From strip-out and structural alterations through to plastering, tiling, decorating and handover, Lian Construction manages the full refurbishment programme under one accountable team. Homeowners, landlords and commercial clients use us when they want a single contractor rather than fragmented trades.
Ealing overview
Property Refurbishment in Ealing
West London borough benefiting from Wembley-area regeneration, with consistent buy-to-let refurbishment activity. Ealing falls well within the West London ground Lian Construction covers on a regular basis. For full property refurbishment projects in Ealing, that local knowledge means fewer surprises once work is on site and a team that already understands the borough's typical property stock.
Ealing's housing stock reflects its position as an established West London suburb that grew steadily through the Victorian and Edwardian periods before filling out further between the wars. Expect a mix of Victorian and Edwardian terraces and semi-detached houses, along with a good number of 1920s and 1930s bay-fronted semis typical of outer London's interwar expansion. Purpose-built mansion blocks and low-rise flats sit alongside the houses in many areas, and more recent infill development has added flats and townhouses on smaller sites over the decades. Properties of this age generally come with the usual list of refurbishment needs: ageing roofs, single-glazed or early double-glazed windows, dated wiring and plumbing, and layouts that often don't suit modern living without some reconfiguration. Loft conversions and rear or side extensions are common ways owners add space rather than move. As with much of outer London, condition varies a lot street to street depending on when a property last had significant work done, which is worth bearing in mind when planning a refurbishment budget or scope.
Regeneration activity around the Wembley area has had a knock-on effect on demand in neighbouring parts of West London, including Ealing, as buyers and renters look slightly further out for value while still wanting reasonable access to improving transport and amenities. This tends to support steady interest in rental property, and landlords in the borough have kept up a fairly consistent pace of refurbishment work, whether that's turning round properties between tenancies, upgrading kitchens and bathrooms to hold rents at a competitive level, or bringing older stock up to current standards for letting. For homeowners, the same regeneration effect can make extending or improving an existing property more attractive than moving, particularly where nearby development is pushing up expectations for finish quality. Because Ealing sees this kind of ongoing buy-to-let and owner-occupier refurbishment demand, competition among contractors for smaller and mid-sized jobs can be steady rather than sparse, so landlords and homeowners are often weighing up contractors on reliability and turnaround time as much as price. Getting quotes early and being clear about scope tends to help avoid delays, especially for landlords working to a fixed window between tenants.
Typical property refurbishment prices in London
Item
Typical range
Light refresh (decoration, flooring, minor repairs)
Premium refurbishment (structural work, full M&E, high-spec)
£2,000–£2,800+/sqm
End-of-tenancy refresh, 1-2 bed flat
£1,200–£3,200
General London market guidance, not a fixed quote — actual pricing depends on a site survey. Full breakdown: cost guide.
Coordinating trades so nothing gets duplicated or wasted
A refurbishment usually needs electricians, plumbers, plasterers, tilers and decorators on site at different points, and the order they work in matters as much as the quality of each trade individually. First-fix electrics and plumbing need to go in before boarding and plastering close the walls up, and any changes to socket positions or radiator points are far cheaper to make at that stage than after decoration. We hold that sequence with one point of contact managing it, rather than leaving it to whichever trade happens to be booked next, which is how jobs end up with a plasterer skimming over a chase that still needed a second cable, or a decorator painting a wall that plumbing needs to come back and open up. Snagging is built into the process at the end rather than treated as an afterthought, so small defects like a poorly fitted door or a paint touch-up get picked up and closed off before we consider the job finished, not weeks later when you notice them yourself. At handover, we walk the property with you room by room against the original scope, rather than simply handing back keys, so anything that needs a final touch is agreed and actioned there and then instead of becoming a list of small grievances weeks later. We also leave a short pack of information behind at handover, covering things like which paint colours and tile references were used and where key isolation points are, so small maintenance jobs later on don't turn into guesswork.
