Builders in New Milton

What each trade means on New Milton's houses, and what to decide before you book it.

Roofs, flat roofs and the roofline

The estates are mostly concrete interlocking tile over trussed rafters, with plain tile and some slate on older roads near Old Milton. Garages, porches and the links between houses are usually flat. We repair and re-roof pitched roofs, re-cover flat ones in EPDM, GRP or felt, renew lead, fit dry ridge and verge, and replace fascias, soffits and gutters. Some older concrete tile profiles are no longer made, so ask how a repair will be matched. On the gables that face south-west towards the sea, dry verge holds better than mortar that the wind keeps picking at. See roofing in New Milton, roof repairs, flat roof work and gutters and fascias.

Brickwork, garden walls and wall ties

Garden walls and piers, brick matching, repointing and structural repairs. Almost every house on the estates was laid in a cement mortar, so a cement mix is the right one to repoint it with. Much of the town stands on clay, which dries out and shrinks in a hot summer and takes up water again over the winter. A diagonal crack near a tree or a drain that opens and closes with the seasons is the ground moving, and rebuilding the bricks will not stop it. Cracks running along the horizontal joints of an older cavity wall can mean the steel ties are rusting. That is a wall-tie replacement, not a pointing job. See brickwork in New Milton and repointing.

Plastering and render

We skim walls and ceilings, dry line, plaster out new extensions, and use lime plaster where an older solid wall needs it. Plenty of houses from this period have textured artex ceilings. Artex and similar coatings put up before the turn of the century can contain asbestos, so get a sample tested before the ceiling is sanded, scraped or drilled, or simply skim over it. Outside, we patch pebbledash, re-render in sand and cement, and apply monocouche or silicone render. Silicone resists the green staining a damp seaward wall picks up. See plastering in New Milton and rendering.

Extensions

Our part of an extension is the build itself. We dig and pour the footings, raise the walls in block and brick, set the steel where the new room opens into the old one, then roof it, insulate it and plaster it. The drawings, the structural engineer's figures and the building control application sit with you, or are listed on the quote against whoever is doing them. On New Milton's clay, the building control inspector decides how deep the foundation goes once the trench is dug, and near a tree it can go much deeper. Expect that line on the quote to be a provisional sum. There is more on our house extensions page.

Drives, patios and drainage

Block paving, resin bound and tarmac, sunken drives repaired, and porcelain patios. Paving over more than a small part of a front garden needs planning permission unless the new surface lets water through or drains onto a lawn or border of your own. On clay, a soakaway may not drain at all, so the drainage has to be designed rather than assumed. A new dropped kerb is a separate application to Hampshire County Council, the highway authority, and on an A, B or C road it needs planning permission as well; see dropped kerbs. More on driveways in New Milton, block paving, resin and patios.

Insulation

Loft top-ups, cavity fill, insulation on the inside face of solid walls, room-in-roof and warm flat roofs. Some cavities here were filled years ago, so check before paying again. On a wall facing wind-driven rain, a filled cavity can carry damp across, so its exposure is assessed first (BS 8104 is the method). Re-covering a flat roof is the moment to make it a warm roof. See insulation in New Milton, loft insulation and wall insulation.

Kitchens

We strip out the old kitchen, make good the walls and floor, and fit the units, worktops, sink and appliances, including ones you have bought yourself. Gas and electrical work are not part of our service: a Gas Safe registered engineer makes any gas connection and a registered electrician wires any new circuit. See kitchen fitting.

For a shop, an office or a block of flats, see commercial roofing. We plaster commercial premises too.

Builders price work by the day or by the job. A day rate charges for the time spent on site, with materials on top. It suits work whose size only shows once it is opened up, like tracing where a flat roof is letting water in. A fixed price is for a job that can be written down in full, which covers most building work, and you know the total before the first morning.

That is why an hourly figure tells you so little. Two builders charging the same rate can send very different totals. The real cost sits in the scaffold and access, the amount stripped out and carted away, the finish you choose, the making good afterwards, and whatever appears when a floor is lifted. A quote worth having lists every stage, marks the provisional sums for things nobody can measure yet, and states what it leaves out.

Hold any other quote against these questions:

• Is scaffold priced in, and how long is it allowed for?
• Is a skip, or taking the waste away, included?
• Which figures are provisional, and how will the final sum be worked out?
• Does it cover making good, decorating and council fees?
• Whose job are the drawings, the engineer's calculations and the building control application?

Our page on how we price a job shows what our quotes contain, and there is a guide to what a roofing quote should include.

New Forest District Council decides planning applications for New Milton, Barton on Sea, Ashley and Old Milton. The National Park boundary runs along the north of the town, and an address inside it, out towards Bashley, goes to the New Forest National Park Authority instead, which is stricter about extensions. The Park's property map shows which side of the line you are on.

Repairs, and replacing like with like, rarely need permission. A modest single storey extension at the back of a house can often go ahead as permitted development, within limits on depth and height. Flats do not get householder permitted development rights at all, so outside work on a flat normally needs an application and the freeholder's consent.

Old Milton Green is a small conservation area around the green itself, designated by the district council. Inside it, rendering or cladding the outside, a side extension and a two storey extension at the back all need an application. Listed buildings are spread across the town, from the parish church on Old Milton Green to the water tower, and work that changes the character of one needs listed building consent.

On the cliff top at Barton, find your stretch of coast on the Environment Agency's shoreline planning map and talk to the council before paying for drawings. Agree with building control early where the roof water from a new extension will go, because they will want a say before a soakaway goes in near a cliff edge. None of this affects houses further back.

Building regulations apply regardless of planning. An extension needs sign-off from building control or a registered approver. Re-covering most of a roof can mean bringing its insulation up to Part L. If you share a wall with next door, or will dig close to their foundations, the Party Wall Act means serving notice on them first.

None of this needs settling before you ask for a price. Thomas will tell you at the visit which rules touch your job and who deals with each. For the background, read the difference between planning permission, building regulations and listed building consent.

• Recent projects: photos from our own jobs
• How we price a job: what the written quote shows
• Landlords and managing agents: quotes for blocks and freeholders

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