Property CareHome › Godmanchester
This one is home.
Property care and handyman services in Godmanchester, from the people who live here. Every other town on this website is somewhere we travel to. Godmanchester is where we put the bins out. The houses here belong to our neighbours, and one or two of them are ours, which changes how carefully you work on somebody's front elevation.
A town that has been quietly getting on with it since the Romans
People arriving for the first time usually think Godmanchester is a nice bit of Huntingdon. Say that in The Exhibition and see how it goes. This was a Roman town called Durovigutum sitting on Ermine Street, it had its charter from King John in 1212, and it has been perfectly capable of running its own affairs for a very long time, thank you.
What you actually notice living here is smaller than any of that. The Chinese Bridge, which is a slightly improbable piece of Chippendale fancy over the mill stream and which everybody photographs. Portholme beyond it, the largest meadow in England, which floods in the winter and turns into something enormous and silver and worth putting your boots on for. The Causeway, the timber frames leaning companionably into one another, the swans that have opinions.
And then, in the last few years, Roman’s Edge and the roads off Gumcester Way, which have come close to doubling the size of the place. Say what you like about the pace of it, but Gumcester is how this town appears on the old maps, so somebody at least opened a history book before naming the roads. Most developers reach for a list of trees.
Two conservation areas, several hundred years of building and a brand new town on the edge of it, which means the house you own here could be almost anything. That is the part that matters to us, and it is the reason we are careful about what we say yes to.
The old town
Timber frame, lime plaster, wattle and daub, oak that has moved for four hundred years and intends to carry on. Modern filler, gypsum and impermeable paint do real harm here, slowly and invisibly. Repair beats replacement almost every time, and consent is sometimes needed, which we will tell you about before rather than after.
Near the river
Lovely, and damp-prone, and worth being realistic about. Ventilation, drainage and breathable materials do more than any sealant. If you are in a flood zone we will talk plainly about what is worth doing at low level and what is simply asking to be replaced again in five years.
The newer estates
The post-war streets, and then everything off Gumcester Way. Roman’s Edge has come close to doubling the size of the town, which means a great many houses all reaching the same age at the same time. Comfortable, well planned, and carrying a snagging list the developer has long since stopped answering the phone about: sealant that gave up in the first winter, doors nobody ever adjusted, a garden still consisting entirely of turf, and storage precisely nowhere. All of it ordinary, all of it a morning or two.
The whole list, one trusted contact
Our work is arranged by the room, the job and the moment in a home's life rather than by trade. See how it fits together, or read the chapters of a home.
The Room Refresh
Our signature service: one room taken from tired to finished, every trade it needs, one written price. The room is the job, not the trade.
One room, finished →Repairs & maintenance
Sticking doors, dripping taps, failed sealant, loose banisters and everything else on the list you have been meaning to sort.
What we repair →Decorating & finishing
Rooms, hallways and external joinery painted properly, with the preparation that makes it last through more than one winter.
Our approach →Joinery & restoration
A town this old is full of joinery that deserves better than a rip-out. We repair and restore where it makes sense, and say so honestly when it does not.
Restoration first →Gardening & outdoors
Lawns, hedges, beds and borders kept in shape, plus the outdoor care that protects the house itself: gutters, fences, gates and sheds.
From gate to fence →Storage & loft
Alcove joinery, loft boarding above the insulation, and the under-stairs cupboard put to work.
Read more →Woodburning stoves
Hearths, oak beams and finishing, with registered specialists for the regulated steps.
Read more →Home security & cameras
Video doorbells, discreet cabled cameras, and locks changed or adjusted properly.
Read more →A warmer, quieter home
Draughts stopped and insulation topped up, with honest advice on what is not worth doing.
Read more →The Nursery
A room ready in good time, then the rest of the house made sensible before they start moving.
Read more →Staying put, comfortably
Solid rails, better stair light and a bathroom that stops being a worry.
Read more →Home care plans
Seasonal, quarterly or monthly visits that keep a home feeling looked after, with small problems caught while they are still small.
Compare the plans →You will see us in the Co-op
There is a particular kind of accountability that comes from working where you live. If we make a mess of your hallway, we will run into you by the river on Sunday. If we do it properly, you will mention us to somebody at the school gates. Neither of those things is true for a firm that drives in from forty miles away and never comes back.
It is also simply more practical. No call-out fees, because there is nothing to call out from. A second opinion on the way past. A small job done this week rather than bundled into next month to make the journey worthwhile. And if something goes wrong after we have finished, we are ten minutes from your door rather than a voicemail.
We are not going to pretend that being local makes us better at joinery. It does not. It makes us easier to get hold of, harder to disappear on, and considerably more careful, which turns out to matter just as much.
And everywhere within about half an hour
We cover Huntingdon just over the bridge, St Ives, St Neots, Brampton, Buckden and the villages in between. If you are not sure whether you are near enough, ring and ask. The answer is usually yes.
Neighbours, essentially.
Send us your list with a photo or two. If it is small and straightforward we can usually price it from that. For anything bigger we come and look first, walk round it with you, and then put a fixed price in writing.