Floors, Woodwork, Plastering and Tiling Finishes

Fix Your House covers the four finishing trades that decide whether a room looks finished or looks nearly finished: floors, joinery, plaster and tiling. We work across Barnet, Edgware, Mill Hill, Hendon and Finchley, on single rooms and on whole-house refurbishments.

These trades are on one page because that is how the work actually arrives. A floor almost always brings carpentry with it. Tiling almost always follows plastering. Booking four separate contractors for one room is how projects lose three weeks in the gaps between them.

Call 07777 759333. We answer 24/7.

Flooring

What We Fit

Engineered and solid wood, laminate and click flooring, LVT and vinyl, and floor tiles. We also lift and relay, and repair existing floors rather than replacing them where the boards are sound.

Subfloor Preparation

This is where most flooring jobs go wrong. Suspended timber floors in Victorian and Edwardian terraces need boards checked, screwed down and often overlaid with ply before anything hard goes on top. Concrete floors in post-war houses need a moisture check and, usually, a self-levelling compound. Laying a good floor on a bad subfloor gives you a bad floor.

Floor Repairs

Squeaking and springing boards, damaged planks in an existing wood floor, lifting laminate, failed thresholds, and gaps in original floorboards. Repairing is very often cheaper than replacing, and we will say so.

Carpentry and Joinery

Fitted Storage

Alcove units, fitted wardrobes, under-stairs storage, shelving and window seats. In period houses nothing is square, so fitted storage is scribed to the room rather than assembled from standard carcasses.

Doors and Second Fix

Internal door hanging, architraves, skirtings, picture rails, door linings and stair parts. Matching new mouldings to original Victorian or 1930s profiles is usually possible and is worth doing.

Structural and First Fix Carpentry

Stud partitions, floor joists, noggins, and timber repairs. Anything that carries load needs a structural engineer’s input and Building Regulations approval, which we arrange rather than skip.

Plastering

Skimming

A thin finish coat over sound existing plaster or over new plasterboard. This is the right answer for a wall that is flat but tired, and it is the cheapest way to get a paintable finish.

Full Plastering and Re-Plastering

Base coat and finish coat onto brick or block, after hacking off blown plaster. Necessary where the existing plaster has lost its key, which you can usually hear by tapping the wall.

Plasterboarding and Dry Lining

Battening and boarding walls and ceilings, including where lath-and-plaster ceilings have failed. Overboarding a sagging lath ceiling is a common request; sometimes it is the right call and sometimes the ceiling needs to come down. We will tell you which.

Repairs and Coving

Patching, cracks, damp-damaged plaster after the cause has been fixed, and coving and cornice repair.

Tiling

Wall and Floor Tiling

Bathrooms, kitchens, splashbacks, hallways and utility rooms. Ceramic, porcelain and natural stone, including large-format tiles, which need a flatter substrate than most people expect.

Waterproofing

Tanking to wet areas before tiling. Tiles and grout are not waterproof; the membrane behind them is. Skipping this is the single most common cause of a bathroom failing two years after it was tiled.

Underfloor Heating

Electric underfloor heating mats laid under tiled floors. We lay the mat and do the tiling. The electrical connection is notifiable work under Part P of the Building Regulations and has to be carried out and certified by an electrician registered with a competent person scheme. We are not registered with one, so we refer that part to a registered electrician rather than doing it ourselves.

Regrouting and Resealing

Raking out and replacing failed grout and silicone. On a sound tiled surface this transforms a bathroom for a fraction of the cost of retiling.

These Trades in North West London Houses

Victorian and Edwardian Terraces — Finchley, Hendon

Original pine floorboards worth restoring rather than covering, lath-and-plaster ceilings that crack and eventually sag, solid brick walls with no cavity, and skirtings and architraves in profiles you cannot buy off the shelf. Also frequent damp at ground floor level, which has to be dealt with before any plastering, not after.

1930s Semis — Mill Hill, Edgware, Burnt Oak, Hendon

Often original parquet or block flooring under later carpet or vinyl, which is worth lifting a corner to check before you commit to a new floor. Picture rails, panelled doors and bay windows all need matching joinery rather than standard sizes.

Post-War and Modern Homes

Concrete ground floors that need moisture testing and levelling, and plasterboard walls where the fixing method matters more than the finish.

How We Work

1. Free survey. We look at the subfloor, tap the walls and measure properly. Quoting flooring or plastering from photographs is guesswork.
2. Written quote. Labour and materials separated, with preparation shown as its own line so you can see what you are actually paying for.
3. Sequenced properly. Plaster before tiling, first fix before second fix, floors last where possible. Getting the order right is most of the job.
4. Protection and clean-up. Dust sheets, floor protection and rubbish removal are included, not extra.
5. Snagging. We walk the finished work with you and put right anything you flag before final payment.