Built for London property stock
London homes rarely need only cosmetic upgrades. Victorian and Edwardian terraces often have solid brick walls holding rising or penetrating damp, a mix of original lath and plaster ceilings with later plasterboard patches, and floor levels that have crept out of true after a century of settlement and past alterations. Ex-council flats and maisonettes bring their own quirks, concrete floors that limit where cables can be chased in, older single-glazed metal windows, shared party floors with limited sound insulation, and communal pipework a private refurbishment has to work around rather than replace outright. Loft spaces in older houses are frequently under-insulated or part-boarded in a way that blocks ventilation, and skirting and door linings are rarely square once a property has moved with age, which affects how new flooring and fitted joinery need to be scribed in. We handle damp damage, tired plasterboard, dated layouts, roof issues, uneven substrates and compliance-led improvements as part of one joined-up plan, rather than treating each as a separate job needing its own contractor and its own site visit. Where a property has more than one of these issues at once, which is common in London's older stock, dealing with them together in the right order is almost always cheaper than fixing them one at a time later, since reopening a finished wall or ceiling to deal with something missed the first time costs more than catching it during the original strip-out. Georgian and early Victorian properties can add timber floor structures and lime-based plaster into the mix too, both of which behave differently from modern materials and need repairing on their own terms rather than with a standard modern fix. Ventilation is another factor that's often overlooked, solid-wall Victorian properties rely on being able to breathe, and sealing them up with the wrong modern materials, such as an impermeable render or vinyl wall covering over a damp solid wall, tends to trap moisture rather than solve it.
Full house, flat and commercial refurbishmentsStructural, repair and finishing trades coordinated togetherClear scopes for occupied homes, rentals and investment propertiesRegular coverage of Ealing and the wider West London area
Signs to look for
Do you need property refurbishment in Ealing?
The layout no longer suits how you live, such as a small separate kitchen and dining room a modern household doesn't need or use.
Recurring damp, cracked plaster or tired finishes are showing up in more than one room, suggesting a wider issue rather than a one-off defect worth patching.
The property hasn't been updated in twenty years or more and the wiring, plumbing and insulation all feel genuinely dated rather than just cosmetically tired.
You're planning a loft conversion, extension or knock-through alongside other improvement work and want it all sequenced as one coordinated project.
How the work is handled in Ealing
Step 1Survey the property and define the scope
Step 2Price the works clearly
Step 3Coordinate trades and materials
Step 4Complete snagging before handover
Questions
Property Refurbishment questions in Ealing
How quickly can Lian start full property refurbishment projects in Ealing?
Ealing is part of our regular West 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.
Do you cover all of Ealing?
Yes. Ealing falls within the area Lian Construction serves across Greater London.
Can you help bring an older Ealing property up to a decent rental standard?
Generally yes. This usually covers things like updating kitchens and bathrooms, checking and where needed upgrading electrics and heating, addressing damp or insulation issues, and general repair work. We'd want to see the property first to give an honest view of what's needed and roughly what it would cost, rather than guessing from a description.
Will refurbishment work disturb neighbours in a terrace or semi-detached property?
Some disturbance from noise and vibration is unavoidable during structural work, demolition and drilling, particularly in a mid-terrace where walls are shared. We keep noisy work within reasonable hours, and where a party wall award is in place it usually sets out working hours and notice requirements as well. Letting neighbours know in advance what to expect, and roughly how long the noisy phase will last, generally avoids most complaints before they start. If the property is a flat within a managing agent's remit, it's worth checking their permitted working hours too, since these are sometimes stricter than standard practice and can affect how the noisier phases of the programme are scheduled. A brief note through neighbouring letterboxes before work starts, setting out roughly what to expect and who to contact with concerns, tends to go a long way even where it isn't formally required, and most neighbours are far more understanding when they've had a heads-up than when they're caught by surprise on a Monday morning.
How much does a full house refurbishment cost in London?
It varies with the scope and specification more than the size of the house alone. As a general guide published across our cost guides, a light refresh, decoration, flooring and minor repairs, runs roughly £800 to £1,200 per square metre, a mid-range refurbishment with a new kitchen, bathroom, rewire and replaster runs £1,200 to £1,800 per square metre, and a premium refurbishment involving structural work, full M&E and a high-spec finish runs £2,000 to £2,800 or more per square metre. Structural work, the condition behind existing surfaces, and access all move the figure beyond these broad bands, which is why we survey the property and break the quote down by category rather than giving one lump figure.
How do I know if my builder is overcharging me?
Get more than one quote, but check each one is pricing the same scope in the same level of detail before comparing headline figures, since a lower number sometimes just means a shorter list of what's actually included. A figure that comes in 40 to 60% under everyone else is rarely a genuine saving, more often it's a way of winning the job before the price creeps up once you're committed. A deposit larger than around a quarter of the total is also worth questioning, since legitimate builders typically ask for 10 to 25% upfront with the rest staged against completed work. We structure payment against stages of completed work and set out labour, materials and provisional items separately in writing, so you can see exactly what's driving the cost.
Talk to Lian Construction about Ealing
Send the site address in Ealing, photos if available, and the property refurbishment work you need. We can review the scope and arrange the next step.