Services · South & West London
Building services in south and west London, and an honest answer about which one your house needs
Extensions, loft conversions, renovations, kitchens, bathrooms and basements. They are not interchangeable, and the right one is decided by the shape of your house rather than the size of your budget.
Most people ring having already decided
Most people contact a builder with the answer settled. A fair proportion of them would be better served by something else, and nobody tells them, because the thing they asked for is the larger invoice.
An extension buys floor area. A loft conversion buys bedrooms without giving up the garden. A renovation buys back space you already own and are already heating. A kitchen extension is a ground floor extension with one job. A bathroom is mostly the half you cannot see. A basement is the least forgiving floor area you can buy.
The survey exists to settle which of those you are actually looking at. It is free, and we would rather tell you at that stage than after you have paid an architect to draw something the property will not take.
What we build
House extensions
Side return, rear, wraparound, and side and rear, on terraces and semis. This is the bulk of our work. The difference between the four types is geometry rather than scale — a side return makes a ground floor wider, a rear extension makes it deeper, and the wrong choice produces more floor area and a worse house. The extensions page sets out what each type is for, how the two planning routes can be combined, and what genuinely moves the work.
Loft conversions
L-shaped dormers on terraces with an original rear outrigger, adding bedrooms on a new top floor. Usually the least disruptive way to add rooms to a London house: your kitchen keeps working, your garden stays yours, and most of the mess comes down a chute. The constraint is head height rather than floor area, and it is settled at the survey before anything else is discussed.
House renovations
Chimney removals, structural openings between reception rooms, rewires, replumbs and windows. The work that makes a house bigger without touching the footprint. If you are doing any of it, the case for doing all of it in one programme is strong, because the disruptive part is shared and made good once instead of repeatedly.
Kitchen extensions
In practice most ground floor extensions are kitchen extensions. What you are buying is not more kitchen, it is a different shape of room — and the kitchen has to be designed before the steel is ordered, because drainage sets the sink, extraction needs a route, and underfloor heating goes in before the slab.
Bathroom renovations
Standalone, or inside a loft conversion or a wider refurbishment. Tiles and taps are the inexpensive half. Waterproofing, falls, soil routing and ventilation decide whether the room is still sound long after the tiler has gone, and every one of them is hidden by the time you see it.
Basement conversions
Enquiries welcome, and we will tell you honestly whether your property suits one. Converting an existing cellar and digging out new space are different jobs with different risks, and the page is written to help you work out which one you are actually talking about — including when not to do it at all.
Where we work
Most of our work is in Wandsworth — SW17 and SW18, around Southfields, Earlsfield, Tooting and Wandsworth Common. Beyond that: Merton and Wimbledon, Richmond upon Thames, Croydon, Herne Hill and Lambeth, and Uxbridge and Hillingdon, plus south and west London generally.
Outside those areas, ring anyway. If it is not a job we should take, we will say so rather than pricing ourselves out of it quietly.
Common questions about our building services
What does Home Constructive do?
Home Constructive is a London building firm working on house extensions, kitchen extensions, loft conversions, basement conversions, whole house renovation and bathroom renovation. The work is carried out across south and west London, and the same firm handles the structure, the plumbing and the electrics rather than subcontracting each part to a different company.
Which service does my house need?
That is the question the free site survey answers. Extensions add floor area, lofts add bedrooms with the least disruption, basements add space where there is nowhere else to go, and renovation changes how the space you already have works. Plenty of houses that ask for an extension turn out to need a wall removed instead, and we will say so.
Do you take on small jobs?
We take on work where a single firm running the whole job is worth something to you. A bathroom or a wall removal fits that; a tap washer does not. If it is not a job we should be doing, we will tell you and point you at someone who should.
Where do you work?
Across south and west London: Wandsworth, Lambeth, Merton, Richmond upon Thames, Croydon, and Uxbridge and Hillingdon, plus the areas immediately around them. The registered office is in Uxbridge, though most of the building work is south of the river.
Start with a survey, not a guess
It is free and you are under no obligation afterwards. We will look at what the property will physically take and tell you which of the six is the right conversation — including if the answer is not the one you rang about.