House extensions designed around how you live

A straightforward single storey rear extension in Maidstone or the surrounding villages is usually ten to sixteen weeks from breaking ground to a decorated finish, depending on size, ground conditions and how quickly finishes are chosen. Double storey work and anything involving steels through the existing house runs longer. The written quote sets out a realistic programme rather than a best case that falls apart in the first wet week.

A lot of rear and side extensions fall under permitted development if they stay inside the size, height and boundary limits, and we would normally recommend applying for a lawful development certificate anyway so you have proof when you sell. Conservation areas, listed buildings, flats and houses that have already been extended are different, and so is most of the older property around Sevenoaks, West Malling and Tunbridge Wells. Building regulations approval is needed either way.

Yes, and most of our extension work is exactly that. Bring the drawings and the structural calculations and we will price them properly, flag anything that will be awkward or expensive to build as drawn, and give you a written quote against the actual scope rather than a vague figure per square metre.

If you are building on or near the boundary, or underpinning next to a neighbouring wall, the Party Wall Act applies and notices have to be served before work starts. It is your responsibility as the building owner, but we will tell you at quotation stage whether we think it applies to your job so it is not discovered the week before we are due to start.

Extensions are staged against the work: a payment schedule tied to real milestones such as the slab, the shell, the roof and completion, all set out in writing before anything starts. There are no open ended requests for money and no charging ahead of the work being done.