Renovations & Refurbishments in Corby, priced in writing before anything starts.
Renovating in Corby means understanding post-war construction properly, and that is a genuine specialism rather than a lesser version of working on old buildings.
The first question is always what the house is actually built of. Between the 1950s and the 1970s a great many house types were built using systems other than brick and block, some concrete framed, some panel based, some with steel components. Most are perfectly sound and have decades of life left. A few types have known issues that need identifying rather than discovering. Either way, the structural rules for altering them are not the rules for a traditional cavity wall, and anybody who starts cutting without knowing which they have is guessing.
The second is asbestos, and on housing of this era it is a real consideration rather than a box tick. Textured ceiling coatings, cement sheet in garages and outbuildings, boiler flues and some floor tiles can all contain it. Undisturbed and sealed it is not dangerous. Put a multi tool through it and it is. We do not disturb suspect material, we have it identified, and where removal is needed that is a licensed job rather than one for a general builder with a dust mask.
The third is insulation, which is where most of the value sits on this stock. Post-war cavity construction responds well to being improved, and unlike a solid walled Victorian house the moisture risks are more predictable.
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 North 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 Corby street to the next.
Where a house is one of the non-traditional types we will tell you plainly, including when the honest answer is that a structural engineer needs to look at it before we quote. That costs a little at the start and it is considerably cheaper than finding out with a wall open.
A full strip out generates more waste than any other job, and on a Corby plot the skip usually stands on your own drive, which removes both the licence and the fee.
Where an original garage or outbuilding is coming down we treat any cement sheet in it as suspect until it has been checked, rather than putting it in a skip and hoping.
Part of our wider building work in Corby.
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.
