Householder Extensions and Conversions – Page 7
Design and policy detail for extensions, lofts, garden rooms, garages, porches and driveways.
Householder Extensions and Conversions articles – page 7
251 articlesMatching brickwork on an extension and why it never blends
Matching bricks on an extension is a planning condition with consequences, not a finishing touch. What officers actually test, and how to get the condition discharged first time.
Set back on a two storey side extension from the flank
The set back at first floor exists to stop a street of semis reading as a terrace. Here is where the dimension comes from, when it is waived, and how to design the return without losing space.
Extending over a public sewer in a back garden
An extension over or within 3 metres of a public sewer needs a build over agreement from the water company as well as planning permission. Here is how to find the pipe and deal with it early.
Flues, vents and stoves on a house elevation
A flue is usually permitted development below a metre above the ridge. The harder questions are smoke control areas, appliance exemption and listed building consent.
Bay windows, canopies and small projections
Class A permits enlargement but not beyond the principal elevation, so a front bay is an application and a rear one usually is not. Porches have their own class.
Converting an outbuilding into habitable accommodation
Class E covers buildings incidental to the house. A bed, a kitchen and a bathroom take the use outside it, and the ancillary test then decides which application you make.
Removing a chimney: when planning permission applies
There is no permitted development class that allows chimney removal outright. The test is whether the external appearance changes materially, and in a conservation area an Article 4 direction may decide it for you.
Wrap around extensions and the Class A limits
Rear limits and side limits both apply to a wrap around, and the side element usually fails first. How to work out whether yours is permitted development.
Roof terraces on a flat roof extension
A roof terrace is a raised platform and falls outside permitted development. What the privacy assessment involves and how to draw the mitigation properly.
Siting an air source heat pump on a small plot
On a small plot the heat pump condition that matters is noise. How the MCS planning standard calculation works, and where Class G stops applying altogether.
When external wall insulation needs planning permission
Class A of the GPDO usually allows external wall insulation on a house, but not on article 2(3) land, and the similar appearance condition still has to be met.
Replacing windows in an Article 4 conservation area
An Article 4 direction removes the permitted development right rather than banning replacement. Where a genuine match may not be development at all, and what a conservation officer looks at.
Rooflights and the 150 millimetre projection limit
Class C of the GPDO allows rooflights that project no more than 150 millimetres beyond the plane of the original roof. The measurement, the obscure glazing condition and why conservation areas rarely remove the right.
Front garden parking and permeable surfacing
Front garden parking is permitted development under Class F only where the surface is porous or the run-off is kept inside your boundary. The dropped kerb is a separate consent under the Highways Act 1980.
Front porches within permitted development limits
Three limits govern a porch under permitted development, and the two metre highway separation rules out more front porches than the size limit ever does.
Hip to gable conversions and where they fail
A hip to gable is permitted development on most houses. The volume it consumes, and what it does to a semi-detached pair, is where the trouble starts.
Dormer design that survives a planning officer
Forty or fifty cubic metres is the permitted development allowance for a dormer. Building to the maximum is often what gets a scheme refused when it needs consent.
Subservience in a two storey side extension
A first floor takes a side extension outside Class A permitted development, so the rules that decide it are design tests. Here is how subservience is judged.
The 45 degree rule and a rear extension
The 45 degree rule is council guidance, not national policy. It screens for amenity harm, and it is a different test from the BRE 209 daylight checks.
Basement extensions under an existing house
Digging out under a house usually needs permission once a lightwell or serious engineering is involved. Local basement policies then decide the rest.
Rear extension depth limits and the larger home right
Class A allows 3 m for a semi or terrace and 4 m for a detached house, with deeper extensions possible through prior approval and neighbour consultation.
Extensions near trees and root protection areas
A protected tree rarely blocks an extension, but its root protection area decides where the foundations go and what the council asks for at validation.
Materials that match the existing house
Similar appearance is not the same as matching. Course height, mortar, tile profile and reveal depth do the work, and a sample panel is what gets the condition discharged.
Outbuilding height limits within two metres of a boundary
Class E caps an outbuilding at 2.5 metres overall within 2 metres of any curtilage boundary. The measurement conventions, the eaves limit and the raised platform exclusion decide compliance.
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