Walk Old Street from Old Street roundabout and Bunhill Fields burial ground outwards and the post-war pattern is obvious: 98% of the 4,949 households in EC1V live in flats, 2% in houses.
Owner-occupation runs at 19% in Old Street, so alongside the 28% rental churn there is steady planned work — refurbishments, downsizes and probate clearances booked weeks ahead.
Old Street substrates run to often with surface conduit, over precast concrete panels and dense blockwork — and with 28% of homes here privately rented, it sets the booking date as often as the job does. Nothing is drilled until the wall has been sounded, because drilling blind into a panel with reinforcement or a buried cable behind it on these streets — with 52% social-rented stock locally, block access is agreed with the estate office first is the mistake that costs a EC1V customer twice.
Two streets can behave very differently in Old Street: the roundabout, tech offices and warehouse conversions on the City fringe. The quote reflects the street the job is actually on. Old Street sits inside the Congestion Charge zone as well as ULEZ, so both are itemised on the quote rather than absorbed into an hourly rate.
Getting to the door matters as much as the job: red-route roundabout with no kerbside loading, goods-lift booking in the towers and gated estate yards. Old Street (Northern, Great Northern) is the nearest station, and two operatives with a Luton van as standard, scaling to a second vehicle for a full three-bed or a property with no lift.