Builders in Leyton.

Leyton is a near neighbour to our Walthamstow base and the housing stock is much the same — late-Victorian terraces, two storeys, with bay-fronted reception rooms and modest back gardens. The renovation pattern is also the same: families moving in and gradually putting the house back together over a few years, or sometimes all at once.

Most of E10 is outside the formal conservation areas, which makes the planning straightforward. Permitted development covers most rear extensions, loft conversions, and material-matched repair. Where conservation does apply, it's around the older streets near Leyton High Road.

The houses themselves are well-built but tired. Original cornices and ceiling roses survive in most reception rooms; chimney breasts are mostly intact. The kitchens and bathrooms are usually the room that has been reworked most often — which means we're often peeling back several layers of bad work to get to a sensible starting point.

Leyton's terraces lend themselves to side returns. Most of the gardens are wide enough and the side passages narrow enough that a glazed extension works. We've done several.