Extension Architecture

A loft conversion sounds straightforward until you start asking the right questions. How much headroom do you actually have. What roof structure are you working with. Does your street have permitted development rights or has an Article 4 Direction removed them. Hounslow has a varied housing stock across TW3, TW4, TW5, TW7, and TW8, and the answers to these questions vary significantly depending on exactly where you live. Watch our Hounslow architects   project video to see real TW loft projects from first survey through to finished room. The Roof Structure Question That Decides Everything Before any drawings, before any quotes, before any planning conversation, someone needs to go into your loft with a tape measure. Two things matter most. Head height at the ridge and roof structure type. Most properties built before the 1960s across Hounslow have traditional cut roofs. These have individual rafters and are well suited to conversion. Properties built after the 1970s increa...

  Two houses. Same SW19 postcode. Same street. One extends without planning permission. The other gets enforcement action for doing the same thing. That is not a hypothetical. It happens in Wimbledon because Article 4 Directions do not follow postcode boundaries. They follow street boundaries. Sometimes they follow one side of a street. The family at number 14 can extend under permitted development. The family at number 15 cannot. Watch our Wimbledon architects project video to see how Extension Architecture has navigated this across 45 completed SW19 and SW20 projects. The Street Level Rule That Changes Everything Article 4 Directions in Wimbledon remove permitted development rights on specific streets. Not specific postcodes. Not specific conservation areas. Specific streets. A rear extension up to 3 metres deep on a terraced house is automatic in most of London. On an Article 4 street in SW19 it needs a full planning application to Merton Council. The 8 week decision timeline a...