Builders in Christchurch
Brickwork, extensions, plaster and render, roofs, drives, insulation and kitchens, from the old town and Purewell out to Somerford, Burton and Mudeford. Seen for free, priced in writing.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Last updated
Yes, we take on building work in Christchurch: brickwork and repointing, extensions, plastering and render, roofs, driveways and patios, insulation and kitchens. Our base is in Boscombe, along the coast to the west. Thomas Hannen visits for free and gives you a free written quote with each part priced separately.
Often it starts with one thing that has gone wrong. A garden wall near the Priory is bulging and the mortar rubs out with a finger. Damp has crept up the inside of a solid wall in an old terrace. The flat roof over a garage on one of the later estates keeps ponding. Or you like where you live and want more from the house: a kitchen that reaches into the garden, a front garden turned into parking, or a cold back bedroom that finally stays warm.
Christchurch has a lot of flats. If yours is one, the walls and roof usually belong to the freeholder, who has to order and pay for the work, so tell us who manages the building when you ring. Whatever the job, you get one person who looks at all of it, tells you what has to happen first, and puts the price on paper before a tool comes out of the van.
The trades
What we build and mend in Christchurch
Each trade has its own Christchurch page. Here is the short version, with one thing worth knowing for houses here.
Brick walls, repointing and stonework
Boundary walls and piers rebuilt, cracked arches and lintels repaired, wall ties replaced, bricks matched, and stone walling. Houses built before the First World War around the old town and Purewell are soft brick in lime mortar. Point those in lime again. A strong cement joint is harder than the brick, so the brick takes the frost damage instead of the joint. The later estates that make up much of the town were laid in cement, and cement suits them. The ground here is clay that shrinks in dry summers, so if a wall has cracked, we look at drains, downpipes and nearby trees before we rebuild it. See brickwork in Christchurch and repointing in Christchurch.
Extensions on the back and side
We do the building: footings, floor and walls, the steel or lintels where the old wall opens up, the roof, then insulation and plaster. You arrange the drawings, the engineer's calculations and the building control application, or the quote names who will. On clay, the building control inspector checks the trench before the concrete goes in, and roots or soft spots can mean digging deeper. Keep the new roof's rainwater well away from the new footings, as Approved Document H expects. More on house extensions.
Plaster inside, render outside
Skimming walls and ceilings, plastering over artex, dry lining, and lime plaster for the solid walls of the older terraces, which need to breathe. Outside we apply sand and cement, monocouche and silicone render, and patch pebbledash so the repair blends in. The south-west face of a house takes the wind-driven rain, and that is where render fails first. If it has come away from the wall, it needs cutting back to sound render, not filling. See plastering in Christchurch and rendering in Christchurch.
Roofs, gutters and chimneys
Repairs and complete re-roofs in slate, clay tile and concrete tile, mortar or dry-fix ridges and verges, lead flashings, chimney work, rooflights, and fascias, soffits and guttering. Flat roofs over garages, porches and back additions are re-covered in EPDM, GRP or felt. Towards Mudeford and the seafront the salt air eats cheap nails and clips, so ask what the fixings are made of. See roofing in Christchurch, roof repairs, flat roofs and fascias and guttering.
Drives, paths and patios
Block paving, resin bound and tarmac drives, a sunken or puddled drive put right, channel drains and soakaways, and porcelain patios. Clay drains slowly, so a soakaway is tested before anyone relies on it. If it fails, the water needs another way out. Paving more than five square metres of front garden with a surface that does not drain needs planning permission, and the dropped kerb is its own application to BCP Council. See driveways in Christchurch, patios in Christchurch, block paving, resin and tarmac.
Insulation
Lofts brought up to depth, cavities filled where the wall and the exposure allow it, insulation on the inside of solid walls, room-in-roof work and warm flat roofs. On a solid wall the board has to deal with moisture, or damp gathers behind it. If the roof is coming off anyway, insulate it then. See insulation in Christchurch, loft insulation and wall insulation.
Kitchens
Strip out, walls and floor made good, then units, worktops, sink and appliances fitted, including a kitchen you have bought elsewhere. Gas work is for a Gas Safe registered engineer and new circuits fall under Part P, so your quote shows who is doing each. See kitchen fitting. For shops and blocks of flats we also handle commercial roofing and plastering.
Checks
How to pick a builder in Christchurch
Star ratings on a listings site are a start. These checks go further, and you should run them on us too.
- Search the firm on the Companies House register. It should be active, its registered name should match the one on your quote, and you can see who runs it. You can look us up as company number 15471719.
- Ask for the price in writing, broken down by stage. Citizens Advice gives the same advice. A single figure cannot be compared and does not show what it covers.
- Find out who turns up each morning and who you call if a question comes up mid-job.
- Ask for photos of similar jobs nearby, and read reviews where the builder cannot edit them.
- Get it in writing who deals with building control and with any notice your neighbours need under the Party Wall Act.
- Find out whether the work needs planning permission before you sign anything.
- Pay in stages as parts of the job are finished. Be wary of anyone who wants most of the money up front.
- If you sign at home, you usually have 14 days to cancel. Citizens Advice sets out how.
- In a flat, check whether the freeholder must consult the other leaseholders first under the Landlord and Tenant Act. That adds weeks before work can start.
