Handyman in Barnes

Covering SW13 from Fulham

Handyman Fulham is based at Jerdan Place, SW6, across the river. We do not have an office in Barnes, but we come over to SW13 regularly, and our own handyman does the work.

Barnes is in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its conservation areas include Barnes Green, Barnes Common, Castelnau and Mill Hill. Richmond has published detailed studies of these, and they tell you a lot about what your house is made of.

The houses around Barnes Green

Richmond's appraisal for Barnes Green says Station Road has some of the oldest houses in the village. Old Essex House dates from the late 1500s or early 1600s, and Milbourne House has an early 1700s front. Church Road runs from 17th century buildings to modern ones, and the High Street mixes buildings of 18th century origin with Victorian and Edwardian shops.

The materials are red, stock and gault brick, with tile or slate roofs. Gault brick is a pale yellow or cream brick. Older houses often have multi pane timber sash windows, and riverside houses are often rendered and painted white or pale colours.

The council notes that some original windows, doors and tiled front paths have been lost on Station Road. That is a useful warning. A cracked Victorian tiled path can often be lifted and relaid section by section, and an old door can usually be eased and repaired rather than swapped.

Castelnau and Lonsdale Road

Castelnau was laid out from 1842, when Major Boileau began building pairs of semi detached villas along what was then Upper Bridge Road. Richmond says twenty matching pairs are now Grade II listed. The central pairs are two storeys over basements, faced in stucco, many linked by coach houses. Lonsdale Road's villas were mostly finished by 1860, and Riverview Gardens has large mansion flats.

Deep front gardens with hedges and trees are part of the look. Richmond's study lists the problems it has seen here: aluminium or PVCu replacement windows, oversized dormers, front boundaries in poor condition, and front gardens dug up for car parking.

For us, that points to a steady list of jobs: repairing timber sashes, fixing gates and front walls, repainting stucco details, and keeping garden fences and trellis in good order.

Jobs a handyman in Barnes does most

Window work is high on the list. Sticky sashes, broken cords and draughts around the frames are common in houses this age. We fit brush strips in the existing frames where they suit, which helps with draughts without changing the look from the street.

Outside, gates drop, fence posts rot at ground level and garden walls need repointing in small patches. Inside, period houses and mansion flats bring requests for shelving, curtain poles on tall windows, picture hanging on plaster walls, and kitchen and bathroom fixes.

A handyman in Barnes also needs to know where the line is. Any gas work is done by a Gas Safe registered engineer, as the law requires. We will arrange this for you. A new circuit, a new consumer unit (the fuse box) or new points in a room with a bath or shower is done by a registered electrician who can self certify the work. We arrange it.

Old buildings, care and checks

Many of these homes are very old, and some are listed. Changes to a listed building can need consent, even for windows and doors, so we repair in matching materials and tell you if something looks like it needs a word with Richmond's planning team first. We do not give planning advice ourselves.

The HSE says asbestos can be found in any building put up before 2000. If an old textured ceiling, pipe lagging or panel looks suspect, we stop and recommend a survey before drilling.

How to get a quote in SW13

Use the free quote form and tell us your street, if the house is listed and you know it, and what needs doing. Photos help a lot. We will reply by email with a free quote, and arrange a visit first if we need to see the job before we can give a price.

Common questions