Walk Tooting from Tooting Market and Tooting Bec Lido outwards and the mainly Victorian pattern is obvious: 60% of the 22,241 households in SW17 live in flats, 40% in houses.
Owner-occupation runs at 43% in Tooting, so alongside the 40% rental churn there is steady planned work — refurbishments, downsizes and probate clearances booked weeks ahead.
Expect lath and plaster over timber studs; locally that also means with solid brick on the party and external walls — the reality on the streets around Tooting Market and Tooting Bec Lido behind the plaster in SW17. That is why fixings are picked in the room rather than off a van shelf, and why which crumbles the key and drops the panel, over a plasterboard plug spun into lime plaster — which is why London Borough of Wandsworth kerb rules get settled before the van is loaded is the fault we are called back to undo.
Anyone who knows Tooting knows the pattern near Tooting Market and Tooting Bec Lido: two covered markets, St George's Hospital and one of London's best food streets. We plan the SW17 visit around it. Tooting is outside the Congestion Charge zone but inside ULEZ; our vehicles are compliant, so nothing is added for it.
Getting to the door matters as much as the job: broadway red route, market loading windows and permit-only terraced streets. Tooting Broadway (Northern) is the nearest station, and one technician and a van-mounted hot-water pressure washer for most driveways; two on larger block-paving jobs where re-sanding is included, since brushing sand in is a second task run alongside the wash.