Air Conditioning in Godalming
From timber framed shops on Church Street to Bargate stone cottages at Crownpits, we plan air conditioning around the buildings of Godalming, placing each outdoor unit where it suits the house and the street.
A Market Town of Old Walls and Narrow Yards
Godalming lies at the northern end of a series of greensand hills through which the River Wey runs, and the much smaller River Ock joins it in the town. Recorded in the Domesday Book, the medieval town prospered on the wool trade and cloth making, with a number of mills on both rivers, and in the 18th century its coaching inns flourished as a stop between London and Portsmouth. Those centuries are still in the walls, and they shape every air conditioning installation we plan here.
The town also has a more modern claim to fame. In 1881 Godalming had the world's first public electricity supply for street and private lighting, powered by a water driven generator at Pullman's Leather Mills, before going back to gas in 1884. Today the question for an owner is simpler: how to add cooling, and heating in winter, without harming buildings that so many people value.
JAC Air Conditioning Ltd has been a family run business since 2010. Our engineers, Jay and Oscar, survey each property, prepare the quotation and carry out the installation themselves, and the company holds REFCOM F-Gas certificate REF1019419, valid until 25 May 2028, since the law allows only a certified company to work on refrigerant circuits.
Godalming's Buildings and How Air Conditioning Fits Them
The building stock in Godalming runs from 16th century timber frames to Lutyens houses, and the right place for an outdoor unit changes with it.
The Timber Framed Town Centre
Church Street, the High Street, Bridge Street and Mill Lane are lined mostly with two and three storey buildings, many of them listed: timber framed, red brick or cream and white render under pitched clay tile roofs, with many 17th century timber framed buildings on Church Street. The yards behind the main streets once held workshops and are now offices, shops and homes. With so many listed buildings in the conservation area, an outdoor unit or a new wall opening may need consent, and we take pipe runs inside to a rear yard or roof rather than coring through a frame or rendered wall.
Ockford Road
The western side of Ockford Road is a corridor of grade II listed buildings, from densely built 17th century cottages to larger homes in spacious grounds, with whitewashed timber frames or brick in Flemish bond, tile hanging on side elevations and clay roof tiles. Most are two storeys and sit close to the street behind small walled front gardens, so the outdoor unit usually belongs at the rear, away from the listed frontage. Tile hung and timber framed walls need careful pipe exits, and listed building consent may be needed.
Bargate Stone Cottages at Crownpits
Around the small triangular green and along Brighton Road, Crownpits mixes artisan cottages, terraces and detached and semi detached houses in Bargate rubblestone, red brick, tile hanging and some whitewashed timber framing, behind stone boundary walls with rounded cappings. Bargate stone is hard and irregular, so a cored hole for the pipework needs care and good making good. The stone front walls are a defining feature of what is a conservation area with listed buildings, so we keep units to the rear.
Bridge Street Commercial Buildings
Towards the High Street, the buildings of Bridge Street rise to three and four storeys and are primarily Victorian, some incorporating Bargate stone, while lower two storey rendered and timber framed buildings stand at the northern end. The taller buildings often allow a condenser on a rear elevation or a flat roof, with the pipework run inside. Because this is part of the Town Centre conservation area, plant on a street elevation may need permission.
Lutyens Houses at Munstead
The Munstead conservation area includes buildings designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, among them one of his earliest, Munstead Wood, built for Gertrude Jekyll with a garden she landscaped. Houses of this importance are often listed, and their setting and gardens are part of the reason the area is designated. An outdoor unit here needs careful, screened siting and may need consent, so we check with the council first.
The Villages Around Godalming, by Compass
From Farncombe, north of the town centre, to Chiddingfold in the south, each village sits on the rim at its real bearing, with its distance plotted to scale inside the dial.
The Centre of the Dial
Godalming Town Centre
Postcode district GU7
Choose a village below, or drag the needle round the dial and it settles on the nearest one. The rim shows the direction and the inner rings, a mile apart, the distance. The arrow keys step round the villages in turn.
