Flat
refurbishment
in Bourne End, SL8
Designers, Architects, Engineers & Builders Under One Roof.
One Studio. One Contract. One Team.
Flats in and around Bourne End range from purpose-built blocks to converted buildings and rooms above the shops of the village centre, and refurbishing any of them starts with the lease.
At the 2021 Census the ward of The Wooburns, Bourne End and Hedsor counted 838 households in purpose-built blocks of flats or tenements, 46 in converted or shared houses, 57 in other converted buildings such as former schools or churches, and 44 in commercial buildings, for example over a shop. The ward is wider than the village, so we treat those figures as a guide to the area.
By the river, the riverside conservation area holds a flat development of its own: the former Andrews Boatyard, closed in 1983, was succeeded in 1993 by flats designed to reflect the site's riverside location and heritage, six blocks of two-storey apartments with more flats in their roofs and two blocks facing the Thames across a wide lawn.
Sources: ONS/Nomis: Census 2021 TS044 Accommodation type, 2022 ward The Wooburns, Bourne End and Hedsor (E05013162); Buckinghamshire Council: Riversdale & Hedsor Road Conservation Area Appraisal (February 2018)
Lease first: consents, repairs and who owns what
Most flats are leasehold, held under a lease from the landlord, who is sometimes known as the freeholder. The government's guidance says the lease sets out the conditions you have agreed to, including whether you need permission to make alterations and who is responsible for repairs and for dealing with noisy neighbours.
So we read the lease before we design anything: which walls, floors and windows are demised to you and which belong to the building, what the managing agent or landlord needs to be shown, and any clause about floor coverings. The consent request then goes in with our drawings and a method statement.
Householder permitted development rights do not reach flats. The government's technical guidance defines a dwellinghouse as excluding a building that contains flats or a single flat within a building, and says that in such cases planning permission should be sought. Work that leaves the outside of the building materially as it was is not development at all.
The neighbourhood plan expects some further housing in the parish to come from offices converted to residential properties, and observes that many such schemes have no amenity space or too little parking. At the time it was drafted, it notes, the planning authority had revoked that conversion right in certain designated areas.
Sources: GOV.UK: Leasehold property (printable guide); GOV.UK (MHCLG): Permitted development rights for householders: technical guidance (September 2019); legislation.gov.uk (The National Archives): Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 55 (meaning of development); Wooburn and Bourne End Parish Council: Neighbourhood Development Plan 2013-2033, referendum version (28 June 2023)
Building regulations, sound and fire in a flat
Inside a flat the building regulations follow the work, not the tenure. Replacing windows and doors, replacing a fuse box and its connected electrics, installing or replacing a heating system, and putting in a bathroom that involves plumbing can all need approval, which is a separate matter from planning permission.
Requirement E1 asks flats to be designed and constructed to resist sound from other parts of the same building and from adjoining buildings, and E3 asks the common parts of buildings with flats to avoid unreasonable reverberation. The regulations apply E1 to E3 to a material change of use where a building comes to contain a flat it did not have before, which is why conversions carry the heaviest acoustic work.
Fire guidance for blocks of flats supports a stay put strategy, based on a fire being contained in the flat where it starts and the common escape routes staying relatively clear of smoke and heat. That is why we never weaken the entrance door, the walls to the corridor or any fire-stopping when a flat is refurbished.
When a refurbishment lifts boards or takes down a ceiling, we design the new floor to perform at least as well acoustically as the one it replaces, with a resilient layer under any hard finish.
Sources: GOV.UK: Building regulations approval - when you need approval; GOV.UK: Building regulations approval (printable guide); GOV.UK: Approved Document E: Resistance to the passage of sound; GOV.UK (MHCLG): Approved Document B (fire safety) volume 1: Dwellings, 2019 edition incorporating 2020, 2022, 2025 and 2026 amendments and forthcoming 2029 changes
Flats by the river: windows and flood risk
Inside the Riversdale and Hedsor Road conservation area the appraisal asks for painted timber windows in local patterns, says UPVC windows should not be installed, treats aluminium and top-hung lights as inappropriate, and wants joinery details submitted with planning applications.
