London general builders
Lian Construction is a London construction company based around Kingston upon Thames, delivering refurbishment, repair, roofing, tiling, plasterboard and general building work for homes, landlords and commercial clients. Whether it's a single leaking roof, a full internal refurbishment or a rolling programme of works across several rental properties, we survey and scope the job properly before pricing it, then carry it out with our own tradespeople rather than passing it between unconnected subcontractors. Clients get one accountable contractor who understands the whole project, from the first site visit through to final snagging and handover.
Service overview
Many London projects need several trades coordinated properly: repairs before finishes, roofing before plasterboard, tiling after preparation and decoration only after defects are resolved. We manage that sequence.
From Kingston upon Thames and South West London to wider Greater London, Lian Construction supports homeowners, landlords and commercial clients who need dependable building work with clear communication.
Pricing on any building project comes down to a handful of practical factors, and London adds its own layer on top of the basics. Access is usually the biggest one: a mid-terrace Victorian house with no side return means materials go in through the front door and waste comes out the same way, which slows everything down compared with a detached property with driveway access. Scaffolding and skip permits add cost on narrow residential streets, where a council permit is often needed just to stand a skip or a scaffold tower on the public highway, and resident parking restrictions can limit when deliveries and skip swaps happen. The condition of what's already there matters too: solid brick walls with old lime plaster often need more preparation and different materials than a stud wall in a 1990s build, and a roof that's had years of patch repairs can hide problems, rotten battens, perished felt, corroded flashings, that only show once the tiles come off. Party wall matters, listed building or conservation area status, and whether services need upgrading, old rewireable fuse boards, lead water pipes, insufficient loft insulation, all feed into the final figure. Material choice affects cost as much as labour: matching reclaimed London stock brick, sourcing a specific clay tile profile, or specifying a breathable lime render instead of standard cement render all carry different price points, and none of that is visible from the street until a survey opens things up. Waste disposal is its own line item too, since a skip on a residential road is priced differently from a grab lorry on a site with vehicular access, and mixed construction waste containing plasterboard or asbestos-suspect material has to be segregated and disposed of through a licensed carrier rather than a standard skip. Structural work, like removing a chimney breast or forming an opening for a knock-through, adds engineering and steelwork costs on top of the building work itself, and needs a structural calculation before anyone touches a supporting wall, along with making good the ceiling and floor either side once the steel is in and padstones are built up. Basement and lower-ground floor rooms often carry an extra cost too, since a below-ground damp issue usually needs a different specification, a tanking system or a French drain, rather than a straightforward decorating fix. On listed buildings, sourcing matching materials, like a specific handmade brick, a natural slate to match the existing roof, or a traditional lime mortar mix, can itself take longer and add more to the final cost than the labour needed to install them once they arrive on site. We survey before we quote, and the written quote sets out labour, materials and any provisional sums for items we genuinely can't confirm until walls, floors or roofs are opened up.
London's building stock isn't uniform, and using the wrong method on the wrong wall causes more problems than it solves. On Victorian and Edwardian solid wall terraces, we generally avoid sealing walls with gypsum plaster or cement-based renders, since solid brick needs to let moisture move through it rather than trap it; lime-based plasters and breathable finishes are usually the better fix where damp or historic movement is involved, particularly on ground floor rooms without a damp proof course or where a previous owner has already made things worse with a sealed modern render. On later stud partitions and ex-council concrete-frame flats, plasterboard on dot-and-dab adhesive or fixed to timber battens is standard, along with skim coats or taped-and-jointed finishes depending on what's being covered and whether the wall needs to stay accessible for services or sound insulation between flats, which matters more in a converted terrace or purpose-built block with shared floors and party floors between different owners. Where an existing lath and plaster ceiling is sound, we'll often repair and skim it rather than strip it out unnecessarily, since removing a good ceiling to replace it with plasterboard adds cost and mess without improving anything. For roofing, we work with concrete and clay tiles, natural slate on older or heritage properties, and felt, GRP or single-ply membranes on flat roofs and extensions, along with breather membranes and treated battens under the tile line to manage ventilation and prevent trapped moisture in the roof void, which is a common cause of premature timber decay in older lofts that were never designed with modern insulation levels in mind. Matching materials to what's already on the building is usually more sensible than a full replacement where a like-for-like repair will do the job and keep the roofline consistent with neighbouring properties, particularly on a terrace where mismatched tiles are obvious from the street and can affect a future sale or a mortgage valuation. Tiling follows proper preparation: uneven or bouncy floors get boarded, levelled or screeded before tiles go down, tanking membrane or slurry is used in wet areas like shower enclosures and behind baths, and adhesive, grout and movement joints are chosen for the substrate and any underfloor heating rather than whatever happens to be cheapest on the day. None of this is exotic. It's standard trade practice, applied correctly, in the right order, on the right substrate, which is where most of the actual value in a job lies rather than in anything unusual or a particular brand name printed on the bag.