Postcode District GU7
Farncombe
North east, 0.9 miles
030° from north, measured from Godalming town centre
Postcode District GU4
Shalford
North east, 2.8 miles
047° from north, measured from Godalming town centre
In Guildford borough rather than Waverley, which matters for who you ask about planning before 1 April 2027.
Postcode District GU5
Wonersh
East, 3.1 miles
075° from north, measured from Godalming town centre
Postcode District GU5
Bramley
East, 2.5 miles
079° from north, measured from Godalming town centre
Postcode District GU7
Busbridge
South east, 0.7 miles
136° from north, measured from Godalming town centre
Postcode District GU8
Hascombe
South east, 3.1 miles
144° from north, measured from Godalming town centre
Postcode District GU8
Hambledon
South, 3.3 miles
185° from north, measured from Godalming town centre
Postcode District GU8
Chiddingfold
South, 5.0 miles
187° from north, measured from Godalming town centre
Postcode District GU8
Witley
South west, 2.7 miles
215° from north, measured from Godalming town centre
Postcode District GU8
Milford
South west, 1.7 miles
239° from north, measured from Godalming town centre
Postcode District GU8
Elstead
West, 4.1 miles
264° from north, measured from Godalming town centre
Postcode District GU8
Peper Harow
West, 2.2 miles
276° from north, measured from Godalming town centre
Postcode District GU8
Shackleford
North west, 2.3 miles
295° from north, measured from Godalming town centre
In Guildford borough rather than Waverley, which matters for who you ask about planning before 1 April 2027.
Postcode District GU3
Puttenham
North west, 3.4 miles
317° from north, measured from Godalming town centre
In Guildford borough rather than Waverley, which matters for who you ask about planning before 1 April 2027.
Postcode District GU3
Compton
North, 2.5 miles
343° from north, measured from Godalming town centre
In Guildford borough rather than Waverley, which matters for who you ask about planning before 1 April 2027.
Postcode District GU7
Binscombe
North, 1.4 miles
355° from north, measured from Godalming town centre
Villages Clockwise From North
Directions and straight line distances are worked out from each village’s map coordinates and Godalming town centre, and the inner rings, a mile apart, plot each one to scale. They are a guide only: the drive is further by road, and the survey decides the details.
Air Conditioning for Godalming Homes and Premises
In cottages and terraces around the town, a common starting point is one wall mounted unit in a bedroom or study, served by a small outdoor unit in the back garden. Larger houses often suit a multi split, which serves several rooms from one outdoor unit and keeps the outside of the house uncluttered. For a garden room or an extension, the indoor unit can be sized to the glazing and the use of the room.
The systems we fit both cool and heat, and we install Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Electric, Daikin, Fujitsu, GENERAL, Samsung and LG. As a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries 3 Diamond Dealer, we hold the top dealer level that manufacturer awards. Our installation page sets out how we install a system, from the survey and sizing to brazed and pressure tested pipework, the vacuum, commissioning and warranty registration.
The quotation comes after the survey, costs nothing and lists the exact units, which makes it straightforward to set beside any other quotation.
- Cottages and town houses
- Flats and offices above shops
- Garden rooms and extensions
- Shops and offices in the town centre yards
Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas in Godalming
Waverley has 44 conservation areas, each with its own distinctive character, and several of them cover Godalming. The Godalming Town Centre conservation area was designated in 1974 and extended in 1984 and 1989, and its appraisal was adopted on 10 December 2013. It contains 125 listed buildings, mainly in the High Street, Church Street and Mill Lane, including the 12th century grade I Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul.
Two smaller conservation areas protect older streets in the town: Ockford Road, designated in 1974, and Godalming Crown Pits, designated in 1984. The Godalming Navigations and River Wey conservation area, designated in 2000, follows the river and its floodplain from the Guildford boundary to Town Bridge, taking in Catteshall Lock and the Lammas Lands. Binscombe, which Waverley lists under Godalming, has its own conservation area, designated in 1981, around a medieval hamlet with a group of timber framed buildings.
None of this rules air conditioning out. It means that an outdoor unit on a street elevation, a new opening in a listed wall or pipework through historic fabric may need planning permission or listed building consent, and that the rear of a building is usually the easier place to begin. We check before we drill, and if an application looks likely we say so at the survey, before you commit to an installation date.
