Builders in Shirley

Shirley is a large 20th century suburb, built outwards from the Stratford Road spine after the railway arrived in 1908. Almost every house here was built as a family home rather than converted from something older, which makes the work more predictable than in the older villages — provided you know what is holding the roof up.

Shirley's housing is modern by British standards, and more lopsided than most people expect. Only around 2% of homes predate 1919. Roughly 28% went up between the wars, about 57% between 1945 and 1999, and 13% since 2000. The 1930s is the single largest build period, so interwar semis are a real presence, but the postwar decades dominate overall. Semi-detached houses make up about 55% of the stock against 21% detached, on generous estate plots. For renovation the practical split is the roof: roughly four in ten Shirley homes date from 1965 or later and are likely to have trussed rafters, while the 1930s and early postwar houses generally have a traditional cut roof. Which one you have changes the shape and cost of a loft conversion more than anything else on the job.