Apartment Refurbishment in London

High-End Apartment Refurbishment in London: Beyond the Surface

Refurbishing a flat in London is a different job from working on a house. There are neighbours above, below and on both sides, access is through shared stairs or a small lift, and a freeholder or managing agent usually has a say before anything starts. The flat might be a room-by-room Victorian conversion, a mansion block from the 1890s or a 1960s concrete-framed block, and each one is built differently.

Most people want the same few things. More usable space out of the same square metres, a layout that suits how they live, and services that work: wiring, heating and plumbing that aren’t thirty or forty years old.

The word flat for a home on one floor comes from the Scots flet, an old word for the floor of a house. Mansion blocks, the big red-brick buildings of flats in Kensington, Marylebone and Battersea, appeared from the 1870s and 1880s, when living in flats was new to middle-class London. Albert Hall Mansions, by Richard Norman Shaw, is usually counted among the first.

Paperwork before any work

Most London flats are leasehold, and most leases say the flat can’t be altered without the landlord’s consent. That consent is the Licence to Alter. It usually needs drawings, a method statement and sometimes a structural engineer’s report, and the freeholder’s surveyor charges for reviewing them. Allow anything from three or four weeks to a few months.

The landlord can’t just say no without a reason. An Act from 1927 still applies:

“In all leases whether made before or after the commencement of this Act containing a covenant condition or agreement against the making of improvements without a licence or consent, such covenant condition or agreement shall be deemed, notwithstanding any express provision to the contrary, to be subject to a proviso that such licence or consent is not to be unreasonably withheld”

Landlord and Tenant Act 1927, section 19(2)

The same subsection lets the landlord charge reasonable costs and ask for reinstatement in some cases. It applies to leases that require consent for alterations. Where a lease flatly forbids certain work, such as structural alterations, the 1927 Act doesn’t help, and the lease has to be read before any drawings are done.

Leases often also set working hours, ban hard floors without a minimum acoustic standard, and say which parts of the building belong to the flat. In many leases the structural walls and the floor slab belong to the freeholder, not the leaseholder.

In a conservation area in Kensington, Westminster or Camden, replacing windows usually needs planning permission too, and in a listed building almost everything does.

Floors, walls and neighbours

The floor between two flats counts under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, not just the walls. The definition is in section 20:

““party structure” means a party wall and also a floor partition or other structure separating buildings or parts of buildings approached solely by separate staircases or separate entrances”

Party Wall etc. Act 1996, section 20

So cutting into the floor joists or the slab to drop in a steel, or chasing a party wall for cables, can need a party structure notice to the flat below or next door. A schedule of condition of the neighbour’s ceilings is worth having before the work starts.

Sound between flats

Noise is the most common complaint in converted London flats. Victorian houses split into flats in the 1970s and 80s often have nothing between floors except the original joists, lath and plaster below and boards above.

The Building Regulations set the standard for new flats and conversions:

“Dwelling-houses, flats and rooms for residential purposes shall be designed and constructed in such a way that they provide reasonable resistance to sound from other parts of the same building and from adjoining buildings.”

Building Regulations 2010, Schedule 1, Part E1

A straight refurbishment of an existing flat isn’t normally caught by Part E. The lease often is, though. Many leases need carpet, or an acoustic underlay to a stated rating, under any hard floor. Taking up carpet and putting down oak or tiles on the old boards is a common cause of disputes with the flat below. With the floor up, mineral wool between the joists, a resilient layer on top and an independent ceiling below make a real difference, and the flooring can then go on top.

What’s usually behind the walls

A few things turn up in most London flats:

• internal walls that look like partitions but carry the floor above, often because a chimney breast or joists were altered years ago;
• old fuse boxes and wiring, sometimes still rubber-insulated, with circuits shared with the communal supply;
• boilers and hot water systems that can’t deliver the flow a modern shower needs;
• water pressure that drops on the top floors of older blocks.

None of these show on a viewing. They’re why the first stage after strip-out is the structure and the services, with new electrics, pipework and any steel, before any plastering.

Getting more space out of the layout

In a 50 square metre flat, every door swing and corridor counts. A long dark hallway can often be opened into the living area, though in a converted house the hallway is sometimes the protected fire escape route, and taking its walls out changes the fire strategy.

Pocket doors that slide into the wall save the floor space a normal door takes to open. A washing machine in a cupboard with an acoustic lining stops it shaking the living room. In period conversions with high ceilings, built-in shelving up to the cornice uses space that’s otherwise wasted.

The kitchen and bathroom go where the drainage allows. The soil stack, the main waste pipe, is fixed, and a toilet needs a steady fall to it. Moving a bathroom across the flat means either raising the floor or using a pumped system, and neither is ideal.

Getting materials in and out

Most London flats have no parking outside. Skips need a council licence and often a bay suspension, which take a week or two to arrange. In mansion blocks the managing agent may want deliveries booked, the lift protected and the common parts cleaned daily. Plasterboard and kitchen units often go up the stairs by hand, and anything longer than about 2.4 metres may not fit the turn of the stairs at all.

The usual order is strip-out, structure, first fix services, plaster, floors, second fix, joinery and decoration. A full refurbishment of a typical two-bedroom flat runs for roughly three to four months on site once the Licence to Alter is in place. More detail on planning one is in flat refurbishment in London, and a finished example in the write-up of a luxury apartment refurbishment in London.

Force Builders carries out apartment refurbishments across London, including Kensington, Knightsbridge, Wimbledon, Richmond, Archway, Finchley, Fulham, Notting Hill, Holland Park and Putney.

Apartment Refurbishment FAQ

Do I really need a ‘Licence to Alter’ for a flat renovation?

For a leasehold flat, usually yes, for anything beyond decoration. Moving walls, changing floors and altering plumbing almost always need the freeholder’s consent, and the lease says what’s covered.

How do you handle deliveries in a busy London street?

Skip licences and bay suspensions come from the council, and deliveries are timed around the building’s rules and the street’s restrictions. Materials go up by lift, by hand or on a hoist.

Will the neighbours be constantly complaining about the noise?

Breaking out walls and drilling concrete is loud. Keeping to the lease and council working hours, telling neighbours when the noisy stages will happen and cleaning common areas daily keep complaints down.

Can I change the layout of my kitchen or bathroom?

Usually, within limits set by the soil stack. Toilets and showers need a fall to the stack, so the further they move, the more floor depth the pipework needs.

How do I know the final price won’t just keep climbing?

An itemised quote after a survey, with provisional items listed separately. Anything found behind a wall should be shown and priced before the extra work is done.