The brief
Refurbish an apartment within an occupied building, to a good standard, without the works becoming a problem for the block around it.
Merchant Court, Wapping
Apartment refurbishment, where the planning and coordination mattered as much as the trades.
The challenge
Refurbishing a flat is rarely limited by the flat. Access is shared, working hours are set by the building, materials and waste have to move through common parts, and every trade needs to be on site in the right order because there is nowhere to store the consequences of getting the sequence wrong. Neighbours notice a badly run job long before the client does.
Our approach
- Established the building's rules first: permitted hours, access routes, lift and parking arrangements, and what the managing agent needed from us.
- Built a programme around those constraints instead of fighting them, with trades booked to a sequence rather than to availability.
- Protected common parts and kept deliveries and waste removal tight and scheduled.
- Kept the client, the managing agent and the trades working from the same plan and the same point of contact.
The outcome
- A refurbished apartment completed to the agreed standard.
- Works delivered without disruption complaints or damage to common parts.
- A managing agent relationship left in better shape than it started, which matters for the next job in the block.
Before, during and after
Before
During
After
Works in an occupied block?
We are used to building rules, managing agents and neighbours. Tell us the constraints and we will plan around them.