Programme length depends heavily on scope, but there are some rough patterns worth knowing before you plan around a project. A single roof repair, or reroofing a small terraced property, is often a matter of days once scaffolding is up, weather allowing, though full reroofs on larger, hipped or more complex roofs can run into a couple of weeks, and slate or heritage tile work generally takes longer than standard concrete tile because of how it's fixed, sourced and matched to what's already there. Plasterboard repairs to a ceiling or a few walls, including skimming and drying time before the surface is ready for paint, are usually a few days per room once damaged materials are stripped back to sound substrate and any water source has been fixed first, since replastering over an active leak is a waste of everyone's time and money. A full room refurbishment involving repairs, replastering, tiling and decorating tends to run two to four weeks depending on how much preparation is needed before finishes go on and whether first-fix electrics or plumbing are part of the job and need to be signed off before boarding closes the wall up. Larger refurbishments touching several rooms, or works that involve structural changes, damp treatment or full rewiring, run longer still, often several months, and are usually phased so the property stays partly usable where that's realistic for the household or tenants, with wet trades like plastering and screeding grouped together to avoid dust and mess spreading into finished rooms, and joinery, decorating and second-fix electrics scheduled in afterwards once everything else has dried out properly. Wet trades are the main constraint on speed: plaster typically needs close to a week to dry fully before decoration, and screed can take considerably longer depending on depth, mix and ventilation, so rushing this stage is the most common cause of cracking, blown paint and callbacks later on. Material lead times matter too, since bespoke tile profiles, specific lime products or non-standard rooflight sizes can add weeks if they're not ordered early, and a scaffold licence application through the local council can itself take a couple of weeks to come through before work can even start. Weather affects roofing and scaffold-dependent work more than anything else on the programme, since high wind and heavy rain both stop tile stripping and any work at height, so we build a reasonable contingency into roofing programmes rather than promising a fixed date regardless of forecast. We give a realistic programme at quote stage and flag anything, like poor weather windows for roofing or long lead items, that could reasonably push it back.
A lot of construction and refurbishment work in London touches some form of regulation, and it's worth knowing roughly where you stand before work starts. Structural alterations, most roof replacements, and anything affecting fire safety, insulation levels, drainage or means of escape typically fall under the Building Regulations Approved Documents, covering areas like structure, fire safety, ventilation, damp resistance and thermal performance, and need either full building control sign-off from the local authority or a registered competent-person scheme route, depending on the trade involved. Electrical work connected to a project usually needs to be certified by a suitably qualified and registered electrician under Part P before it's signed off, and this is separate from the building work itself even when it happens on the same site visit and same overall programme. If your property shares a wall, floor or garden boundary with a neighbour and the work is close to or touches that boundary, cutting into a party wall, excavating near foundations, building above the line of an existing party fence wall, the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 may apply, which means formal written notice to neighbours before certain works begin, usually with a set notice period before work can start and the possibility of a party wall surveyor being appointed if a neighbour dissents or simply doesn't respond in time. Listed buildings and properties in conservation areas often need planning consent even for works that would otherwise be permitted development, particularly for roofing materials, windows, render and anything visible from the street, and some conservation areas have Article 4 directions that remove permitted development rights altogether, meaning even a like-for-like repair can technically need consent first before scaffolding goes up. Flats and leasehold properties add another layer again, since a lease often requires the freeholder or managing agent's written consent before internal alterations, flooring changes or plumbing work, regardless of what planning or building control require, and that consent can take weeks to come through if it's not requested early in the process. We flag where we think consent, notice or building control involvement is likely needed for a project and can put together the drawings, specifications or structural information a building control officer or planning department typically asks for, though the responsibility for obtaining planning permission or serving party wall agreements sits with the property owner unless we've specifically agreed otherwise as part of the project scope in writing beforehand.
Signs to look for
Lian Construction is based in Kingston upon Thames and covers all 32 London boroughs plus the City of London for construction services work.
Local coverage
Dedicated construction services pages for our priority London boroughs, with local landmarks, access notes and typical property types for each area.
Questions
We handle refurbishment, property repairs, roof work, tiling, plasterboard repair and general building projects for residential and commercial clients.
Yes. Lian Construction is based around Kingston upon Thames and works across London.
We coordinate the trades ourselves as one accountable contractor, sequencing repairs, roofing, plasterboard, tiling and decorating so you have a single point of contact rather than managing subcontractors individually.
Yes. We can survey work already in progress, assess what's been done and price the remaining works, though we'll flag anything that needs correcting before we continue building on it.
Yes. Alongside residential refurbishment and repair work, we take on commercial fit-outs and building work for business premises across London.
We'll tell you at survey stage if we think a project needs planning permission, building control sign-off or a party wall notice, and we can put together the drawings, specifications or supporting information a building control officer or planning department typically asks for. Formal applications, and the responsibility for having the right permissions in place before work starts, sit with the property owner unless we've agreed in writing to handle a specific application on your behalf. For straightforward repair and refurbishment work, most of what we do falls under permitted development or doesn't need separate consent, but we won't simply assume that without checking the specifics of your property, its planning history and whether it sits in a conservation area or has an Article 4 direction attached to it first. If in doubt, we'd rather check with the local planning department before scaffolding goes up than after.
Yes. We survey the property, note what needs doing and put together a written quote that breaks down labour, materials and any provisional sums for items we can't price exactly until work is underway, such as what's found once old plaster, flooring or roof coverings come off. We won't start work on the basis of a verbal estimate alone, and if anything changes once we're on site, whether that's extra repairs, a different specification or something the survey genuinely couldn't have picked up, we agree it with you and price it separately before carrying it out rather than adding it to the final bill afterwards without any discussion beforehand. For larger projects we'll also set out a payment schedule tied to stages of the work, rather than asking for the full amount upfront or leaving everything until completion.
This isn't unusual in older London properties, particularly solid wall Victorian and Edwardian terraces and pre-1980s ex-council buildings, where materials like old bitumen felt, textured coatings, floor tiles or pipe lagging can contain asbestos. If we find something like this, we stop work in that area, tell you what we've found and explain the realistic options rather than working around it and hoping it doesn't matter. Depending on what it is, that might mean bringing in a specialist for testing or safe removal, adjusting the scope of work, or agreeing a revised price before we carry on with the rest of the project. We'd rather flag a problem early and lose a few days than have it resurface once decoration is finished and everything is covered up again, which costs far more time and money to put right properly once the room is finished and furnished.
In many cases, yes, particularly for repairs, roofing or work confined to one or two rooms, and we'll sequence the job to keep disruption manageable and keep at least one working bathroom and kitchen available where that's realistic given the scope. For larger refurbishments involving several rooms, replastering, or works that generate a lot of dust, noise and dust sheeting through shared hallways, we'd usually recommend the property is empty, at least for the messier phases like stripping out and first-fix work. We'll talk through what's practical for your household or tenancy, room by room if needed, before agreeing a programme, rather than assuming one approach fits every job, every family or every tenancy, and we'll give reasonable notice of noisy or disruptive days so people can plan around them where possible.
We arrange scaffolding, skip hire and any necessary highway or scaffold permits as part of the project rather than leaving you to organise them, and this is included in the written quote so there are no separate arrangements for you to chase up yourself. On residential streets where a skip permit or scaffold licence is needed from the local council, we handle that application and factor in the typical processing time when we build the programme, since these can take longer to come through than the work itself in some boroughs. If a project needs specific access equipment, such as a tower scaffold for a rear extension roof or longer-term hoarding for a larger refurbishment, we price that in upfront rather than treating it as a surprise extra once work has already started on site.
Send the site address, photos if available, and the service you need. We can review the scope and arrange the next step for work in London, Kingston upon Thames and surrounding boroughs.
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