Flat conversion drawings in Hammersmith & Fulham

Dense streets, small houses and heritage

Just 24.6 per cent of the borough's 81,244 households live in a house, and the council publishes 47 conservation areas. Many terraced streets fall inside one, and there are 268 listed entries too.

That makes front elevations a priority. A new second front door, meter box or bin enclosure is drawn precisely, with materials, so the conservation officer sees a considered scheme. Our page on architectural drawings in Hammersmith & Fulham lists the constraints across the borough.

Prices and levy in Hammersmith & Fulham

A terraced house averages about £1,139,759 here and a flat about £568,235, with average prices changing by -9 per cent over twelve months. A falling market makes the sums on a conversion worth running carefully.

The Mayor's levy puts the borough in band 1, the highest, with an indexed rate of £96.97 per square metre. The council fee is £610 per flat, and the small-extension exemption does not apply when a dwelling is created.

Sizes, sound and drawings

London's rule asks for a floor-to-ceiling height of 2.5 m in most of each flat, which tests basements in Fulham terraces. We measure before we draw.

Sound is detailed in the building regulations drawings, to meet Separating walls 43 dB DnT,w+Ctr (min); floors and stairs 43 dB airborne (min), 64 dB L'nT,w impact (max) for dwellings formed by material change of use. A second chartered technologist checks all sheets, and we redraw at no charge until approval if the council asks for changes.

Making a Hammersmith & Fulham conversion pay

With a terraced house at about £1,139,759 and a semi-detached at about £1,503,460, every conversion here begins with a valuation. The target is two flats that sell or let for more, after costs, than the house would. A flat averages £568,235, so each unit must be efficient, with no wasted corridor.

That is why layouts are tested before anything is drawn for the council. We compare a vertical split, with a flat on each floor, against a horizontal one where the lower flat takes the garden, and report the net internal area of each flat, as the officer will. If a scheme misses the space standard by a small margin, we look for the half square metre in a stair or a cupboard rather than abandoning the scheme.

Many owners also want to improve the house first. If that is you, planning drawings in Hammersmith & Fulham explains the application route, which a conversion shares, and householder schemes here were granted at 97.8 per cent in the latest twelve months.

Programme planning for a slow desk

Because decisions run late, we suggest planning in layers. Submit the application with the full drawing set, use the waiting period for the structural engineer and the building regulations drawings, and agree a builder start date that depends on the decision, not on the calendar.

It also helps to keep neighbours informed. A short note about the works, with the drawings, tends to reduce objections, which in a dense borough can otherwise lengthen the case. Our drawings show screening, windows and bin stores so the officer sees how each likely concern was handled, and a second chartered technologist checks the set before it leaves us.

Finally, keep a note of costs against the plan. The council fee, the levy, the survey, the structural engineer and the sound upgrades each arrive at different moments, and owners who list them at the start rarely get caught out by the total. We include a short next-steps note with every set that names each one.