Get Your Renovation Right

Get The Right Advice
Pick The Right Materials

Don't let the building of your dreams down with nasty windows or mock historical details. Use our advice to create a home you'll be proud to pass on to future generations.

By Sarah Warwick

When you renovate an old building, you're faced with a dauntingly long list of choices. Everything from the door handles to the roof tiles, the taps to the radiators, the staircase to the windows and much, much more can need to be picked out.

As well as the sheer scale of the decision-making, thinking about what would be appropriate to the age of your building can be puzzling. After all, hopefully you'll be creating a home that will be lived in and loved long after you've gone, so you have to consider whether your choices will complement the building many years into the future.

Get The Right Advice

Is Your House Listed?
If your home is listed, the local conservation officer will specify the changes you can make as part of the listed building consent you'll need before you start work. Consult him or her before you apply to find out which materials and fittings this might include as this will give you sound guidance on many of your choices for the renovation, including things like windows, doors, guttering and roofing materials.

Are You In A Conservation Area?

If your renovation isn't a listed building, but it is in a conservation area, your local council will also be able to tell you what you can use if you're renovating windows, doors and other architectural details so your choices don't detract from the area's appearance.

Do You Need Planning Permission?

Your local authority will also be a source of guidance on your choices if you need planning permission for an extension when you renovate. Nowadays local authorities often don't want extensions to look as if they are a part of the original building. Architect George Clarke explains, 'Once, if you added an extension to an old building, it had to look old. Now, that's changed - new additions have to look distinctly modern.

'For example, at the Bath Lodge restoration, which is featured in our first episode of The Restoration Man, the conservation officer insisted that a panel of glass had to separate the old building from the new.'

Be ready to ask your local authority about changes you want to make to the original building, any new extension, and the link between the two to find out all you need to know about materials and styles before you apply for all the necessary permissions. It'll help you draw up your budget more accurately, too.

Bring In The Experts

To help you make choices that you'll be happy to live with for years to come, as well as to leave behind for posterity, bring in a local architect with relevant experience. Visit Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) to find an architect in your area who specialises in buildings of the era of your renovation, or go to the Register of Architects Accredited in Building Conservation, who have been assessed on their knowledge and experience in conservation work.

You'll also be able to get advice on your renovation options from The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB).