Property Repairs in Bexley, London

Bexley is part of our regular South East London coverage, so once we've surveyed the property we can usually confirm a start date quickly. Send the address and scope and we'll arrange the next step.

Yes. Bexley falls within the area Lian Construction serves across Greater London.

Most like-for-like roof replacements on a standard house don't need planning permission, as they usually fall under permitted development rights. That said, this can change if the property sits in a conservation area, is listed, or if you're altering the roof's shape or height rather than just replacing the existing covering. It's worth checking with Bexley Council or a contractor familiar with local rules before starting, particularly if the work goes beyond a simple re-cover.

Yes, we can provide photos of the defect before and after repair, which is useful for insurance claims, landlord records or reporting back to a freeholder or managing agent. For anything requiring a formal engineer's report, such as a structural insurance claim, we'll coordinate with the relevant specialist, since that kind of report needs to come from someone qualified to give it rather than from the contractor carrying out the repair itself. Keeping a simple photo record as work progresses, not just before and after, is also useful if a dispute ever comes up later about what condition something was in or what exactly was done to fix it.

Most cracks are cosmetic or related to minor, normal movement such as seasonal expansion and contraction, and can be repaired without structural work. Some, particularly stepped cracks, cracks wider than a few millimetres, or cracks that run through brickwork rather than just plaster, need a closer look and sometimes a structural engineer's assessment before repair, since filling a genuinely structural crack without addressing the movement behind it is only ever a temporary fix. We'll flag which category a crack falls into before quoting the repair. A useful thing to note yourself in the meantime is whether the crack is still moving, a simple pencil mark or piece of tape across it will show whether it's widening over the following weeks, which is useful information for us or an engineer to have.

We price what we can see and assess at survey stage, and flag clearly where the true extent of an issue, such as how far damp has tracked behind a wall, might only become apparent once we start opening it up. If more is found once work begins, we stop, explain what we've found with photos, and agree a price for the additional work before continuing, rather than proceeding on the original figure and adjusting the invoice at the end without warning. This is particularly common with damp repairs, where the visible staining might only represent a fraction of how far moisture has actually tracked behind the surface, so we build a sensible checking point into jobs like this rather than assuming the first impression is the full picture. It's a similar story with timber decay behind old skirting or floorboards, where the surface can look sound while the wood underneath has softened, and we'd rather flag that possibility upfront than let it come as a surprise once the job is underway. Where timber decay is found, we'll also check whether it's simple wet rot from ongoing moisture, which usually stops once the source is fixed and the area dries out, or something that needs a wider look, since the two are treated quite differently.