Builders in Cranleigh

Cranleigh grew along its high street and then outwards in waves, which gives it an unusually wide spread of housing for a village. There are period cottages and Victorian villas near the centre, then substantial interwar and post-war detached housing, then more recent estate development on the edges.

The larger detached stock is what we see most. Generous plots, room to extend in more than one direction, and often a garage that was built for a car considerably smaller than a modern one. That last point comes up constantly.

Around the village the parish runs quickly into countryside, and the properties there are a different proposition: individual houses, converted farm buildings, and cottages on lanes, frequently with the constraints that come from being outside the settlement boundary.

Cranleigh has grown noticeably in the last decade through several large housing schemes, so there is also a stock of genuinely new houses where the work is usually about finishing what the developer left plain rather than structural change.

The newer development off Elmbridge Road and Amlets Lane is a different proposition again. Modern cavity construction, shallow foundations, and in many cases a planning condition removing permitted development rights, which is standard on estates of that age. It means work that would be automatic on an older house needs an application here, and finding that out at the design stage rather than at the point of building is the difference between a smooth job and a stalled one.

Garage conversion is the job we are asked about most often in Cranleigh, and for good reason. A lot of the housing here has an integral or attached garage built to 1960s and 1970s dimensions, which will not comfortably take a modern family car, so it is already being used for storage.

Converting it is usually the cheapest square metre you will ever add. The roof and three walls exist, the foundations are there, and the work is about insulating properly, dealing with the floor level, replacing the door with a wall and window, and getting the heating and electrics right.

The two things that catch people out are floor build up and damp. A garage floor is normally lower than the house and often has no insulation or damp proof membrane, so the floor has to come up and be rebuilt rather than simply covered. Done properly it is indistinguishable from the rest of the house. Done cheaply it is cold and it shows.

If the garage is detached rather than attached, the picture changes. A detached outbuilding converted into habitable accommodation usually does need planning permission, and if it is going to be used as a separate annexe there are further considerations around whether it counts as an independent dwelling. Worth establishing at the outset, because the answer changes both the cost and what you are allowed to do with the space.