Before drawing new windows for a flat we ask the managing agent whether the frames are yours or the building's, and whether the block has a pattern every owner follows.
Andrew's Reach, Riversdale Court and Camden Place are among the roads the 2014 flood assessment lists as flooded in Winter 2013-14. For Flood Zone 3a it advises that property subdivision, which can raise the number of people at risk, should be discouraged, so splitting a flat or adding a bedroom on a ground floor near the river is weighed against that.
For a ground-floor flat that has flooded before, we raise sockets and the boiler where the structure allows, and choose floors and joinery that can be dried and kept rather than stripped out.
Sources: Buckinghamshire Council: Riversdale & Hedsor Road Conservation Area Appraisal (February 2018); Wycombe District Council: Strategic Flood Risk Assessment Level 1 Update (November 2014)
Refurbishing a Bourne End flat with us
Our London team takes on flats in Bourne End as well as houses: in-house architects, designers and structural engineers, working with Hampstead Chartered Surveyors & Building Consultancy from our Finchley Road studio in Hampstead, NW3. Where planning permission is needed it is decided by Buckinghamshire Council, and the building regulations are handled by Buckinghamshire Council's building control service, or by a private registered approver if you prefer one.
We agree with the managing agent when noisy work may happen, how the stairs and any lift are protected, and where materials can be unloaded, and we tell the neighbours above, below and beside before work starts.
Flats are refurbished room by room where you are staying in them, with one bathroom kept working whenever the layout makes that possible.
Outside Bourne End, and in London rather than Buckinghamshire: Project example: Hampstead, NW3. That project of ours was a full renovation of a three-bedroom, two-bathroom flat in Hampstead, as its case study records.
Sources: Buckinghamshire Council: Building regulations and control; GOV.UK: Building regulations approval (printable guide); Hampstead Renovations: The Mount, NW3 case study
Flat Refurbishment in Bourne End: Questions
Do I need my freeholder's consent to refurbish a flat in Bourne End?
Often, yes. Most flats are leasehold, and the government's guidance says the lease tells you whether you need permission to make alterations. We read the lease first and prepare the drawings and method statement your landlord or their agent will ask for.
Which flat works in Bourne End need building regulations approval?
Replacing windows and doors, replacing the fuse box and connected electrics, installing or replacing a heating system and fitting a bathroom with new plumbing can all need approval. Like-for-like swaps of baths, basins and sinks, and new sockets away from baths and showers, do not, though the work must still be safe and energy efficient.
What sound insulation rules apply when a flat's floors are changed?
Requirement E1 asks flats to provide reasonable resistance to sound from other parts of the same building, and the regulations apply it when a building is converted to contain flats it did not have before. For a floor in an existing flat the lease may set conditions on alterations, so we read it and design the new floor to perform at least as well as the old one.
Do window changes to a flat in the Riversdale & Hedsor Road conservation area need permission?
Changes that materially alter the outside of the building usually do, since the householder permitted development rules leave flats out and the government's guidance says planning permission should be sought. The appraisal then wants painted timber windows in local patterns, with no UPVC, aluminium or top-hung lights, and the lease may require the freeholder's consent as well.
How do you scope and quote a flat refurbishment in Bourne End?
We read the lease, survey the flat, and check with the managing agent what is shared and what is yours. The quote then lists building work, services, finishes and any consents separately, so you can see what the freeholder's conditions add.
Are there flats in Bourne End's flood zone?
Some. The 2014 flood assessment lists Andrew's Reach, the riverside flats built on the old boatyard, among the roads that flooded in Winter 2013-14, and Flood Zone 3a takes in the southern area of the village and numerous homes along Riversdale. For a ground-floor flat there we keep services high and choose finishes that can be dried and kept.
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