Local Handyman Service Close to You in West Hampstead

Meters, the stopcock and the consumer unit usually share the space under the stairs, along with a vacuum cleaner, a folding chair and four coats. In the terraces and converted houses of NW6 that wedge-shaped cupboard is often the only storage on the ground floor, which is why so many people want it fitted out and why doing it well takes more thought than a shelf and a rail. The geometry is awkward, the contents are not all yours to move, and in a flat the cupboard may open onto a shared hall.

What cannot be enclosed

Certain things in that cupboard have to stay accessible and must not be boxed in. A gas meter needs ventilation and clear access, an electricity meter has to be readable, the consumer unit needs a clear working space in front of it, and the stopcock has to be reachable in a hurry by someone who does not know the house. Shelving that runs across any of them, or a cupboard packed so tightly that the meter cannot be read, will be objected to by the first person who comes to service it. Storage design starts by marking out the zones that stay clear.

Fitting a door to an opening that is not square

Understairs openings are trapezoidal, out of plumb and frequently taller on one side than the other. A door is not scribed to that shape directly; a lining is fitted first, packed and fixed to a true plumb and level datum with the discrepancy taken up behind the architrave, and the door is then hung square into a square lining. Trying to shortcut it by cutting the door to the shape of the hole produces something that only closes in one position and binds as the house moves through the seasons.

Making the wedge usable

The tall end and the low end want different treatment. Full-height hanging space and a shelf for boxes suit the high end, while the low end takes drawers on runners or a pull-out unit, because nothing at the back of a low, deep space is ever retrieved. Shelves are fixed to battens on the party wall side where there is solid masonry, and to studs on the partition side. Anything heavy is kept low. Leaving the sloping soffit of the stair itself untouched is usually best, since the underside of a staircase carries fixings poorly and squeaks when it is loaded.

Air, damp and a cupboard that goes musty

A sealed cupboard against an external wall, unheated and never opened, ends up with the coldest surface in the house inside it. Coats and shoes put moisture in, nothing takes it out, and the result is a musty smell followed by spotting on the back wall and on anything leather. Ventilation slots in the door or a gap at the top and bottom make a real difference, as does leaving a space between stored items and the wall. Where growth is already established across that back wall, cleaning it off is temporary, and proper treatment by what the visit includes is what stops it recurring.

The gap at the bottom of the wall

Understairs cupboards in older terraces frequently sit over a suspended timber floor with a ventilated void beneath, and gaps around the skirting, a lifted board or a hole where a pipe drops through give straight access into that void. It is the quietest, least-visited part of the house and it shows: this is where evidence of mice usually appears first. Sealing those penetrations is part of the fit-out, but only after treatment by West Hampstead pest control specialists has dealt with the occupants. A light inside the cupboard, or a socket for charging, is fixed wiring and work for our electrical services in Golders Green.

Sorting out the cupboard before the fit

Everything comes out before anything goes in, and a fit-out is far quicker when the householder has already decided what is going back. Measurements are taken on site because nothing in the space is a standard dimension, and a made-to-fit door is ordered on the first visit and hung on the second. The work is charged on time with materials listed separately, and making good the plaster and decorating the new lining are part of the job rather than an afterthought. Similar fitted storage across the wider area is handled by the handyman team in North West London, and the broader run of household jobs appears under experienced shelf and curtain fitting.