Fulham House Renovation
Van Peake renovates houses in Fulham, SW6, from a single kitchen or bathroom at around £40,000 through to a full back-to-brick renovation of a Victorian terrace at £160,000 to £420,000. Most full renovations in Fulham land between £180,000 and £300,000 before an extension or loft is added. The borough is Hammersmith & Fulham, and while most internal work needs no planning permission, Fulham’s conservation areas carry Article 4 directions that bring windows, doors and roofs under control, which matters on a period house. What follows is what each level of renovation costs and includes, when the council needs to be involved, and how long the work takes.
The photographs are from period renovations we have completed close to Fulham, in Kensington, Notting Hill and Battersea, on houses of the same age and construction as Fulham’s terraces.
WHAT A HOUSE RENOVATION COSTS IN FULHAM
The figures published for renovating a house in Fulham describe three different jobs, and most guides do not say which one they mean. A directory average of £8,000 is a decorated room. A “whole home” estimate of £30,000 is a kitchen refit. Neither renovates a house.
A single room or a refresh, £40,000 to £60,000. One kitchen or one bathroom taken back to the walls and rebuilt with new services, or decoration, flooring and joinery across a house that is otherwise sound. A kitchen renovation in Fulham starts at around £45,000 with made-to-measure cabinetry.
A partial renovation, £75,000 to £150,000. New kitchen and bathrooms, a full rewire and replumb, new heating, plastering and decoration throughout, with the layout left as it is. This is the most common job on a Fulham terrace that was last done in the 1990s.
A full renovation, £160,000 to £420,000. Back to brick. Structural work to open up the ground floor, every service renewed, damp treated, new kitchen and bathrooms, bespoke joinery and decoration. A three-bedroom Fulham terrace is 108 to 141 square metres, and a full renovation runs at £1,500 to £3,000 per square metre depending on finish, which is where that range comes from.
- Side return or rear extension: £45,000 to £130,000 for the shell.
- Loft conversion: £45,000 to £75,000.
- Basement: from £150,000, and always with planning permission in this borough.
- Professional fees, party wall and building control: £8,000 to £20,000 on a full renovation.
- Contingency: 10 to 15 per cent, and the higher figure on anything untouched since the 1980s.
So is £50,000 enough to renovate a house in Fulham? It is enough for one kitchen and one bathroom done properly, or a light refresh across the house. It is not enough for a full renovation, and stretching it to one is how the services end up left alone under new finishes.
The most expensive part of a Fulham renovation is the part nobody sees. Structural work and services, meaning steels, rewiring, replumbing and damp, come first and cannot be phased. The kitchen and bathrooms are second, because plumbing, electrics, waterproofing, tiling and joinery all have to come together in one room.
RENOVATION OR REFURBISHMENT In Fulham
The two words are used interchangeably in Fulham and mean different jobs. A house refurbishment is finishes and rooms: kitchens, bathrooms, decoration, flooring. A house renovation goes into the structure, services and layout. Most Fulham terraces that come to us want the second described as the first, because the visible problem is a tired kitchen and the actual problem is forty-year-old wiring behind it. The price levels above are the honest way to tell them apart.
RENOVATING FULHAM’S HOUSES
Victorian terraces make up most of SW6, from the red-brick Lion houses of the Peterborough Estate to the terraces off Munster Road and Dawes Road. On a full renovation the list is usually the same: rewire and replumb, damp at the front bay, open the back into one room, and often a loft above. The plot is narrow and the only access to the rear is through the house, which shapes how the work is sequenced.
Larger Victorian houses and semis off Fulham Palace Road and around Bishops Park have the width for a side extension to be built as part of the renovation rather than after it, which is cheaper than two separate programmes.
Mansion flats and period conversions around Queen’s Club Gardens and Parsons Green bring freeholder consent, working-hour restrictions and protection of communal areas into the plan, and we deal with those before the first day on site.
PLANNING PERMISSION FOR A HOUSE RENOVATION IN FULHAM
Internal renovation needs building regulations approval, not planning permission. Where the council comes in is the outside of the house and anything that adds space.
Conservation areas and Article 4. Parsons Green, Walham Green, Hurlingham, Bishops Park, Moore Park, Sands End, Fulham Park Gardens and Central Fulham are all conservation areas, and Hammersmith & Fulham has made Article 4 directions on many of their streets. Where one applies, replacing windows and doors, altering the roof, rendering or painting brickwork, and changing the front boundary all need a planning application. New sash windows are the item that catches most Fulham renovations. Check the address on the council’s planning constraints map before the windows are ordered.
