Builders in Lymington

Each trade has its own page. Here is how it plays out on the town's two kinds of house.

Roofing

In the old centre, roofs are natural slate and clay tile, with lead at the chimneys, valleys and parapets. On the post-war roads it is concrete tile, with felt or newer flat roofs over garages, porches and back additions. We repair and re-roof both, fit dry ridges and verges, renew fascias, soffits and gutters, and re-cover flat roofs in EPDM, GRP or felt. In the conservation area, swapping slate or clay for concrete changes the look and can need permission, so price natural material from the start. See roofing in Lymington, roof repairs, flat roofing and fascias and guttering.

Walls, brick and stone

Garden and boundary walls, rebuilt piers, brick matching, stonework, wall-tie replacement and repointing. The old town's soft bricks were laid in lime, which lets the wall dry out through the joints. Cement pointing traps that water in the brick, and frost then breaks the face away. On those walls we rake out and repoint in lime. Post-war houses went up in cement mortar, and cement is what they are repointed in. On clay ground that shrinks and swells, a crack that widens each dry summer is a ground problem first, so find the cause before paying for a rebuild. See brickwork in Lymington and repointing.

Plaster, inside and out

Walls and ceilings skimmed, artex covered over, dry lining, and lime plaster for solid walls that have to breathe. Gypsum on an old damp wall tends to blister and fall away, so lime is the better repair there. Outside, sand and cement render, monocouche, silicone, and pebbledash patched to match. If a render sounds hollow when you tap it, it has come away from the wall, and filling the crack will not hold. See plastering in Lymington and rendering.

Extensions on post-war houses and bungalows

We build the extension itself: footings, walls in brick or block, a steel above the new opening, then the roof, insulation and plaster. You arrange the drawings, the engineer's sums and the building control application, or the quote names who does them. Building control agrees the footing depth once the trench is open, and on this clay, near trees, it can go well past what was drawn. That is why the foundation should appear as a provisional sum. Read more about house extensions.

Drives and patios on clay

We lay block paving, resin bound and tarmac, put right drives that have sunk or hold puddles, sort the drainage and lay porcelain patios. Paving more than a small part of a front garden in a hard surface needs planning permission unless the water soaks in or runs onto your own garden. Clay drains slowly, so a soakaway has to be tested before anyone relies on it. See driveways in Lymington, block paving, resin and patios.

Insulating older and newer houses

Loft insulation, cavity fill, internal wall insulation, room-in-roof and warm roofs. The old town's solid walls have no cavity, and insulating them from inside has to let moisture out, or damp collects behind the boards. A post-war cavity wall is usually a simpler job. A re-roof is the cheapest moment to insulate the roof, while it is open. See insulation in Lymington, loft insulation and wall insulation.

Kitchen fitting

The old kitchen removed, walls and floor made good, then units, worktops, sink and appliances in, including units you have bought yourself. Gas and electrics are outside what we do: a Gas Safe registered engineer makes the gas connection and a registered electrician adds any circuit. See kitchen fitting.

For businesses, we also take on commercial roofing and plastering.

A builder will price your job in one of two ways. A day rate charges for each day on site, with materials added. That is fair for work that cannot be sized until it is uncovered, such as tracing damp in an old wall. A fixed price covers a job that can be described in full, which is most building work, and you know the total before it starts.

So an hourly rate is a poor guide to what you will pay. The cost is driven by access and scaffold, how much comes out and has to be taken away, the materials you pick, how much repair and making good follows, and what is found behind old plaster or under a floor. On a listed or older house, matching materials such as lime, natural slate or reclaimed brick cost more than modern ones. Look for a quote that splits the job into stages, shows a provisional sum for anything not yet measurable, and lists what it leaves out.

Questions to put to any other quote you get:

• How long is the scaffold priced for?
• Are skips and waste removal included?
• Which items are provisional, and how will they be settled?
• What is excluded, such as making good, decoration or fees?
• Who is responsible for drawings, calculations and building control?

Read more on how we price a job.

Lymington, Pennington and Buckland are in New Forest District Council's planning area. Across the river, Walhampton is inside the New Forest National Park, so the National Park Authority decides applications there, under tighter rules on extensions. If you are on the edge of town, check the address on the Park's property map.

The historic centre, including the High Street and the Quay, is the Lymington conservation area. Inside it, permitted development is narrower than elsewhere: rendering or cladding a wall, a side extension and a rear extension of more than one storey all need an application. Felling or lopping most trees in a conservation area needs six weeks' notice to the council, which matters if one stands where an extension would go.

The town has a large number of listed buildings, the Parish Church of St Thomas the Apostle on the High Street among them. If your house is listed, listed building consent covers work inside as well as out, including replacing old lime plaster, and work without consent is an offence.

Some low land beside the river and the marinas is in the higher-risk flood zones. If an extension there needs planning permission, the application comes with a flood risk assessment, and the floor level and choice of materials become part of the design. Check the flood risk for the address before drawings are done.

Building regulations apply in every case. An extension needs building control approval, from the council or a registered approver, and re-covering a large part of a roof can bring in Part L insulation. Work on a shared wall, or digging close to a neighbour's foundations, needs notice under the Party Wall Act.

You can ask for a quote before any of this is settled. At the visit we tell you which rules apply to your house and who deals with each. See how planning, building regulations and listed building consent compare.

• Recent projects: photos of jobs we have done
• How we price a job: what goes on the written quote
• What a roofing quote should include: a line-by-line guide

Roofing and everything else in Lymington Every area we cover Request a free quote