Renovations & Refurbishments in Leamington Spa, priced in writing before anything starts.
Renovation is the trade where Leamington is genuinely different from the rest of Warwickshire, and the reason is stucco.
The spa era terraces and villas are brick faced in a soft lime based render, painted. That construction works by letting moisture move through it and evaporate away. Almost everything done to these buildings in the last seventy years has worked against that: cement render patches, modern masonry paint, sealed joints, impermeable coatings sold as waterproofing. The result is the damp people ring us about. The wall is not letting water in so much as failing to let it out.
Getting it right means matching materials rather than covering the problem: lime based render and breathable paint, patched properly, and cement removed rather than skimmed over. It is more work than a coat of masonry paint and it is the only version that lasts.
Internally these buildings bring lath and plaster, tall sash windows in openings that are rarely square, cornices worth keeping and floors that have moved over two centuries. We open up before committing to a layout, because a partition in a building of this age may be structural, decorative, or the only thing holding a ceiling up.
If the building is listed, internal work needs consent too. If it has been divided into flats, the structure is shared and so are the decisions. Both are worth establishing on day one. There is more about how we phase this work 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 Warwick District 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 Leamington Spa street to the next.
A full strip out generates more waste than any other job, and in the centre of Leamington that means a skip on the carriageway under a county licence, five working days ahead, or bagged removal through the building. On a converted terrace with shared stairs, the second is often the only realistic option and it belongs in the price.
Warwick District Council publishes guidance specifically on painting buildings in the Leamington conservation area, so if the job includes redecorating an elevation, we check the position before the scaffold goes up rather than after the first coat is on.
Cornices, arches and mouldings are what these rooms are for, and they are worth protecting properly during the work.
Part of our wider building work in Leamington Spa.
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.
