House extensions in Dursley

For many Dursley homes, a single-storey rear extension is the most effective way to gain space. It can create a larger kitchen and dining room, a family room or a ground-floor bedroom with a shower room. Pitched, lean-to and flat roofs each suit different houses, and rooflights can bring daylight deep into the plan.

An extension can add a ground-floor bedroom and shower room for a family member who finds stairs difficult. Level access, wider doorways and space to move around are much easier to build in from the start than to add later, and they make the house more adaptable in the long term.

On detached and semi-detached houses with space to the side, a double-storey extension can add a bedroom and bathroom above new ground-floor space. These normally need planning permission from Stroud District Council, and the roof design needs to tie in neatly with the existing house.

Where a garden slopes up or down from the house, the extension's floor level, foundations and surface water drainage all need thought. Rainwater from a new roof has to go somewhere suitable, often a soakaway where ground conditions allow, and building control will check that the solution works.

Getting levels right also matters for the doors onto the garden, so the step from inside to outside is comfortable.

An extension takes up part of the garden, so it is worth thinking about the space that is left. The position of doors, the size of the new patio and the way paths link the house to the rest of the garden all affect how the finished extension is used. On sloping plots, a terrace at the same level as the new floor, with steps down to the lawn, often works better than a single door straight onto a slope. These details are easier to get right when they are planned with the extension rather than afterwards.