Renovation contractor in Weesp Renovating Weesp, within the walls and beyond

A fortress town, now part of Amsterdam

Weesp received city rights in 1355 and grew into a fortified town whose defences became part of the Dutch Water Line and later the Defence Line of Amsterdam (Stelling van Amsterdam). On 24 March 2022 it stopped being a separate municipality and became a district (stadsgebied) of Amsterdam. The old town is a protected townscape with around two hundred national monuments, many of them houses, combined homes and workshops, and warehouses from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, for example along the Hoogstraat and the Achtergracht.

Timber houses in the old firing zone

For a long time military law limited building around the fortress to keep a clear field of fire. Under the Kringenwet of 1853, only combustible materials such as timber were allowed in the inner ring, on a brick base of up to about 25 centimetres, and in time of war the buildings could be demolished without further procedure. Several dozen timber buildings from that period near the fortress, especially around the Molenpad and the Utrechtseweg, are now national monuments. Renovating one means working with a light timber structure and applying for a permit for changes beyond ordinary maintenance.

Newer Weesp

Outside the old town, Weesp grew with Aetsveld in the 1980s and Leeuwenveld from 1997. Since 2017 the new neighbourhood Weespersluis has been built in the Bloemendalerpolder, a peat meadow area. In these homes a renovation is usually about a kitchen, a bathroom, floors, built-in furniture or an extension at the back rather than restoration.

What we do in Weesp

• Complete renovations of houses and apartments, with one site manager from start to handover.
• Kitchens: bespoke, or IKEA kitchens fitted with premium fronts and stone worktops.
• Bathrooms with walk-in showers, underfloor heating and natural stone, also on timber floors.
• Floors, stairs and built-in cabinetry.
• Windows and doors, including timber frames for older houses.
• Extensions and loft conversions, including the permit application.

Permits and street rules in Weesp

Internal renovation usually needs no permit. An extension, a dormer or a change to the façade does: you apply through the national Omgevingsloket, and we prepare the drawings and the application. Since the merger, the City of Amsterdam decides on applications in Weesp. In the protected old town and for monuments, changes to windows, façades and roofs need a permit too. In apartment buildings the owners' association (VvE) has its own rules for floors, acoustics and working hours.

A scaffold, container or skip on the street for building work has to be reported to the municipality, and if it takes up parking spaces, a temporary traffic measure (TVM) is needed as well.

Planning a renovation in Weesp? Ask for a free visit - we reply within one working day. For a first idea of the budget, try our online cost calculator or read the guide to renovation cost per m².