Costs in North West London

We do not publish a figure for this work, because it depends on the area involved, the state of what is already there and how much preparation the job needs. What we set out here is how each trade is measured and what is included, so you can see how the number is built. The figure itself is confirmed in writing after the survey.

Materials — tiles, adhesive, boards, flooring, timber and plaster — are itemised separately at cost. Subfloor levelling, hacking off blown plaster and asbestos testing are quoted separately because they are not always needed. Small jobs are subject to a minimum charge.

The price we quote is the price you pay — no VAT added on top.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you repair a floor rather than replace it?

Usually, yes. Squeaks, springing boards, individual damaged planks and lifting laminate are all repairable. On original floorboards, sanding and finishing often gives a better result than a new floor for less money. We will tell you honestly which way round it falls.

Do I need to replaster or can I just have it skimmed?

Tap the wall. If it sounds hollow over a large area, the plaster has lost its key and needs hacking off and replastering. If it is solid but uneven, a skim coat is enough. We check this at the survey, because a skim coat and a full replaster are measured and priced differently, and replastering is the more expensive of the two.

How long does it take to tile a bathroom?

A standard bathroom is typically two to four days for tiling alone, plus a day for tanking and preparation, plus grouting and sealing. Large-format tiles and natural stone take longer. That assumes the walls are already flat — if they need plastering first, add drying time.

Do you tank bathrooms before tiling?

Yes, in wet areas. Tiles and grout are not a waterproof layer; the tanking membrane behind them is. It is a small cost at the time and an expensive omission later.

Can you match original skirtings and architraves?

In most cases, yes. Victorian and 1930s mouldings can be matched from a profile, either from stock patterns or machined to match an existing section.

Do you do ceiling plastering?

Yes, including overboarding and replastering failed lath-and-plaster ceilings, which are common in Finchley and Hendon terraces.

What areas do you cover?

Barnet, Edgware, Mill Hill, Hendon, Finchley and the surrounding North West London area.

Can you lay a new floor straight over the existing one?

Sometimes, but it depends what is underneath and how much height you can afford to lose. Over a solid concrete floor, common in 1930s and later local properties, laying over is usually straightforward once the surface is level and dry. Over the suspended timber floors found in Victorian and Edwardian terraces it is a different question: original boards move, cup and leave gaps, so engineered wood, LVT or tiles laid directly on them will telegraph every board line and eventually crack or lift. Those floors normally need overboarding with ply, or a levelling compound, before anything goes down. The other constraint is doors and thresholds, because every extra layer raises the floor and you can quickly reach the point where doors need trimming, the bottom stair reads unevenly, or the threshold into the bathroom no longer works. Decide this before you buy the flooring, because the build-up affects which product makes sense.

How long before I can decorate over new plaster?

Longer than most people want, and rushing it is the most common way a good plastering job gets ruined. Fresh plaster has to dry out fully before it is painted, and how long that takes depends on thickness, the season and ventilation: a skim coat in a warm, well-ventilated room in summer dries far faster than a full replaster on an external wall in a cold, damp North London January. The reliable test is colour rather than the calendar. Plaster dries from dark brown-pink to an even pale pink, and any patch still darker than the rest means moisture is still coming out of it. Paint it before that point and you seal the moisture in, which is what causes the peeling and flaking that turns up a few months later. The first coat should also be a watered-down mist coat rather than neat emulsion, or it will not bond properly. We will tell you when it is ready rather than leave you to guess.

How much dust does plastering or floor work create, and what happens to it?

A great deal, and being honest about it is more useful than reassurance. Hacking off blown plaster and sanding floors are the two dustiest jobs in a house, and fine dust travels well beyond the room being worked on. What actually controls it is preparation rather than clearing up afterwards: sealing the doorway with a proper dust screen rather than a sheet and some tape, covering or closing off the route through the house, lifting or protecting carpets and soft furnishings, taping over sockets, and running dust extraction on sanders instead of sweeping up later. Floor sanding in particular should always be done with extraction, partly for the dust and partly because old floors and skirtings in Victorian and Edwardian terraces can carry lead paint and old finishes, which is not something to sand loose into a family home. Agree before work starts who is covering and protecting what, and expect to do some fine cleaning yourself afterwards regardless, because dust that grade keeps settling for days.

Get a Free Quote

Call 07777 759333 — answered 24/7 — or use our contact page. Tell us which room and which trade, and we will arrange a survey.

Related services: kitchen renovation, bathroom renovation, handyman services, house extensions, and our full service list.