House Extensions in Kingston upon Hull

Hull City Council. The city is a separate planning authority from East Riding of Yorkshire Council, so a house a street inside the city boundary is assessed under a different local plan from one just outside it. We submit through the Planning Portal and correspond with the case officer directly.

On most terraced plans it is the single change that does the most. The side alley is usually a metre or so of your own land that only carries a drain, and bringing it inside widens the house exactly where the plan is meanest. The drainage in that alley is the part that needs designing properly.

On a terraced or semi-detached house it is very likely. Cutting into the shared wall, building up to the boundary line or excavating foundations near a neighbour's wall all require notice under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996. Most neighbours consent in writing, but the statutory notice periods mean it has to be started early.

Not always. Many single storey rear extensions fall within permitted development, subject to limits on depth, height and eaves height that are stricter for attached houses than detached ones. Those rights are reduced in conservation areas and can be removed by condition, so the first job is checking your address rather than assuming.

No, but it changes how the build is run. Materials and spoil have to come through the house or over the scaffold, which affects sequencing, protection of the existing floors and how long the disruptive stretch lasts. We price and programme that in at the start rather than treating it as a surprise.

You will normally need a build over or build near agreement with the water authority before the foundations are laid. It is a manageable process when a drainage survey has been done early, because the foundation design can be worked around the sewer. It is a redesign if a manhole turns up in an open trench.

Householder permitted development rights do not apply to flats and maisonettes, so an extension to a flat needs a full planning application. There are usually ownership and lease questions to resolve alongside it. It is worth establishing both before any design work is paid for.

Permitted development limits the proportion of the original garden area that can be covered, and on the short plots common in the city that limit bites sooner than the depth limit does. Where a scheme goes beyond it, a full application is needed and the council will look at whether enough usable outdoor space remains.

It can, and on a terraced plan the middle room is already the weak point. Roof lights over the new space, a glazed link between old and new, or removing part of the old rear wall rather than just opening a doorway are the usual answers. It has to be designed in from the start.

Yes. We work across Hull and out into Hessle, Anlaby, Willerby, Cottingham and Hedon, although those fall to East Riding of Yorkshire Council rather than Hull City Council. The technical work is the same, the policy framework and the case officer are not.

Both. The practice is architect-led design and build, so the architect who designs the scheme oversees the site work as well. What is drawn is what gets built, and the build cost quoted at the outset is the one we stick to.

The approvals stage is usually the longer part. A householder planning application is normally determined within eight weeks of validation, and party wall notice periods run alongside that. A single storey rear or side return extension is then a matter of weeks on site, and a wrap-around or two storey scheme runs into months.