How is renovation done?

Renovation runs in a set sequence: strip out, structural work, first fix, plastering, second fix, then decoration and snagging. Get that order wrong and you pay for it twice, which is why we plan the programme before anyone lifts a crowbar.

Strip out comes first. Old kitchens, bathrooms, floor coverings, sometimes plaster taken back to brick if the walls are blown. This is where a Victorian terrace shows you what it has been hiding: rotten joist ends, dead chimney flues, wiring from three owners ago. We survey before we quote, but some things only appear once the walls are open, so we carry a contingency and flag anything new the day we find it.

Structural work follows (steels in, walls out), then first fix: new wiring, pipework and any ductwork run while walls and floors are still open. Building control inspects at this stage. Then plastering, and the house needs time to dry before anything else happens. Second fix is when it starts looking like a home again. Sockets on, radiators hung, kitchen and bathroom fitted, doors and skirting in.

Decoration comes last, then snagging, the final walk round where we list every scuff and misaligned hinge and put them right before handover. On a typical three-bed refurbishment in somewhere like Sydenham or Lewisham, that whole sequence takes eight to twelve weeks. What it should cost is a separate question, but the short version is we survey first and give a fixed written quote, and the price we quote is the price you pay.