Builders in Nutfield, done properly.

Nutfield sits a couple of miles east of Redhill, strung along the A25 where the land lifts onto the greensand ridge. Drive through and it changes quickly. One minute you are on the edge of the town, the next you are past the church and out among fields, with Nutfield Marsh and the old lakes to the north and the quieter, greener half of the parish falling away south towards the railway. South Nutfield has its own character altogether, gathered around the station on the Redhill to Tonbridge line, with lanes running out into open country. It is close enough to town to be convenient and rural enough that the people who live here have no intention of leaving.

The houses tell the story of that. Along Mid Street and Church Hill you find sandstone and soft Victorian brick cottages, some tile hung, some rendered, most of them altered more than once over the last century. On the higher ground there are the larger Victorian and Edwardian detached houses that came with the ridge and the views, and the Gothic outline of Nutfield Priory in the trees behind them. Out in the lanes there are farmhouses, converted outbuildings and stables, and pockets of 1930s and post war detached homes on generous plots. South Nutfield adds later closes and family houses from the second half of the twentieth century, which are the ones most often gaining a loft room or a rear extension.

Working on all of that takes different skills on different streets. A sandstone cottage wants lime mortar and a gentle hand, not cement and a fast fix. An older brick wall may have no cavity and no damp proof course worth the name, so the answer is to improve it sensibly rather than seal it up and cause damp somewhere else. Ground conditions vary a good deal here too. The greensand ridge, the old fuller's earth workings up towards Nutfield Marsh and the heavier clay to the south all behave differently underfoot, which is why we dig trial holes and get the foundation design right before anyone orders a brick.

Planning matters more here than in most places, and it pays to know that early. Nutfield falls under Tandridge District Council, with the Reigate and Banstead boundary just to the west, and nearly all of the parish sits within the Metropolitan Green Belt. In practice that means additions are judged against the size of the original house, replacement dwellings are looked at carefully, and outbuildings and annexes need thought. The historic core of the village around the church is protected as a conservation area, and there are listed cottages, walls and farm buildings scattered across the parish and towards Bletchingley. None of it is a reason to give up on a project. It is a reason to design it properly first.

We have been building in this corner of Surrey since 1996, from a base in Reigate that is only a short run down the A25. We design and build under one roof, working alongside architects and designers where drawings are needed, so you deal with one team from the first survey to the day we hand the keys back. CHAS Accredited, SSIP Assessed and fully insured, with a tidy site and honest pricing. That is the whole job, from the soil in the ground to the keys in your hand.