Serving Windermere, the Lake District and surrounding areas
Windermere is where we are based, and the village and the lake shore below it are where most of our working days are spent.
Windermere as a town barely existed before the railway arrived from Kendal in 1847. The station was built at the hamlet of Birthwaite, the line was named after the lake, and the village that grew up around it took the name too. What followed was a building boom of large Victorian and Edwardian villas in local slate stone, many with sandstone dressings, deep bargeboarded gables and big bay windows angled at the view.
Those houses are generous but not always kind to modern living – kitchens at the back, small rooms, heavy walls, slate roofs that have been patched for a century. Most of the work we do here is opening them up: a kitchen extension to the garden, a garden room for an office, an attic brought into use, or an outbuilding that finally gives the house a garage worth the name.
Windermere is inside the Lake District National Park, so the National Park Authority decides planning applications and permitted development rights are narrower than in most of England. Building control and the other council services come from Westmorland and Furness Council.
Keswick’s Victorian guest houses and holiday lets are refurbished around the season and bookings.
Planning comes from the National Park Authority, other services from Cumberland Council. We handle both.
Near the river, floor levels, drainage and resilient finishes are designed in from the start.
Single and two-storey extensions in stone, slate and glass, built to sit naturally against a Lakeland house.
Low-energy extensions with high insulation, airtightness and glazing placed for the light, not the heat loss.
Insulated garden offices, studios and rooms for guests, clad in cedar or larch and built on a proper base.
New homes, replacement dwellings, garages and outbuildings, from groundworks to the finished building.
Measured surveys, plans, elevations and 3D drawings, and the planning application that goes with them.
Timber jetties, landing stages and lakeshore decking, built for water levels that rise and fall.
Steel-framed buildings, workshops, hospitality and holiday-let work for Lake District businesses.
Careful barn conversions, character homes, holiday lets and studios for Lake District landowners.
Practical agricultural buildings, livestock sheds, stables and storage for Lake District farmers.
Extensions, bedrooms, restaurants, spa facilities and refurbishments for Lake District hoteliers.
Yes – Windermere is our base, and we work across the surrounding towns and villages of the Lake District.
The Lake District National Park Authority, because Windermere is inside the National Park. Building Regulations are a separate approval.
Yes. Villas usually take an extension well, either in matching stone and slate or as a clearly modern addition in glass and timber. We help you decide which suits the house.
Talk to Lakes Construction and arrange a free quotation.