Responsibility for planning is moving. From 1 April 2027 a new West Surrey Council takes over from Waverley Borough Council as the planning authority for Godalming, so we confirm the right council to approach when we survey. Compton, Shalford, Puttenham and Shackleford, close to Godalming, fall within Guildford borough rather than Waverley, which matters for who you ask before that date.
Commercial Air Conditioning in Godalming
Godalming town centre is a mix of retail, office and residential, with a strong presence of independent shops. Church Street, the High Street and Bridge Street have the most mixed use buildings, with shops below and homes or offices above, so an outdoor unit serving a shop has to be sited with the people upstairs in mind.
Many of the yards off the main streets, which once housed workshops, have been converted into offices, shops and homes. A yard can be a good home for an outdoor unit, out of sight of the street, but space and access can be tight, so we measure up properly and plan the delivery, the fixings and the pipe route at the survey.
When the railway opened through to Portsmouth in January 1859, the coaching trade declined suddenly and shops were inserted into the ground floors of former inns. A business trading from a building with that kind of history may need its indoor units chosen around old beams and ceilings, and we look at that closely before proposing a layout.
Our commercial air conditioning covers offices, shops, cafés and restaurants, gyms and server rooms, with the installation planned around your opening hours and planned maintenance to follow. Leak check duties under the F-Gas rules depend on the tonnes of CO2 equivalent in a system: a system under 5 tonnes needs none, and a hermetically sealed system under 10 tonnes is exempt.
Air Handling Maintenance and Refurbishment in Godalming
With homes and offices above many of the shops on Church Street, the High Street and Bridge Street, an air handling unit that rattles or drones is noticed upstairs long before it fails. Regular air handling maintenance in Godalming catches the usual causes of that noise early: a stretched belt, a dry bearing or a fan running out of balance.
Where an older unit serves a building in one of the converted yards, air handling refurbishment in Godalming can renew what is inside the existing casing, which matters when access through a narrow yard rules out lifting in a new one. A shop with its own split system can have commercial air conditioning servicing in Godalming on the same planned maintenance round.
Reaching Godalming From Horsham
Godalming is just under 15 miles from our office in the Afon Building, Worthing Road, Horsham, measured in a straight line, and we cover the town and the GU7 and GU8 postcode districts around it. Each job starts with a survey, which Nicola books for you through the office on 01403 733 492.
After installation, servicing keeps the system working as it should and the manufacturer warranty in force. The engineer works through the filters and coils, the condensate drain, the fans and electrics, the refrigerant pressures and the controls, then leaves a written note of the findings. Systems from any major manufacturer are welcome, including those fitted by other installers, and a repair is always priced before it starts.
Godalming is close to two other places we cover. Our page on air conditioning in Guildford looks at that town's conservation areas and suburbs, and the page on air conditioning in Cranleigh covers the village to the south east. If a system fails outside office hours, the number to ring is the engineers' mobile, 07802 418530.
Villages Around Godalming We Visit
Our engineers work across the villages of the GU7 and GU8 districts and beyond, many of them with listed buildings and conservation areas of their own.
- FarncombeGU7
North of the town centre, Farncombe has the Godalming Navigations conservation area running along the River Wey to its south, past Farncombe Boat House.
- BinscombeGU7
Binscombe is a medieval hamlet around Binscombe Farm, where a Georgian brick front hides a timber frame.
- MilfordGU8
The conservation area in Milford centres on the junction of Portsmouth Road and Church Road, with historic gentry houses, labourers' cottages and distinctive stone boundary walls.
- WitleyGU8
Witley grew along Petworth Road, the old route from Petworth to Godalming, around the grade I listed All Saints Church.
- HambledonGU8
Hambledon is a dispersed rural village that grew in the 19th century once the railway made it easy to reach, as cottages were enlarged into family homes in generous plots.
- HascombeGU8
Hascombe is a typical Surrey hamlet strung along Church Road, with historic buildings in the Surrey vernacular and open views to the countryside.
