Do I need to move out during a renovation?
For a whole-house renovation, yes — there will be extended periods with no kitchen, no heating and no working bathroom. For a single extension, loft conversion or kitchen project, most clients stay, and the work can be programmed to keep the house liveable.
A gut renovation means the services are off. The rewire alone leaves the house without power in sections for days at a time, the heating system is disconnected for weeks, and plastering puts moisture into every room that then needs to dry. Living through that with children is genuinely difficult, and the disruption usually costs more in stress than the rent saved.
A loft conversion is the easiest to live through. Almost all the work happens above your ceiling, accessed by external scaffolding, and the house stays weathertight. The disruptive period is short — mainly the week the staircase is formed and the ceiling below is opened. An extension is harder: the rear of the house is open for part of it, and if the kitchen is in the extension you will be without one for most of the programme.
Where clients do stay, the things that make it workable are a temporary kitchen with a sink, fridge and microwave set up in another room, a sealed dust barrier at the work boundary, and a clear agreement about working hours and site tidiness. We build all three into the programme when asked at quoting stage — it costs very little and it changes the experience completely.
More on this in living through the works, or see all 42 questions.
Thinking about a project?
Tell us what you have in mind and we will come back with an honest view on cost, timescale and what is achievable at your address.