Listed-building apartment install, Knutsford

Eleanor's apartment is the upper floor of a Georgian townhouse on Princess Street, Knutsford — Grade II listed, conservation area, the works. She wanted cooling in the bedroom and the open-plan living-kitchen, but the conservation-area rules ruled out any visible external condenser and several of the obvious pipework runs.

The desktop survey took longer than usual because the answer wasn't clear. We ended up specifying a Daikin Stylish 2.5kW + 3.5kW multi-split with the outdoor condenser sited on a flat-roof valley behind the building's parapet — completely invisible from the street. Pipework ran inside an existing service void we extended (with the freeholder's permission and a building-control sign-off) rather than punching new holes through the listed front elevation.

Liam designed the route over three site visits before we touched a tool. The actual install was a clean two-day job once the planning was done. Listed-building consent wasn't required because nothing visible was altered; the conservation officer was happy with photographs of the completed work.