Period homes in Northwood
Older houses across HA6 — original staircases, timber floors, narrow doorways and rooms that were not designed around modern furniture.
A period house is not a harder move so much as a slower and more deliberate one. The load is often smaller than a modern equivalent; the distance between the front door and the top floor is longer in every sense.
Protection comes first
Boards, stair treads, banisters, frames and thresholds, fitted before a single item moves. Original timber, tile and stone mark permanently and do not forgive a rushed corner, so the covering goes on properly even when it adds half an hour at the start.
Geometry
Narrow doorways, tight half-landings, newel posts that everything has to swing around, and rooms laid out before wide upholstery existed. We measure the tightest point at survey and work out which pieces need dismantling before the day rather than during it.
When a piece will not go
Occasionally something came in before a wall or a staircase changed, or was assembled in the room. The honest answers are dismantling, a window lift, or leaving it — and all three are better discussed at survey than discovered at eleven in the morning with a landing full of furniture.
Constraints
Listed buildings and conservation areas bring their own requirements. We ask at survey rather than assume there are none, and work to whatever applies.
Related
Larger modern houses are on house removals; storage during building work is on storage.
Period house questions
What is different about a period house?
Everything between the front door and the room. Narrower doorways, tighter turns, original floors and staircases that want protecting before anything moves rather than after.
Do you protect floors?
Fully — boards, stair treads, banisters and frames, fitted first. Original timber and tile are not places to find out that a corner was tighter than it looked.
What if a piece will not go?
We establish that at survey, not on the day. The answer is usually dismantling, occasionally a window or an external lift, and very occasionally that the piece stays.
Do you work with conservation constraints?
Where a property is listed or in a conservation area we work to whatever the constraints require and ask about them at survey rather than assuming there are none.
Is it slower than a modern house?
Usually, and we crew and price it accordingly. Rushing a period carry is how floors get marked.
Moving out of a period house?
Tell us about the staircase and the doorways. We would rather see it in person than guess from a photograph.