Builders in Hythe

Hythe packs a lot of different building into a small town. The old centre, around the High Street and up the hill towards St Leonard's Church, is a conservation area full of listed and period buildings, many of them rendered or painted, where any change to the outside needs thinking through with the council first. Below it, Victorian and Edwardian streets run down towards the seafront, and beyond them the town spreads out into twentieth century houses and bungalows towards Saltwood, Seabrook and Palmarsh.

Each needs a different approach. Work on a period front or in the conservation area is about matching what is there, like for like, in the right materials. On a 1930s semi or a post-war bungalow the question is more often how to add space, and how to do it without the new roof and the old one fighting each other.

Hythe faces the Channel with nothing in the way, and it shows in the brickwork and render as much as in the roofs. Walls facing the sea and the south west take salt and driven rain for years before the sheltered sides do, so render cracks and mortar washes out there first.

Repairs on those walls need materials chosen for the exposure, and gutters, sills and drips detailed so water is thrown clear of the wall rather than run down it.

Planning in Hythe is handled by Folkestone and Hythe District Council, which also looks after the conservation area and deals with listed building consent. Plenty of work needs no application at all, but extensions in the conservation area, changes to listed buildings and anything that alters a front in the old town usually do. We will tell you what we think applies, and point you to the council or the Planning Portal to confirm it before anything is ordered.

Most building work also needs Building Regulations approval, and work on or near a shared wall on a terrace or a semi usually brings in the Party Wall Act, which means notice to the neighbours before starting. Scaffolding or a skip on the pavement or the road needs a licence from Kent County Council, arranged before the work starts.

The advantage of a roofer who builds is at the joins. Damp inside a house is often blamed on the roof when the roof is fine, and on the walls when the roof is the cause. Being able to do both means we can tell you which it is and fix what is actually wrong, instead of quoting for the half we happen to do.

It also means one quote, one team on site, and the people who priced the job are the people who turn up to do it.

Most of the building work an older house needs is maintenance that has been put off, and on this coast it catches up faster. A short look round each autumn, before the gales, finds most of it while it is still a small job.