Who comes to your door

Most houses we work in are stone, and many are top-and-bottom houses: one home stacked on another against the slope, each with its door on a different street. Boilers end up in cellars, cupboards and lofts, and flues have to find a way out through thick gritstone. So we ask which door is yours before we visit.

If you’re thinking about a heat pump, we’ll tell you plainly whether your house suits one. Some stone terraces do, with better insulation and bigger radiators. Others do not, and we will say so before you spend anything.