Renovations & Refurbishments in Warwick, priced in writing before anything starts.
Renovating an older Warwick building means accepting that the elevation is not a reliable guide to what is behind it.
The 1694 fire destroyed a great many timber framed buildings, but not all of them, and the rebuilding that followed refronted plenty that survived. The Lord Leycester Hospital and its neighbours came through because the wind was from the west, and timber framing persists elsewhere in pockets. So a handsome early eighteenth century front can sit in front of something considerably older, and the first time anybody finds out is when a wall is opened.
That changes how we work. We open up and look before committing to a layout, because a partition in a building of this age may be a later stud wall doing nothing or part of a frame carrying the floor above. Revising a drawing at that point is cheap. Revising it with the ceiling down is not.
Materials matter here more than in most towns. Buildings of this age were built to breathe, with lime mortars and lime plasters. Repointing in cement or skimming in gypsum traps moisture in a wall that needs to lose it, and the damage shows up in the masonry rather than on the surface. We match materials rather than covering problems.
If the building is listed, internal work needs consent too, including things people assume are theirs to decide. 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 Warwick street to the next.
A full strip out generates more waste than any other job, and in central Warwick that means a skip on the carriageway under a county licence five working days ahead, or bagged removal through the building. On a narrow frontage the second is often the only realistic option.
Where a building is listed or in the conservation area we photograph and record before anything is removed. It costs an hour and it is the difference between a straightforward conversation with the council and a very difficult one.
Paint on historic joinery is worth thinking about rather than defaulting to whatever is in the van. Modern acrylic systems seal timber that was designed to breathe, and on old windows that traps moisture in the joints and rots them from inside. A breathable system costs a little more and adds years to the life of the window.
Part of our wider building work in Warwick.
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.
