Kitchen Extensions Bexley

A kitchen extension in Bexley is shaped by two things: the house you own and the borough's own design guide. Here 27% of homes are terraced houses and 40% are semi-detached or detached, so the choice runs between a side return infill, a straight rear room and a wraparound. Where planning permission is needed, Bexley's Design Guide SPD Part 2 sets typical limits on the depth and height of those single-storey additions. We build the shell, set the steel into the existing house and fit the new kitchen in one continuous programme.

In Bexley, a rear kitchen extension of about 30 square metres typically costs £45,000 to £97,500 excluding VAT, or £60,000 to £100,000 for a side return (indicative London ranges, Resi, MyBuilder and Checkatrade, 2026). GS Renovation Ltd, a building contractor based in Potters Bar, does the work in Bexley: the structural engineer we appoint designs the foundations and steel, we build the room and fit the kitchen, and a registered electrician certifies the electrics.

Which kitchen extension a Bexley semi or terrace can take

The plan of the house sets the extension. In Bexley 40% of homes are semi-detached or detached and 27% are terraced houses, and much of the housing is 1930s semis and post-war family homes. A 1930s semi usually has a clear rear wall and a side passage, which opens up a full-width rear kitchen or an L-shaped wraparound that takes in the passage as well. Which of the two suits you depends on how you use the garden and where the drains run.

A terrace has less room to play with. Where an older terrace has a back addition, the gain comes from filling the strip beside it and opening the old rear wall behind a beam, so the kitchen gets wider rather than much deeper. That changes the fit-out too: a long run of worktop under a glazed roof works better in a widened terrace kitchen, while a semi's deeper room can take an island with space to walk round it.

Housing in Bexley

Roughly 101,760 dwellings sit on the valuation list for Bexley. 73% are houses and 27% flats, and by age 11% predate 1919, 41% are interwar and 48% post-war. 36% of homes here are semi-detached; a semi in Bexley can take its kitchen extension across the back and round into the side passage, which leaves room for a utility behind the kitchen.

What Bexley's Design Guide SPD allows for depth and height

Bexley adopted its Design Guide SPD Part 2, with guidance on building alterations and extensions, on 29 June 2026. That document now sets the working envelope for a kitchen extension that needs planning permission. For a terraced or semi-detached house it says an extension should typically not exceed 3.5m deep. A single-storey extension should not go above 4m at its highest point, with eaves no higher than 3m. Your designer draws to these limits from the first sketch.

Those numbers drive the roof design. A pitched roof with roof lights has to fit under the 4m ridge while keeping the eaves at or below 3m next to your neighbour. A flat roof with a lantern is often the easier way to get light into a deep Bexley kitchen. The same guide says a single-storey wraparound must follow the rules for single-storey rear extensions, so the rear leg of an L-shape is judged on the same depth and height tests as a straight one.

Permitted development, prior approval and flats in Bexley

Some rear kitchens in Bexley can be built without a planning application. National permitted development rules let a single-storey rear extension project up to three metres beyond the original rear wall of a semi or terrace, or four metres on a detached house, and no more than four metres high. Outside designated land, prior approval can raise those depths to six metres and eight metres respectively. Your designer confirms which route fits before any drawings are submitted.

Bexley offers a Fast Track fee for a Larger Home Extension prior approval, with a decision within 20 working days of validation, which helps if you want a deeper room on a firm timetable. Flat owners are in a different position: householder permitted development applies to houses only, not to flats and maisonettes. A ground floor flat owner in Bexley who wants a rear kitchen extension goes through planning, and usually needs the freeholder's consent as well.

Drains, steel and building control on a Bexley kitchen extension

Drainage is the first thing we check on a Bexley kitchen extension, because it decides the building control route. Bexley does not allow a building notice for building an extension over or within 3m of a drain, sewer or disposal main controlled by Thames Water. A rear kitchen can sit over the run that serves the old kitchen and bathroom, and where it does the job goes in as a full plans application instead. Building over or near a public sewer also needs Thames Water's own consent, which is a separate step.

A full plans submission in Bexley generally needs a construction specification and, where applicable, structural calculations for steel beams. The structural engineer we appoint sizes the beam that carries the opened rear wall, and those calculations go in with the drawings. Bexley formally checks full plans and issues a decision within five to eight weeks, so we set the order date for steel, glazing and the kitchen units against that decision date.

• Rear, side return and wraparound kitchen extensions
• Building control inspections from footings to completion
• Utility rooms and larders at the back of the extension

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for all 28 statistical areas in Bexley. Counts rounded by the VOA.

People planning kitchen extensions in Bexley may also want kitchen renovation in Bexley, our Bexley area guide, a side return kitchen infill, how building control inspects an extension, how we handle kitchen extensions across London and Kitchen-Diner Layout Ideas.

Trusted Kitchen Extensions in Bexley

A kitchen extension joins a building job and a kitchen fitting job, and they go wrong when two firms hand over in the middle. We run both in one programme: groundworks, drainage, the steel into the existing house, the roof and glazing, then first fix services, plastering and the kitchen fit-out. You deal with one contact from the first site visit to handover. We build to your approved drawings and the structural engineer's design, and we give you a written quote after visiting the house.

• Building control and Part P certificates handed over together at the end
• Rated 4.9 from 31 reviews on MyBuilder
• Boiler flue, soil pipe and gully moved off the rear wall in the right order

Checked by Abdelaaziz Saaid, founder and director of GS Renovation Ltd (Companies House no. 14611254). Structural design is by the consulting engineer appointed to your project.