House Renovations in Towcester
Georgian brick on Watling Street, ironstone in the villages, and a full renovation that has to respect both.
A whole house renovation in Towcester is one of two jobs. In the town it is a Georgian or Victorian brick house on or near Watling Street, in the conservation area, with a long plot behind it and a layout that has been altered many times. In the villages, Greens Norton, Silverstone, Abthorpe, Blakesley, it is an ironstone cottage with thick walls, low ceilings and a history of being patched with whatever was to hand.
Both need the same approach: open up early, find out what is really there, and put it back together with materials the building can live with. We have done exactly that kind of careful stone work, and the doorway repair in our project photographs, a failed stone opening propped, a new oak lintel and the stone rebuilt around it, is a fair picture of how we treat the villages here.
Five star
Google reviews
£5m
Public liability
10+
Years’ trade experience
Family run
Milton Keynes based
Stone cottages and the consents that come with them
Ironstone is soft, warm and easily damaged by the wrong mortar. A cottage renovation here means lime pointing and lime or breathable plaster inside, timber lintels replaced in oak where they have gone, and the floors, often laid straight on the ground, dealt with honestly rather than sealed up. Insulation can be added, but it has to be the breathable kind on solid walls or the cottage will be damp within a couple of winters. Several of the villages are conservation areas and a good number of cottages are listed, so listed building consent for internal changes and a conservation architect are part of the picture.
The Georgian houses in the town are more forgiving and the new housing at Towcester Vale and Wood Burcote is straightforward. West Northamptonshire Council is the planning and building control authority for all of it. General local guidance, and where a particular property sits against the rules is confirmed before anything is committed.
Typical works can include
Every project in Towcester 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
- Replastering, skimming and dry lining
The full list, and how we run the job, is on the main full house renovations page.
Questions from Towcester
Can you renovate a listed ironstone cottage near Towcester?
Yes, with listed building consent for the work that needs it, which on a listed cottage includes a lot of internal work, and with an architect who knows the building on the drawings. The work itself is careful, breathable and matched to the stone. It takes longer than a modern house and the finished result is something no new build can offer.
Is Towcester within your area for a job lasting months?
Yes. Towcester is twenty minutes up the A5 and we work there regularly. For a full renovation the team is on site all day for weeks at a time, so the distance from Milton Keynes makes very little difference to the cost or the programme.
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.
We recently had our small garden transformed by CB Builders. Paving, natural turf, flower beds and pergola. We couldn’t be happier with the results.
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.
Other work we do in Towcester
Full house renovations nearby
Also covering Wood Burcote Greens Norton Silverstone Deanshanger Cosgrove Roade
Planning full house renovations in Towcester?
Send a few photographs and tell us what you have in mind. We will come and look, and the written quotation costs nothing.