Cost
What builders charge, and how to compare two quotes
There are two common ways to charge. With a day rate you pay for the hours on site, plus materials. That makes sense when nobody can tell how far a job goes until it is opened, such as chasing a leak through a wall. A fixed price covers an agreed piece of work in full. For a job you can see and measure, that is better for you, because you know the cost before the first day.
So the question to ask is not the hourly rate but what is in the price. The big drivers are access and scaffolding, the materials you pick, how much old work comes out and has to go, how much making good there is afterwards, and what is hiding under a floor or behind plaster. A clear quote lists each stage, flags any provisional sum (money set aside for something that cannot be measured yet, such as how deep a footing goes), and says what it leaves out.
When two quotes look far apart, ask each builder:
- Does the price include scaffolding, and for how many weeks?
- Who pays for the skip or the waste removal?
- Which lines are provisional sums, and how will they change?
- Does it stop at a plastered wall, or include making good and decorating?
- Whose job are the drawings, the calculations and the building control fees?
You can see how we build ours on how we price a job.
Rules
Planning, flooding and paperwork in Christchurch
BCP Council (Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole) decides planning applications in Christchurch and runs building control too. Repairs and like-for-like replacement rarely need an application. Many single storey rear extensions on houses are permitted development, within set limits. Flats have no householder permitted development rights, so outside work on a flat usually needs permission as well as the freeholder's say-so.
The old centre is the Christchurch Central conservation area, and Purewell, Avon Buildings, Stanpit and Fisherman's Bank, Mudeford Quay and Burton have their own. Check your street on the BCP conservation area pages. Inside one, matching what is there counts as repair. A side extension or fresh render needs an application, and a change of material can too. The listed buildings cluster in the centre, Castle Street among them, and need listed building consent for changes inside or out.
Parts of Christchurch beside the Avon, the Stour and the harbour sit in a flood zone, and the zone changes from street to street. Before an extension is drawn, check your address. In a flood zone, a planning application needs a flood risk assessment, and that can raise the floor level and change the doors and the bottom of the walls. Tell us your zone and we price it in from the start.
Building regulations apply either way. Expect inspections at the footings, the drains and the insulation. Replacing most of a roof's covering can bring in Part L insulation rules. Our guide to planning, building regulations and listed building consent explains how the three differ.
The process
From the first visit to the last day
- Thomas Hannen comes to see the job and prices every job himself, so you deal with one person from the visit to the last day.
- The visit costs nothing, and neither does the written quote, which lists each stage and marks anything provisional.
- If we open something up and find a problem nobody could see, such as a rotten lintel or wet timber, we stop, show you photos and price it. It only goes ahead once you say yes.
- The scaffold arrives on the day we give you, and any roof or wall we open is sheeted and secure before we leave each evening.
- Floors and furniture are covered, the site is swept daily, and the rubbish goes away with us.
Where a job needs several trades, the quote runs in the order they happen, so you can see that the walls come before the roof and the plaster after the windows. Scheduled work runs Monday to Friday.
Water coming in, or a wall you are worried about? Ring 07435 839745. If we cannot answer, we ring you back.
Reviews
In customers' words
Two reviews copied exactly as they were posted, one on Google about a roof and one on Checkatrade about a drive and patio.
I am really pleased with our new roof. The team were friendly and professional and kept up good communication with us through the week. We had no issues and I'd definitely recommend to anyone. Thank you!
… The job was quite complex and far from straightforward, but they handled everything with professionalism and skill. … kept us updated throughout the whole process with excellent communication. …
Questions
Questions people in Christchurch ask
What do builders charge per hour in Christchurch?
We do not price by the hour. After a free visit we price the job as a whole and set each stage out on a written quote, so you can hold it up against another builder's line by line. A day rate only suits work whose size cannot be known until it is opened up.
Is my house in a conservation area, and does that change the job?
The old centre is in the Christchurch Central conservation area, and Purewell, Avon Buildings, Stanpit and Fisherman's Bank, Mudeford Quay and Burton each have one. BCP Council's website shows the boundaries. Inside one, a like-for-like repair is fine, but new render or a side extension needs permission, and a change of material can.
I own a flat. Can I book building work myself?
For work inside the flat, yes. The roof and outside walls are normally the freeholder's to order and pay for through the service charge, so we send the itemised quote to the freeholder or managing agent, and it can be shared with the other leaseholders.
We are near the river. Can you still build an extension?
Often, yes. Check the flood zone for your address first. In a flood zone the planning application needs a flood risk assessment, which can set a higher floor level and different materials low down in the walls. Tell us the zone before we price, so the quote covers it.
Do I need drawings before you can quote for an extension?
No. We can look at the house and talk the build through from your sketch or idea. The firm price comes from the approved drawings and the engineer's calculations, which you arrange or which the quote names.
Do you work in Highcliffe, Mudeford and Burton?
Yes. The whole of Christchurch is within our normal area, from the town centre and Purewell to Somerford, Burton, Mudeford, Friars Cliff and Highcliffe. Near the sea, mention it when you ring, because salt air changes the fixings we use.
Nearby, and next door
Christchurch trade pages and other towns
- Freeholders and managing agents: quotes for flats and blocks
- Our recent jobs: photographs of our own work
- How we price a job: what the written quote shows
Our trades in Christchurch
Builders in other towns
Around Christchurch
Roofing and everything else in Christchurch Every area we cover Request a free quote
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Send us photos or book a visit. Thomas looks at the whole job in Christchurch and gives you a free written quote, item by item.