coatings and in cement sheet in outbuildings. We do not disturb suspect material, we get it identified, and where it needs removing that is a licensed job.
Part of our wider building work in Northampton.
Send photographs and a rough brief, or call and talk it through. We will tell you if a job is not right for us.
Southfield Construction (Rugby) Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company 14209138.
