House Renovations in Olney
Georgian stone and brick that has to be renovated the right way round, or it fights back.
Five star
Google reviews
£5m
Public liability
10+
Years’ trade experience
Family run
Milton Keynes based
An Olney renovation is a period property job first and a building job second. The limestone and soft brick houses along the High Street, the Market Place and the lanes off them were built with lime, they move a little with the seasons, and they have stayed standing for two or three centuries because they breathe. Renovate them with the wrong materials, hard cement, gypsum plaster, plastic paint, and within a few years the walls are damp and the stone is spalling.
So our approach in Olney is slower and more careful than on a seventies house in the grid. Lime where lime was, breathable insulation where any is added, ventilated floors kept ventilated, and a strong preference for keeping what is original. The stone doorway repair in our project photographs is a small example of the same attitude: the failed opening propped, a new oak lintel cut in and the stone rebuilt so it reads as though it had always been that way.
Typical works can include
Every project in Olney is different. Depending on the agreed scope, works may include:
- Strip out, waste removal and site protection
- Structural alterations, knock throughs and chimney breast removal
- New stud partitions, cloakrooms and internal reconfiguration
- Full or partial rewire and new consumer unit by a qualified electrician
- New pipework, soil and waste runs, heating and radiators
- Insulation upgrades where walls and lofts are open
The full list, and how we run the job, is on the main full house renovations page.
Listed buildings and the conservation area
A good number of Olney houses are listed, and on a listed building the consent covers the inside as well as the outside. Removing a partition, altering a staircase, replacing windows, taking up a floor: all of it can need listed building consent, and it is a separate consent from planning permission. We will say plainly on a listed house that you want a conservation accredited architect from the start, and we are happy to build to their drawings and to work with the conservation team at Milton Keynes City Council.
Unlisted houses in the conservation area have more freedom inside and less outside, so a full internal refurbishment usually goes ahead without an application while a new window to the street may need one. The newer estates behind the historic core are ordinary cavity housing, and a renovation there is a much simpler matter of strip out, services, kitchen, bathrooms and finish. General local guidance throughout, confirmed for the particular property.
CB Builders came out today after a last minute plea following a DIY mistake we had made. They were obliging, responsive, tidy and fairly priced. Thanks again for coming to our rescue!!
Full house renovations we have built
Our own photographs, some mid build, because that is where you can see how a job was put together. More on the projects page.
Questions from Olney
Do you use lime plaster on Olney houses?
On the solid stone and brick walls, yes, or a modern breathable equivalent where the wall can take it. Gypsum plaster and cement render trap moisture in a solid wall and are the usual cause of damp problems in Olney houses that were dry for two hundred years. It is slower and it costs more. It is also what these buildings need.
Can you do a full renovation on a listed house in Olney?
Yes, with listed building consent for the work that needs it and an architect who understands the building on the drawings. It takes longer to get to site, and we would rather tell you that at the start than promise a programme the consents will not allow. Once on site the work is careful, breathable and matched to what is there.
How long will the work take?
It depends on the job, and anyone who gives you a number without seeing the house is guessing. As a rough guide: a bathroom is two to three weeks, a kitchen refit two to four, a single storey rear extension is usually ten to fourteen weeks from breaking ground, and a full house renovation runs three to six months depending on scale.
Weather, Building Control inspections and lead times on windows, doors and kitchens all move those numbers. We build realistic float into the programme rather than promising a date we cannot hold.
Can we stay in the house while you work?
Usually yes, and most of our customers do. On an extension you can live fairly normally right up until we break through into the existing house, which we leave as late as possible for that reason.
On a full renovation it is harder but still workable. We go room by room, keep a working kitchen and bathroom going as long as possible, sheet up properly and clean down at the end of each day.
Other work we do in Olney
Full house renovations nearby
Also covering Emberton Lavendon Sherington Weston Underwood Clifton Reynes Ravenstone
Planning full house renovations in Olney?
Send a few photographs and tell us what you have in mind. We will come and look, and the written quotation costs nothing.