When Kilpark Properties, one of our associated companies, acquired this 1246 sq ft house in 2009, it already had planning permission to be demolished and rebuilt with a single basement. However, we thought that there was scope to be more ambitious, so we decided to go back to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and obtained further consent for a double basement, frameless glass side and rear ground-level extension, substantially increasing the internal area to 3215 sq ft.
We started demolition of the derelict house in April 2010. Because of the high water table, building the new basement was a technical challenge. Eighteen-metre secant piles were installed at the front and rear site boundaries and temporary propping was required on either while reinforced concrete underpins were put in place beneath the foundations of the adjoining houses. There was a lot of sand and ballast in the superstrata so permeation grouting was required to stabilise the ground during this process.
We then rebuilt the house to complement the style of the existing terrace, and fitted it out to our exacting standards.
