Gerrards Cross Road, Stoke Poges, SL2

This extended five/six bedroom detached family home has been recently renovated to a high specification whilst keeping plenty of its character features. 'The Laurels' provides flexible and spacious living accommodation stretching to approximately 3440 sqft. 

The 'Energy Efficient' home was totally remodelled and painstakingly refurbished by its current owners and the ground floor includes underfloor heating throughout. There is a stunning 29ft granite fitted kitchen/diner with integrated appliances, high-gloss cabinetry, a breakfast island and bi-fold doors onto the west-facing garden. 

In addition, there is a 13ft bay fronted sitting room, a utility room, a cloakroom and a large and welcoming entrance hall. 

To the first floor there are five well-proportioned bedrooms, with the master bedroom benefiting from a dressing room and ensuite. The second bedroom also benefits from an ensuite whilst there is a contemporary four piece family bathroom. 

The second floor hosts the sixth bedroom/cinema room and loft storage space stretching to 28ft (which could be adapted into further living space stpp). 

Externally, there is a large paved driveway leading to an integrated 19ft garage, providing parking for up to five cars. To the side a separate workshop space, and a wooden shed offers additional storage. The rear garden is a secluded retreat, mainly laid to lawn and surrounded by mature shrubbery and trees. A paved patio area is perfect for outdoor entertaining.

This property is an excellent family purchase due to its generous size and convenient location nearby to a range of amenities and schools and would be ideally suited to the discerning buyer. 

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Original 1930s house is double-skinned brick wall, with render to outside. Side and Rear extensions completed in 2020 are Insulated Concrete Formwork, made from Durisol Woodcrete ICF blocks, with 200mm insulation on the outer face and 100mm poured concrete on the inner face, acting as a thermal store, and rendered to the outside. Roof is tiled. All windows are modern double-glazed. Garage door is double-skinned and insulated. Two side doors from garage and utility are also insulated.

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Brief History

The Laurels is a 1930s detached house which sits on a freehold plot of land which was previously part of the Clevehurst Estate that extended all the way from Pennylets Green to Clevehurst Close. It was one of the first parcels of land to be separated out from the Clevehurst Estate and was purchased by Mr J. H. Elderfield on 6th November 1934. The Laurels was built no earlier than 1935. It is a typical 1930s “Tudorbethan” style with large curved bay windows to the front, with a mixture of exposed brick, painted render and black-painted timber facings. As it was presumably a self-build project, rather than part of a large housing estate development, it is one of the only such 1930s-style detached houses in Stoke Poges with its original period character preserved.

Super-Insulated Home

As part of the extension, the design was to create a super-insulated family home, with the wrap-around extension being constructed from an Insulated Concrete Formwork (ICF) block made from recycled pallet wood mixed with a cement base. The manufacturing process means that the finished blocks do not absorb moisture, so they can never suffer from rising damp or rot, and they are also vermin proof. Each block has a cavity for 100mm of concrete to be poured once the basic wall shape has been constructed, and the concrete bonds the blocks together, forming an extremely strong and solid wall, which provides excellent sound insulation as well as acting as a thermal heat store. With 200mm of insulation on the outside of the poured concrete, the end result is a very solid, quiet, and thermally-efficient form of construction.

Hot Water Underfloor Heating

The extension also provided the opportunity to install a hot water underfloor heating system throughout the ground floor in both the old property and the new extension. This involved removing all the original floor boards and joists in the original house and then packing the floor area of the Front Reception room, the Hallway and the Dining Area with 200mm of rigid foam insulation in order to bring it up to the same height as the modern extension, which has a 100mm of insulation on top of a concrete base. This allowed for the entire downstairs floor to be poured with concrete screed in one pour, ensuring consistency in both the original house and the modern extension.

Gas and Electric Costs

With so much insulation, the running costs of the extended house are actually significantly lower than the original 1930s house which had no cavity walls or insulation or double glazing, despite the extended house being at least 3x times the size of the original. In addition to the extension insulation, there are 3 other reasons for the low running costs: 1. Hot water UFH only requires water to be heated to 37C rather than at least 65-70C for radiators. The UFH also generates constant low level heat across the entire floor area, rather than in a single hot spot from a radiator on a wall. 2. The large entrance hallway also acts as a central heat source for the core of the house, with the radiators upstairs only used for 1.5 hours a day at most. 3. The concrete screed under the tiled floor and the 100mm concrete in the ICF wall construction both act as a thermal store. This means that they absorb the heat from the UFH and this is then transmitted back into the room after the UFH turns...

Period Character

The current owners were very keen to retain the 1930s character to the front elevation, so when they installed double-glazing and a new front door with triple glazing, they specifically asked the double-glazing company to match the roses on the new front door for the small top windows on both bay windows. In addition, the original leaded single-glazed side lights either side and above the front door were also replaced with modern leaded double-glazing units installed directly into the original wooden frames. The front door has been painted in Wedgewood Blue which is typical of the 1930s style. The double-glazing frames have a white wood-effect finish which reduces the usual shiny finish of UPVC frames, and require no painting or other maintenance other than the occasional cleaning. The external window sills are also black-timber effect (usually white) which retains the authentic 1930s character. The owners also sourced period “monkey tail” window handles which are much more sensitiv...