Whole house refurbishments, single rooms and rental turnarounds. One team strips the place back, puts it right and finishes it properly.
A refurbishment works with the house you already have.
Most of the walls stay where they are. What changes is everything that has worn out or been done badly over the years: old wiring, tired plumbing, cracked plaster, doors that never shut properly, kitchens and bathrooms that have had their day. We strip it back, deal with what we find behind it, and put the house back together to a standard that will last.
It suits houses that have been left alone for twenty or thirty years, flats being turned round between tenants, and homes that have just changed hands and need sorting before anyone moves in. We work in Worthing, East Preston, Rustington and across West Sussex, and we take work further afield too.
Rockshore is family run and third generation, with 65 years in the trade behind us and over 30 years of combined on-site experience. You deal with Joe and the same team from the first visit to the last coat of paint.
In nearly every refurbishment the kitchen is the room that decides how the finished house feels, and it is normally where most of the budget lands. We take the old one out, sort the floor, move the services where they need to go, and fit the new run properly so doors line up and worktops sit flat.
Because we do our own carpentry, electrics and plumbing, the sequencing works. Sockets end up where the appliances are, waste runs are set before the floor goes down, and nobody is waiting a fortnight for a separate contractor to come back and connect something.
More detail on this on our kitchens & bathrooms page.
A refurbishment is not decorating. It is putting a tired house back up to standard.
Bathrooms are small rooms with a lot going on in them, which is why they are the ones that most often get done badly. The work that matters is the work you never see again: the falls on the floor, the tanking behind the tiles, the way the tray or the wet area is bedded, the extraction.
We strip back to the joists and the blockwork where we need to, board and tank the wet areas, then tile and fit. Old lead or steel pipework gets swapped while the walls are open rather than left for someone else to find later. Every bathroom gets proper extraction, because a new bathroom with no ventilation will be a damp bathroom within a year.
The order matters as much as the work itself.
Old kitchens, bathrooms, floor coverings, boxing, dated timberwork and anything loose comes out first. Skips are managed by us and the site is left tidy at the end of each day. If you are still living in the house we sheet up, seal off the rooms we are working in and keep dust where it belongs.
With the plaster off, this is the moment to sort the services. Consumer units, new circuits, extra sockets, data runs, downlights, heating pipework, radiators and hot water. Getting it done now costs a fraction of chasing it into finished walls in two years’ time.
Ceilings overboarded and skimmed, walls patched or re-skimmed, new studwork where a layout needs adjusting. Then the joinery: doors and linings, skirting and architrave, stairs made good, fitted storage, and floors levelled and laid.
Filling, sanding, priming and painting throughout, then handles, sockets, switches and trims. The finishing stage is where a refurbishment either looks like a proper job or looks rushed, so we do not hurry it.
If the layout needs to change as well, that usually means removing a wall or putting a beam in. That is structural alteration work, and we handle it with the local building inspector as part of the same job. If the house needs more than refreshing, look at renovations, and if it needs more space, at extensions.
An empty house is the quickest and cheapest way to refurbish. We can run several trades at once, the programme tightens up and there is nobody to work around. If you have just bought and have not moved in yet, that is the window to use.
Plenty of our customers cannot do that, so we work room by room instead. We agree the order, keep one bathroom and a working kitchen going as long as we can, and finish each area before opening up the next. It takes longer overall, but you keep the house usable.
Turnarounds between tenants have a deadline and a budget, and both are usually tight. We price the work clearly, tell you what has to be done and what can wait, and stick to the dates we give you. Electrical work, smoke alarms, extraction and heating are all handled to current standards, and our tradesmen train regularly on fire safety, insulation, air quality and health and safety.
If you are selling, the money goes where buyers look first: kitchen, bathroom, decoration, floors and the front of the house. We will happily tell you where spending will not come back to you. A new driveway or patio often does more for a viewing than another room of paint.
Supplied and fitted, plumbing and electrics included.
Read moreOlder properties brought up to standard throughout.
Read moreWalls out, steels in, signed off with building control.
Read moreOur home town, and where most of our work is.
Read moreIt depends on the size of the house, the condition it is in and whether it is empty. We give you a written programme with your quote once we have walked round the property, and we tell you straight away if something we uncover is going to move the dates.
Yes, and plenty of people do. We work room by room, seal off the areas we are in, and keep a working kitchen and bathroom going for as long as possible. There will be a stretch in the middle when one or the other is out of action, and we will tell you in advance when that is.
Usually not, because you are not changing the shape of the building. Building regulations still apply to electrical work, plumbing, structural changes, insulation and ventilation. We work directly with local-authority building inspectors so everything is signed off properly. Listed buildings and flats have their own rules and we will flag that early.
Yes. Carpentry and joinery, electrical work, plumbing and heating, plastering, flooring, groundwork, rendering and roofing are all done by our own team. You are not chasing separate contractors or waiting on someone else’s diary.
On older houses it happens: rot in a joist end, damp, or wiring that should have been replaced years ago. We stop, show you what we have found, explain the options and price the extra work before we carry on. Nothing gets added to a bill without you agreeing it first.
We carry comprehensive insurance as standard. We are Checkatrade members, rated 10 out of 10, with 10 for quality of work, reliability and communication, and our work is covered by Checkatrade’s £1,000 guarantee.