Victorian house refurbishment project management in London

The Victorian era architecture is just that, Victorian! It’s quite old now and so while we’re all about celebrating its unique style and grace, we’re also very realistic about the challenges it can bring to bear for new Victorian home owners. That's where our house refurbishment project management service covering London comes in.

What types of issues can cost a lot of money during renovation projects?

Take the experience of one couple of knowledgeable renovators who bought a beautiful old Victorian restoration project set in a large garden on the edge of a pleasant town in Bedfordshire. When digging foundations for an extension, the ground workers found not 1, but three wells. To this couple wells are now code for “money literally down the drain”. These wells required, mid build, a survey and calculations from their building surveyor to ensure that a solution could be found to bridge and fill the wells which would not undermine any building put on top of them. These discoveries resulted in around £10,000 of additional costs in terms of the structural surveyors time, structural beams used to bridge the wells, suitable materials to fill the wells, extra foundations, extra labour costs for the ground workers as well as a delay of several weeks whilst the surveyors proposals were devised, drawn up, considered and approved by the Building Control team. The work was hazardous requiring the ground workers to hand dig a 10 foot deep hole that was too small to be done by a digger, in wet conditions as it had been raining for many week and in sandy soil liable to collapse. It was a challenging couple of weeks but two years on they are philosophical. “You always have to allow for surprises. As long as you have a realistic budget and then a decent amount of contingency funds, not much is insurmountable”.

With our many years of experience, we’ve faced and solved a whole host of house refurbishment project management conundrums. We’d love to share our expertise to help you avoid the potential headaches and support you to create your own heavenly results.

Our own experiences have inspired the Victorian Emporium team to offer house refurbishment project management services in the South East of England. We know the area very well. We have renovated our own homes and advised on the renovating of many period properties in the area.

The help can come in the form of periodic meetings to help with tricky areas within your project and offer expert advice and moral support. Or in the form of a full project management service involving liaison with the architects, the selection of and management of the trades, the purchasing of materials for the best prices and handing you back your project when it is completed.

A recent client has the following to say: “We asked Emma and Simon to come and help us out when we reached a point of being 'renovation weary' and stuck for ideas in some difficult areas of our 1830 home.  They arrived promptly and spent time with us to get an understanding of our original vision for the house.  Ideas were suggested in a relaxed and friendly way and various suggestions put forward to help us work towards our goals.  Emma and Simon came armed with various contact details and lots of ideas from their experience of renovation.  Emma has been happy to help with suggestions and ideas over the phone gives a continued support.”

If you would like to find out more about our house refurbishment project management service covering London and areas of the South East, please email [email protected] or call 01525 750333. You might also find these tips useful when renovating your property.