Builders in Chingford.

Chingford sits north of us, just over the North Circular. The housing stock is a mix — Edwardian terraces in the south end of the postcode, semi-detached and detached interwar housing further north towards the forest. The renovation problems are different from a Walthamstow terrace, which makes the work different too.

The Edwardian terraces in lower Chingford — around the station, off Old Church Road — are similar to Walthamstow stock and tend to need the same kinds of work: kitchen knock-throughs, bathroom refits, full house refurbishments, the occasional loft.

Higher up, the 1920s and 1930s semis around Chingford Hatch and Friday Hill are different. Pebble-dash front elevations, lighter timber-framed bay windows, smaller chimneys, often with original parquet floors hiding under carpets. Most of the renovation work here involves opening up the kitchen and dining room, sometimes adding a side return or a single-storey rear, and usually replacing or updating the windows where the original metal Crittall frames have failed.

The detached stock around Chingford Green and along the edges of Epping Forest is bigger and older — a mix of Victorian, Edwardian and early-20th-century houses on larger plots. Extensions and outbuildings are more common, planning is more relaxed.