Prime Residential Builders
in Rickmansworth & Chorleywood

A London prime contractor, minutes from Rickmansworth & Chorleywood

Crown Building has been delivering prime residential construction since 2013, and Rickmansworth & Chorleywood sits comfortably within the daily operating radius of our Watford headquarters. While much of our work is in the prime central London postcodes, Mayfair, Chelsea, Knightsbridge, Belgravia, our roots, our team and our registered office are minutes away. For homeowners in Rickmansworth & Chorleywood, that means a contractor working to a genuine prime residential standard, with senior management close enough to be on site whenever the project needs them.

We do not operate at volume. We compete on execution. The discipline that the best London projects demand, meticulous programming, a trusted specialist supply chain, senior management present on site throughout. Is exactly what we bring to a home in Rickmansworth & Chorleywood. The standard does not change with the postcode.

What we build in Rickmansworth & Chorleywood

Our residential work spans the full scope of high end building. We deliver architecturally distinctive new build homes, private residence refurbishments and structural reconfigurations, single and multistorey extensions, basement excavations, listed and period property works, and the bespoke joinery and interiors that define a finished home. Each project is delivered as design and build or contractor only, with Crown appointed as your prime residential main contractor, and transparent, itemised pricing from the outset. Commercial occupiers are served by the same teams through our commercial fit out division, and clinical and wellness premises through our healthcare and specialist environments team.

Rickmansworth and Chorleywood were built for exactly the kind of work we do: 1920s and 1930s houses on generous plots. Tudor revival, arts and crafts influenced, that families now extend, remodel and in many cases replace entirely. Chorleywood Common's fringes and the Cedars estate carry some of the district's most substantial homes, while Loudwater and the Moor Park borders push into genuine prime territory. Typical briefs include full structural remodelling, double storey extensions, basement additions and complete specification upgrades with modern services and bespoke joinery throughout.

Areas we serve

We cover Rickmansworth, Chorleywood, Loudwater, Croxley Green, Sarratt, Maple Cross and the Moor Park borders: all within fifteen minutes of our office. You can see our full coverage, London within the M25 and a fifteen mile radius of our Watford headquarters, on our areas we cover page.

The forty per cent rule, and where it actually comes from

Around three quarters of Three Rivers is Green Belt, and the district has a numeric limit on extensions that Hertsmere and Watford do not. The adopted policy, DM2(b), is qualitative: extensions disproportionate in size, individually or cumulatively, to the original building will not be permitted. The number sits in the Council's Supplementary Planning Guidance No. 3, and the Development Management policies expressly direct applicants to it.

That guidance states that extensions resulting in a cumulative increase in floorspace of over forty per cent compared with the original dwelling will normally be unacceptable, with exceptions for compliant dormers, modest ground floor conservatories and infill extensions that do not increase apparent bulk. The baseline is the dwelling as originally built, or as at 1 July 1948 if older, and it is cumulative: every previous extension counts. Existing garages and outbuildings are excluded from the baseline unless built at the same time and integral.

Two further points from the same guidance are useful early. Single storey side extensions normally harm openness where they result in more than eighty per cent of the frontage being covered by buildings. And dwellings under 110 square metres with limited amenities may be allowed proportionally larger extensions. For replacement dwellings, adopted Policy DM2(c) requires that the replacement does not materially exceed the size of the original, though where the original is under 110 square metres a replacement may reach 110 square metres excluding garage.

Moor Park: a second consent nobody expects

Moor Park is a conservation area with an Article 4 Direction made in 2004 and approved by the Secretary of State in January 2005, removing permitted development rights for rooflights, hardstanding, walls, gates, fences and any other means of enclosure across all properties in the area. In practice that means planning permission for front or side elevation rooflights, for increasing hardstanding to a road frontage, and for gates, fences or walls exceeding one metre to the front.

There is also a private layer. The Council's own adopted conservation area appraisal states that Moor Park (1958) Limited is responsible for enforcing certain restrictive covenants, that these are not planning matters the Council can enforce, and that all applicants for development should consult the company to establish which covenants apply to their property. Where a crossover would affect a private road, a separate application must be made to the company. Many estate trees are under Tree Preservation Orders.

The same appraisal sets a specific requirement worth knowing before designing below ground: any application including a basement should be submitted with a Flood Risk Assessment detailing the effect of the proposals on any existing underground watercourses. Moor Park Mansion is Grade I listed and stands at the centre of a Grade II* registered park laid out by Capability Brown around 1753.

Chalk beneath, water everywhere, and the Chilterns above

The Council's own policy text states that the district is entirely underlain by a pervious aquifer which is the main drinking water resource for the area, and Source Protection Zone conditions are applied in practice to sites including central Rickmansworth. Three Rivers is also formally an area of serious water stress. For building work that translates into real scrutiny of anything affecting ground water: piling, deep foundations, below ground storage and contamination risk.

Rickmansworth sits at the confluence of the Colne, the Chess and the Gade, alongside the Grand Union Canal and former gravel pit lakes, which the Council describes as producing a complex flooding picture and a wide floodplain, with risk from rivers, surface water, groundwater, sewers and reservoirs. Chorleywood and Sarratt fall within or near the Chilterns National Landscape, 546 hectares of which lie in the district, and Policy DM7(a) requires regard to the Chilterns Buildings Design Guide and its technical notes on flint, brick and roofing materials. Chorleywood parish alone contains four conservation areas: Chorleywood Common, Chorleywood Station Estate, Loudwater Estate and Outer Loudwater.

Speak to us about your Rickmansworth & Chorleywood project

If you are planning a build, refurbishment or extension in Rickmansworth & Chorleywood, call us on 020 3675 3999 or book a free consultation here. Our registered office is Unit 324-B, The Wenta Business Centre, Colne Way, Watford, WD24 7ND.

Frequently asked questions

Where is Crown Building based?

Crown Building's registered office is at Unit 324-B, The Wenta Business Centre, Colne Way, Watford, WD24 7ND. We work throughout London within the M25 and across Hertfordshire and the Home Counties.

Which areas around Rickmansworth & Chorleywood do you cover?

We cover Rickmansworth, Chorleywood, Loudwater, Croxley Green, Sarratt, Maple Cross and the Moor Park borders.

Do you take on knock-down-rebuild projects in Chorleywood?

Yes. Replacement dwellings on established plots are a core specialism, we manage planning strategy, demolition, groundworks and the complete build, with transparent itemised pricing from tender stage.