Builders in Dorking, under Box Hill.

Dorking sits in the gap where the River Mole cuts through the North Downs, with Box Hill rising straight up on one side and the greensand ridge running away west towards Ranmore, Wotton and Leith Hill. Almost all of RH4, and nearly every village in RH5 around it, falls inside the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. That single fact shapes more building work here than anything else. The town itself is compact and old. The High Street, West Street and South Street still follow the tight plots they were laid out on centuries ago, so frontages are narrow, back gardens are long and thin, and rear access is often through an archway or a shared yard. Around that core the Victorian and Edwardian town climbs the slopes towards Rose Hill, Cotmandene and Ashcombe Road, while the later estates fill in south towards Goodwyns and Chart Downs.

No two Dorking projects look alike, because the housing stock changes every few hundred yards. Along West Street and South Street there are Georgian and earlier frontages with much older timber frames hiding behind them, plenty of them listed, and full of surprises the moment you open up a ceiling. The villas around Rose Hill, Cotmandene and Hampstead Road are Victorian and Edwardian, generously built, with high ceilings, deep bays and roof spaces that take a dormer well. Out along the Reigate Road and towards Milton Heath the 1930s semis have the same familiar shape we see right across Surrey, which makes them natural candidates for a side return, a rear extension or a hip to gable loft. Goodwyns and Chart Downs are solid post war family housing that responds very well to a full internal refit. At Pixham and around the three stations, the newer homes usually want space added rather than fabric repaired.

Materials matter more here than in most Surrey towns. Dorking is built on greensand and largely built out of it, so you find Bargate stone, honey coloured local sandstone, knapped flint with brick dressings and hung clay tiles all on the same street. Greensand is soft and porous. Pointing it up in hard cement traps water inside the wall and the face begins to blow, so we use lime where lime belongs, and we say so at quotation stage rather than after the scaffold is up. The ground changes as you cross the town as well. Chalk along the northern edge below Box Hill, greensand through the middle, then Weald clay as you drop south towards North Holmwood and Capel, which shrinks and swells with the seasons and with the mature trees standing over it. There are old sand workings beneath parts of the town centre too. None of that is a problem if you check first. All of it is a problem if you do not.

Planning goes through Mole Valley District Council. Dorking has conservation areas covering the town centre, Deepdene and the older residential streets, and there are more out in the villages at Westcott, Brockham and Mickleham. Sitting over the top of all of it is the AONB designation, which quietly changes the conversation from what you are allowed to build to what the finished thing will look like from the hills. Bulk against the original house, roof pitch, ridge height, window proportions and materials all get looked at closely, and a design that would pass without comment on a suburban estate can be turned down here on appearance alone. Green Belt covers much of the land between the villages, and permitted development rights are restricted on some properties, so what your neighbour managed five years ago may not apply to you. We check the constraints on your address before we price anything.

We are based in Reigate, a straight run west along the A25, and we have been building across this part of Surrey since 1996. We work alongside architects and designers rather than employing them, so you are welcome to bring your own drawings, or we can put you in touch with people we have worked with for years. After that it is one team and one point of contact, from the soil in the ground to the keys in your hand. We are CHAS accredited, SSIP assessed and fully insured. We price honestly, we keep the site swept and the neighbours informed, and we tell you what is happening next before you have to ring and ask.