Plumber & Handyman in Dorking

About Dorking

Dorking's market-town character means a lot of older housing stock, and our technicians are experienced at working carefully around period features without slowing the job down.

Dorking has had a market since at least 1278, when its lord claimed one by ancient right. The sandstone under the town is soft enough to dig, and there are caves cut into it behind the High Street and South Street, some of them made by mining the sand. What it was known for, though, was lime. Mole Valley Council's appraisal of the town records that London bricklayers favoured Dorking lime for their mortar and that, because it set under water, it went into the building of the London docks in 1805.

The town's older walls were laid and plastered with lime, not cement. Tell us the age of your house when you book brickwork or plastering, so that the right materials come with us.

We cover the historic streets around Dorking High Street, the surrounding villages towards Box Hill, and the newer estates on the town's edges.

South of the centre, where the town spread in the 19th century either side of the Horsham Road, the streets are Victorian and each has its own look: the plain terraced cottages of Mount Street, with no front gardens, against the semi-detached villas of Howard Road. Rose Hill is a set piece, Italianate and Tudor villas of 1838 to 1860 round a paddock where livestock still graze.

The 1930s took the town north-east, towards the meeting of the A24 and the A25. Along Deepdene Avenue and its side roads the houses are of the 1930s and the 1950s, and north of Ashcombe Road they are mainly detached and of the 1930s. Tower Hill, steep and looping, was largely built up in the 1970s.

The estates are on the southern edge. The Chart Downs houses were built by the council in the 1950s, in red brick and plain clay tile round a green. Goodwyns has terraces, small blocks of flats and, rare for a small market town, two tower blocks. Between them they have joined North Holmwood, once a village two kilometres out, to the town. Pixham, across the railway, has a church by Lutyens of 1903.

SES Water's 2025 report puts Dorking's water at 14 Clarke degrees, which it classes as moderately hard.

Plumbing is £90 an hour and handyman work £60, with a one-hour minimum. Pick a time that suits you and pay online: a £50 deposit secures your slot and comes off the final bill.