Finchley's N3 and N12 streets are full of 1930s semis and Edwardian houses, a housing stock where solid-wall construction is common and cavity insulation often isn't an option.
Finchley is really three or four places with different housing. Around East Finchley and Church End the streets are mostly late Victorian and Edwardian terraces and semis: solid nine-inch brick, bay fronts, and often decorative brickwork on the front that deserves a careful decision before anything covers it.
West Finchley, Woodside Park and the roads off Ballards Lane towards North Finchley are largely interwar. The typical house is a semi with a rendered or pebbledashed first floor over a brick ground floor, built just before cavity walls became standard, so many are solid-walled too. Later infill houses usually do have a cavity, and for those external insulation is rarely the first thing we would suggest. The survey tells us which house you actually have.
External wall insulation is a continuous insulating layer fixed to the outside of the house and finished in render. On a typical Finchley semi that means boarding the whole side and rear, and usually the front, including the bays. The walls get thicker, so the sills are extended, the downpipes are brought out on new brackets, and the render is returned into the window reveals so the frames are not left as a cold edge. Because it all happens outside, the rooms keep their floor space and the house stays lived in throughout.
We don't quote specific savings figures. Your surveyor explains what results are realistic for your property.
A surveyor visits, measures up and checks the wall build-up, damp risks and the planning position for your street. On a semi we also look at the party wall line: the insulation stops neatly at the boundary with next door, and we will talk you through how that edge is detailed before you commit. Where the scaffold has to stand on the pavement, as it often does on the tighter Finchley terraces, it needs a licence from Barnet Council, which we arrange as part of the job.
You receive an itemised written quote covering the system, render, detailing and scaffolding. On site the boards, reinforcing mesh and render go on in sequence with a daily clean-down, and the job finishes with inspection, sign-off and warranty paperwork.
Most Finchley semis already carry render or pebbledash on the first floor over a brick ground floor. An EWI system unifies the whole elevation: the tired upper finish is renewed and the cold brick below finally gets insulated, in one scaffold. Where render is already present, the survey checks how well it is keyed to the wall, because a sound existing coat can sometimes be boarded over while a blown one must come off first.
Church End's conservation area around St Mary's needs a planning check before street-facing work, and towards East Finchley the Hampstead Garden Suburb boundary brings the Trust's much stricter rules, which we flag at survey.
We serve Church End, North Finchley, East Finchley and the surrounding N2, N3 and N12 postcodes, specialising in older solid-wall homes.
Usually, yes. Internal insulation eats into room space and is disruptive inside; external insulation keeps your floor area and treats the whole wall, but the survey confirms what suits your property.
Only if it is failing. The surveyor tests adhesion, and sound render can often stay beneath the new insulated system, which keeps cost and mess down.
We specialise in solid-wall and period homes across London and surrounding areas, including:
One short form. One real surveyor. Zero pressure.