Builders in Gillingham

Before you get quotes for building work in Gillingham, check which planning rules apply to your home. Planning applications go to Medway Council. Gillingham Park and Brompton are conservation areas with Article 4 directions, which mean changes such as new windows, doors or roofs at the front of a house need planning permission. If your home is listed, any work that affects its character may need listed building consent.

If you're thinking of converting or extending a house to let to sharers, check first. Medway Council has brought in controls in seven wards, including Gillingham North and Gillingham South, so that turning a family home into a small house in multiple occupation needs planning permission. Room sizes, fire safety and licensing rules apply too.

Most building work in Gillingham falls into two types:

• Victorian and Edwardian terraces: rear and side-return kitchen extensions, and loft conversions with a rear dormer. On a terrace, expect a party wall agreement with your neighbours.
• Rainham's estates from the 1960s and 1970s: single-storey rear extensions, converting an integral garage into a room or home office, and loft conversions. Many houses of this age have trussed-rafter roofs, which leave little open space in the loft, so converting one usually needs new steel or timber beams and a structural engineer's calculations.

Much of Medway sits on chalk. Your building control officer or engineer will set the foundation depth for an extension, especially near trees, and may ask for trial holes. A good builder will allow for this rather than guessing.

When you compare builders, ask for itemised quotes on the same drawings. Check that each quote says who deals with building control and what the payment stages are, and never pay large sums upfront. Reviews on Trade Pilot are tied to real, invoiced jobs, so you can see how a builder has handled projects like yours.