Traditional family home transformed inside and out with a quartet of smartly designed extensions

Challenge

Interested in renovating their semi-detached house, our clients wanted to create space for their growing family – they have two energetic young boys – to enjoy living and relaxing in.

To give them a house they could all love, we faced a complex planning and design challenge. We would need to open up the ground floor kitchen-living-dining area, and add a utility room with a door out onto the garden along with an entirely new level to the house to create comfortable private space for the parents.

Approach

When it comes to the loft extension, our clients were opposed to building a second staircase so we would have to extend the original staircase up to the new floor. The planning case officers disagreed with one of the elements of our renovation plan, despite the fact we had strictly adhered to the relevant policies. And we weren’t able to use any of the permitted development rights that often make adding an extension easier.

Renovating your semi-detached house requires intelligent design and an innovative approach to create and maximise the best use of your space. Fortunately, in this case the large property size and expansive garden allowed us to create two infill extensions – one to the rear and one to the side of the existing structure. We submitted two separate planning applications to cover the infill extensions and loft conversion.

Solutions

Having successfully won the appeal for the loft conversion, we helped our clients achieve their ultimate vision of a sole staircase to the new top floor. With a reconfigured layout and enhanced ground-floor living space, they can enjoy the privacy of their stylish top-floor master bedroom while their boys have plenty of room in which to play, study and socialise. The whole family is now enjoying the home they have always wanted, with the increased value of the property a happy bonus.