Guide
Planning a Tyneside home renovation
How to brief, budget and choose trades for a renovation that respects the North East's housing stock — from Tyneside flats to Georgian terraces.
Start with the brief, not the Pinterest board
The best renovations begin with a clear brief: what the space needs to do, how you live in it, and what you want to keep. In older Tyneside stock — flats, terraces, colliery cottages — the structure often tells you what it wants to be. Work with the building's honesty rather than against it.
Function
How each room is actually used day to day — not the show-home version.
Fabric
What's original and worth restoring: sash windows, cornicing, brick, timber.
Budget bands
Must-have, nice-to-have, and a 10–15% contingency for the surprises old houses hide.
Timeline
Trades book up months ahead in the North East — plan the sequence early.
Choosing trades you can trust
Get three quotes, check recent local work, and make sure the sequence of trades is planned — joiner before plasterer, first-fix electrics before boarding. A good builder will talk you out of the wrong idea; that's a feature, not a red flag.
“True quality in a home isn't embellishment — it's the restraint to let good materials and honest structure speak for themselves.”— MyTyne Home
