Like many of the building projects we undertake, the new refurbishment at Nicosia Road, Wandsworth Common, involves a basement extension along with additional work to transform the house.

We will be adding a rear extension and removing some interior walls to open up the ground floor and really expand the living space. On the first floor, we will be replacing two bathrooms, while we will also be re-doing the plumbing. There is also some interior and exterior decoration to turn a nice home into a dream home.

When we are adding a basement extension, there is necessarily some work on the ground floor to create a suitable entrance for the new below-ground space, but for many home owners it is also an opportunity to re-think their existing space and maximise its potential.

If work is being carried out over multiple floors, it is often possible to have different teams working simultaneously on – as has been the case in our total house refurbishment on Heslop Road. However, in this property we are unable to start work on the rear extension until the basement dig has been completed.

When we began the building work, we found that the sand below the property was very soft, so we made a decision to put the rear extension on-hold to stop the project becoming complicated.

If the soft sand had become wet, lots of water can run in and the ground gets porous, which increases concrete drying times and in the longer term could increase the length of the build.

We have however, been able to begin work on replacing the first floor bathrooms and are making smooth progress on these.

When we began work, there was a small cellar below the house. Many people think that this will make the project easier, but the reality is that it makes very little difference. Cellars tend to be less than two metres whereas our basement extensions can go down to three or three-and-a-half metres.

An existing cellar also means that there are services such as gas and electricity that will be in the middle of the new floor so we actually have to undertake additional work to move them to somewhere more appropriate for the basement.

At the moment the focus is on digging out the basement, but in the coming weeks, we’ll share more of our progress on this basement extension, which will house a living room, a shower room, a utility room, a store room and a plant room.