Renovations & Refurbishments in Burbage, priced in writing before anything starts.
Renovating in the old part of Burbage means working on buildings whose front elevation is public property in every sense but the legal one.
With the house standing directly on the footpath, the frontage is seen at arm’s length by everybody who walks past, and it is the thing the conservation area designation is most concerned with. Windows, doors, render, paint and pointing on a street facing elevation are all worth checking before they are changed, because on a continuous terrace one unsympathetic alteration is visible from a hundred yards in either direction.
Behind the frontage there is far more freedom, and that is where most of what people actually want sits: better layouts, better insulation, a rebuilt kitchen or bathroom.
The fabric itself brings the usual older building considerations. Solid walls rather than cavities, which means insulation has a moisture consequence if it is done without thought. Lime rather than cement, because a hard mortar in a soft wall pushes the damage into the brick. And a habit of opening up before committing to a layout, because in a building that has been altered repeatedly the wall you want to move may be doing more than it looks.
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 Hinckley & Bosworth Borough 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 Burbage street to the next.
A strip out generates more waste than any other job, and in the core there is nowhere to put a skip except the carriageway, under a county licence. Bagged removal through the front door onto a public footway is the alternative and it needs the pavement kept clear, so we phase it rather than filling the street.
We photograph a street facing elevation before anything is disturbed. On a continuous terrace it is the quickest way to settle later questions about what was original, and it costs nothing.
One more thing about working in a continuous terrace. Noise and dust travel through a shared wall far better than anybody wants them to, so we keep breaking and cutting to sensible hours and we tell the neighbours either side before we start rather than after they complain. It costs nothing and it is the difference between a street that tolerates a six week job and one that does not.
Part of our wider building work in Burbage.
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.