- BramleyGU5
Bramley is a historic ribbon village on the old route between Guildford and Horsham, with houses and shops dating from the 16th to the 19th centuries.
- WonershGU5
The historic centre of Wonersh has changed very little since 1870, its sinuous street lined with a considerable number of listed buildings.
- ElsteadGU8
Elstead is a typical Wealden village whose compact historic core of listed buildings centres on Elstead Green.
- ChiddingfoldGU8
Chiddingfold formed around a green, and the number and age of its buildings suggest a fairly important medieval village between Guildford and the coast.
Our Services in Godalming
The same engineers on every job, from a single bedroom unit to a plant room.
Domestic Air Conditioning Installation
Single split, multi split and ducted systems for houses, bungalows, park homes and garden rooms.
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Commercial Air Conditioning
Design, installation and planned maintenance for offices, shops, bars, hospitality and industrial units.
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Air Conditioning Repairs
Fast diagnosis and repair on any major brand, priced before we start, genuine parts fitted.
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Air Conditioning Servicing
Filters, coils, drains, electrics and refrigerant, with a written record every visit.
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Planned Maintenance
PPM contracts for commercial sites, scheduled around your trading hours rather than ours.
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Specification Sheets
Download the data sheets for the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and GENERAL systems we install.
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Air Handling
AHUs installed, maintained, repaired and refurbished. Filters, coils, fans, motors and dampers.
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Mechanical Assembly
Pipework, manifolds, valves and plant room assembly, brazed, pressure tested and insulated.
Explore →Your Godalming Questions, Answered
Can air conditioning go on a listed building in Godalming town centre?
It often can, but consent may be needed first. The Town Centre conservation area holds 125 listed buildings, mostly on the High Street, Church Street and Mill Lane, and an outdoor unit or new wall opening on one of them may need listed building consent. We plan an internal pipe route to a rear yard or roof, avoid coring through timber frames or render, and raise any consent question at the survey.
I live on Ockford Road. Where can the outdoor unit go?
In almost every case it goes at the back of the house. The western side of Ockford Road is a corridor of grade II listed buildings, and most stand close to the street behind small walled front gardens, so there is little room at the front and the frontage is the part most worth protecting. Tile hung and timber framed walls need a careful pipe exit, and listed building consent may be needed, so we check with the council before any work.
Is drilling through Bargate stone a problem?
It needs care rather than being a problem. The hills around Godalming are capped with the Bargate Beds, the source of the local stone, and Bargate stone is hard and irregular, so we core the pipe hole steadily, place it thoughtfully in the wall and make good neatly afterwards. On cottages at Crownpits, where the stone front walls are a defining feature, we keep the outdoor unit and the pipework to the rear.
Which council deals with planning for Godalming?
For now it is Waverley Borough Council, whose offices are at The Burys in Godalming. From 1 April 2027 a new West Surrey Council takes over as the planning authority. Some places close to Godalming, including Compton, Shalford, Puttenham and Shackleford, are in Guildford borough instead. If your installation might need permission, we confirm at the survey which council you should approach.
Can you fit air conditioning in a shop with a flat above?
We can, with the siting planned around the flat. Many Godalming premises are set out like that, with shops below and homes or offices above, especially on Church Street, the High Street and Bridge Street. We site the outdoor unit where its sound and airflow will not trouble the people upstairs, often on a rear elevation or a flat roof, run the pipework inside the building, and plan the installation around your opening hours.
Will you look after a Godalming system that another firm fitted?
We will, gladly. Our engineers work on all the major brands, whoever installed them, so a unit fitted by another firm is no barrier. Godalming is just under 15 miles from our Horsham office in a straight line, and on each service we clean and check the filters, coils and condensate drain, test the fans, electrics and controls, read the refrigerant pressures and write it all down for you. Book a visit through the office on 01403 733 492.
We Also Work Nearby
Arrange a Survey in Godalming
Send us a few details about the property, the rooms you have in mind and any listed status or conservation area you already know of, and we will book a survey and follow it with a free written quotation, with no obligation to go ahead. You can phone 01403 733 492, write to info@jacairconditioning.com or fill in the short form on our contact page.