London House Extensions

House extensions are a good way to maximize your lot area and increase the value of your London property should you decide to sell in the future. Sterling Home Improvements have many years experience in building extensions as well as liaising with architects and structural engineers and keeping to designs exactly.

How we will help you

You will be provided with a team of qualified tradesmen for your house extension. A house extension requires every type of skill, starting from the architect and structural engineer to the setting of the foundation, building the structure and all the way through to finally doing the paint touch-ups at the conclusion of the project.

Here's how it will work:

1. The estimator is a veteran builder with 15 years experience in the trade. He will visit you at the property and thoroughly review the plans and drawings provided by the architect or structural engineer. (if you have not started the planning process then don't worry. Actually we have found it much faster to take on the planning ourselves and this takes out any other middle-men. Contact us about starting the planning process.)
2. The sequence of actions and project plan will be discussed with you to work out the best way to go about the project to create minimum disturbance to your living setup as well as the neighbours and to get the result you want.
3. You will receive by email a detailed quote for all the work and general materials. An agreement will be made on who provides what materials. We have many sources for raw material and will be able to provide the bulk of it, such as structural beams, wood floors, tiles, bricks, paint etc. Generally we will ask you to provide any bathroom or kitchen suites, but these can be purchased through us if you want Trade discounts.
4. A project timeline will be worked out between you and the Production Manager, who will be overseeing the extension building at all times. You will have a direct line to the Production Manager at all times for any queries or changes your wish to make during the course of the project.

Drawings and planning permission

Popular House Extensions

Conservatory

A conservatory extension can be a great way to add extra leisure space to your house with an area that abounds in natural light and greatly increases the pleasures of living in your house year-round. However, many people build conservatories and then find that they don't use them as much as they thought they would. This can be because of any number of factors but is mostly due to faults in the design and planning process. We can help you decide whether a conservatory is truly the best option for your needs.

Rear Extensions

If you have sufficient space, a rear extension has enormous potential to change the very nature of your house. This type of extension can be combined with internal alterations to open your kitchen up to your back garden and create a light, airy, open-plan area that can be used as a combined kitchen, dining, living and entertaining area.

Turning your kitchen and back area into more of a focal point can have immense advantages but costs also escalate quickly so it's necessary to have a thorough, well-costed plan in place.

Side return extensions

A side return extension is usually used to create extra space in existing rooms or to re-arrange your house to create extra bedrooms, bathrooms or living areas. Side return extensions can also be combined with rear extensions to form a wrap-around extension. Although wrap-around extensions are often quite time-consuming and cause a significant amount of disturbance, they offer you the maximum amount of flexibility to re-order the layout of your house to exactly suit your needs.

Planning Permission for Extensions

A new law, active from October 1st 2008 has removed many of the restrictions in planning extensions and lofts in the UK. See our planning restrictions removed page for more information.

House Extension tips

Purpose for building an extension

You may need extra rooms for your extended family, guest rooms, a nursery perhaps. Keep in mind that when you do add bedrooms, you also need to add bathrooms because there is no point in making everyone comfortable in their own bedrooms and then making them fall in line in the bathroom downstairs.

Location of your extension

Where do you plan to start your extension from? If you are simply going to split a room in two in order to pass through to the extension, you’ve defeated the purpose of your extension, which is really to give everyone more space or at least not deprive someone of his original space.

Cost of a house extension 

If your extension is actually going to cost more than anticipated or that you end up sacrificing more than gaining something from your extension, consider doing a few changes in your blueprint before proceeding. The estimator can provide such suggestions once the quote has been sent to you.