Extensions and lofts within the renovation. Outside a conservation area a single-storey rear extension of up to three metres is permitted development, and up to six through prior approval. Inside one, side extensions and two-storey work need a full application. Our house extension page covers the detail.
Basements. Every basement in Hammersmith & Fulham has needed planning permission since April 2018. The council allows one storey, within half the depth of the garden, with a construction method statement on every application.
A householder application costs £548 and the council works to an eight-week target. Nearly every Fulham house shares two party walls, so notices go out two months before any structural work starts.
HOW LONG A HOUSE RENOVATION TAKES IN FULHAM
A full renovation is seven to eight months on site. A partial renovation is three to five, and a single kitchen or bathroom four to eight weeks. Add eight weeks for a planning application where one is needed, and an 8 to 14 week lead time on made-to-measure cabinetry, which only overlaps with the build if the kitchen is designed while the strip-out is under way.
On a full renovation, move out. Living through a rewire, a replumb and open floors slows the work and costs more than the rent saved. A partial renovation can usually be phased around a family.
PERIOD RENOVATIONS WE HAVE COMPLETED NEAR FULHAM
Kensington. A period house on Cromwell Road, renovated throughout to a specification that had to satisfy the Royal Borough as well as the owners.
Notting Hill. A four-storey house with a new kitchen and dining level at lower ground floor, a floating glass staircase and a roof terrace, with the original cornicing and marble fireplaces kept on the upper floors.
Battersea. A kitchen renovation on Hafer Road, across the river from Fulham, with bespoke panelled joinery built by our own joiners.
Clapham. A house renovation with a bespoke mezzanine study and hidden doors.
HOW WE WORK
On a Fulham terrace the money that matters is spent before the plaster goes on. Van Peake sequences a renovation in that order: structure, services and damp first, then the rooms, with the kitchen, bathrooms and joinery designed by the same team that is doing the building, so the finishes fit the house rather than being fitted into it afterwards.
We work with a trusted team of professional trades, many of whom have been on our projects for years, and James Peake is on the project from the first visit to handover. We take on residential projects across London, and our house renovation page covers how we approach them.
COMMON QUESTIONS
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO RENOVATE A HOUSE IN FULHAM?
A full back-to-brick renovation of a Fulham terrace costs £160,000 to £420,000, with most landing between £180,000 and £300,000. A partial renovation with new kitchen, bathrooms and services but no structural work runs £75,000 to £150,000. A single kitchen or bathroom starts at around £40,000.
IS £50,000 ENOUGH TO RENOVATE A HOUSE IN FULHAM?
For one kitchen and one bathroom, or a light refresh of a house that is already sound, yes. For a full renovation, no. The services alone on a Fulham terrace, meaning rewire, replumb and heating, take a large part of £50,000 before a single finish is chosen.
IS £20,000 ENOUGH TO RENOVATE A HOUSE IN FULHAM?
No. £20,000 in Fulham is one bathroom, or decoration and flooring across a house that needs nothing else. It will not cover a kitchen with made-to-measure cabinetry, and it does not touch the wiring, plumbing or heating that a house renovation exists to replace. If £20,000 is the budget, spend it on the survey and drawings and phase the work, rather than on finishes over services that will need ripping out later.
WHAT IS THE MOST EXPENSIVE PART OF A HOUSE RENOVATION?
The structural work and services: steels, rewiring, replumbing and damp treatment. They come first, cannot be phased, and are invisible when finished. The kitchen and bathrooms are the next largest cost because so many trades meet in one room.
DO I NEED PLANNING PERMISSION TO RENOVATE A HOUSE IN FULHAM?
Not for internal work, which needs building regulations approval instead. You do need it for a basement anywhere in Hammersmith & Fulham, for most extensions inside a conservation area, and on Article 4 streets for replacing windows or altering the front of the house.
DO YOU WORK IN FULHAM?
Yes. Fulham is well inside the area we cover, and the practical limit is the site rather than the postcode. The photographs on this page are from period renovations in Kensington, Notting Hill and Battersea, all within three miles of Fulham.
START YOUR PROJECT
We take on residential projects of all sizes across London, from a single room to a full house renovation. Whether you are still working out what is possible or you know exactly what you want, please get in touch and we would be more than happy to talk it through with you.
Call 020 3503 1158 or email hello@vanpeake.co.uk
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