Georgian townhouse refurbishment
A floor-by-floor refurbishment of an early 19th-century townhouse that had spent fifty years as bedsits, bringing back the original details and renewing everything behind the walls.
The brief
The house had been split into bedsits in the 1970s and patched ever since. The new owners wanted it back as one family home, with the cornices, shutters and sash windows put right, and the wiring, plumbing and heating brought up to date without it showing.
What we did
- Removal of bedsit partitions and 1970s alterations
- Lime plaster repairs and cornices run in situ
- Sash windows overhauled, re-corded and draught-proofed
- Full rewire and a new heating system
- Three new bathrooms and a lower ground floor kitchen
- Cast-iron railings repaired and repainted
- Regular liaison with Leeds City Council’s conservation officer
The tricky part
Decades of pipes and cables had left two floors of joists badly notched. We surveyed every joist with the structural engineer, strengthened the weak ones by bolting new timber alongside them rather than replacing whole floors, and kept the original boards, which we lifted, numbered and relaid in the same order.
Result
Handed back as a five-bedroom family home, with every original feature that could be saved still in place.
