Full Renovation & Rear Extension – Bow
A Victorian mid-terrace rebuilt from the ground down — one continuous concrete plane from the kitchen out to a re-levelled garden.
The rear outrigger was small and structurally tired, the kitchen was a dark room at the back of the house, and the garden sat two levels above the floor you looked at it from.
Ellesmere Road is a Victorian mid-terrace in Bow with the problems that go with the type. Upstairs the layout worked, but the fabric did not: lath and plaster ceilings, single-glazed sash windows, damp to the ground floor walls and no meaningful insulation anywhere.
The brief was to demolish the existing outrigger and rebuild it larger with a side extension, re-level and landscape the garden, and refurbish the entire house behind it. We were appointed as Principal Contractor under a JCT Minor Works Building Contract with a Contractor’s Designed Portion covering M&E and below-ground drainage — meaning we carried design responsibility for the services and drainage strategy, not just the build.
This is a house designed around finishes that hide nothing. Shadow gap beads at the base of every wall in place of skirting. Trimless fire-rated downlights that must be set out and first-fixed before the ceilings are boarded. Large-format tiled worktops and splashbacks. A polished concrete floor running from the kitchen out to the garden steps as a single continuous plane. Every one of those details punishes tolerance — a shadow gap shows a wall that is not plumb, a trimless downlight shows a ceiling that is not flat.
Demolition added a second constraint. On a terraced site in a residential street, taking down the outrigger, the ground floor end wall and the failing retaining wall is entirely a question of method: agreed method statements, our own temporary works design, and keeping neighbouring properties and the public protected throughout.
None of that forgives a wall that is out by a few millimetres.
The work that mattered largely happened before anything visible was installed — in the framing, the boarding, the screeds and the setting out. Sequencing was planned around it: services first fix, then substrate, then a hold point to check line and level, then finishes.
A new frame of steel beams and columns carries the opened-up ground floor, with a second beam at the hall removing the wall nib between hall and kitchen. Three separate roof build-ups cover the new and existing structure, with two bespoke rooflights — one frosted — bringing daylight deep into the plan and down onto the landing. Because planning required the new brickwork to match the bond of the original, we built a sample panel on site for sign-off before any superstructure work started, settling the approval up front rather than at inspection stage.
- Demolished the existing outrigger and retaining wall, retaining and cleaning the original stock brick for reuse
- New structural steel frame, opening the ground floor into a single kitchen–living–dining space
- Built the new outrigger and side extension in a brick bond matched to the original
- Excavated and re-levelled the garden with new retaining walls and a poured, polished concrete slab and steps
- Underfloor heating throughout, whole-house MVHR with ductwork to every room, new boiler, full rewire
- Interlinked heat and smoke detection, carbon monoxide detection, structured data cabling
- New drainage runs, a new inspection chamber, a recessed manhole cover cast into the garden slab and threshold drainage channels
- Refurbished the whole house: two bathrooms, master bedroom, guest bedroom, study, landing and hall
- New staircase with treads and risers cut from the same engineered oak as the first floor
- Bespoke joinery: kitchen and wall units, wardrobes, two vanity units, fitted desk and shelving, weathered steel garden planters
The ground floor is now a single kitchen, living and dining space opening straight onto a level garden through full-width sliding doors. Daylight comes in from the rear elevation and down through two rooflights. The floors are warm underfoot and the air is mechanically ventilated and recovered.
Variations across the job — damp proofing to the ground floor walls, a lath and plaster ceiling stripped out and rebuilt with acoustic insulation, a full staircase renewal, a lighting layout change after first fix, and an upgrade to triple-glazed sliding doors — were each priced, dated and approved in writing before the work started, and carried through the interim valuation process. There were no surprises at final account.
Full flat refurbishment