House extension drawings in Lambeth

Going up on a Lambeth house

Additional floors on existing closet returns may be acceptable if there is no harm to amenity and they finish half a storey below eaves. The half-storey gap is what stops the addition reading as a full extra floor from the street behind.

Above ground-floor level a side extension is asked to keep 1 m clear of the boundary, and it must not unbalance a semi-detached pair. We show that gap on the front elevation and the first-floor plan so it can be measured.

Our double-storey extension drawings in Lambeth set out how each of those tests is drawn.

Conservation areas and Article 4 directions across Lambeth

Lambeth has 64 conservation areas, 12 Article 4 directions and 953 listed building entries. With that many conservation areas, assuming that permitted development applies is a risky starting point.

The council records 339 tree preservation orders and 226 tree preservation zones as well. There is no Green Belt, at 0 per cent.

Where the house is clear of those controls, a single-storey rear extension may follow the national rule: 3 m (attached) / 4 m (detached) beyond the original rear wall, single storey. A Lawful Development Certificate in Lambeth puts that in writing.

Who is extending in Lambeth

About 24.8 per cent of Lambeth households live in a house and 33 per cent own their home. Many Lambeth owners therefore live in flats or maisonettes, where there are no permitted development rights and the lease or freeholder has a say.

The average terraced house here sells for around £796,865, against £1,028,861 for a semi-detached home. At those values an accurate survey is worth having before any design starts.

In a Lambeth terrace the survey records the closet return, the party walls on both sides and the level of the garden against the kitchen floor. Those three measurements decide whether a side infill can run through to a full-width kitchen, and whether the steps down to the garden need to be absorbed inside the new room. We take them before the first sketch, so the design is built on the house as it stands and not on the house next door.

Lambeth's householder and prior approval record

In its latest published year Lambeth decided 595 householder applications, granted 83.4 per cent and decided 93.4 per cent in time. On larger home extension prior approvals it granted 13 and refused 18.

Those are borough-wide counts and say nothing about one house. The householder fee is £548, paid to the council.

What the drawings include and what they cost

A Lambeth extension set shows existing and proposed floor plans, elevations and sections, and the location and block plans, from one Revit model. Drawings start at £695 with VAT included, are checked by a second MCIAT chartered technologist, and are redrawn at no charge if the council asks for changes.

For the whole borough, see architectural drawings in Lambeth. Nearby, Southwark and Wandsworth apply their own guidance.