Kitchen Extensions Catford

A kitchen extension in Catford is mostly a job on a terraced house: terraces make up 28% of homes here, against 6% semi-detached or detached. On an Edwardian terrace that points to a side return infill or a modest rear addition, and a planning application is read against Lewisham Council's Alterations and Extensions SPD. We build the shell, bring in the steel, connect the drainage and fit the new kitchen in one programme, from the first excavation in SE6 to the last worktop.

In Catford, 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 Catford: 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.

What shape of kitchen extension suits a Catford terrace

On a Catford terrace the extension that fits is normally a side return infill, or a wraparound that also runs across the end of the back addition. The housing here is described as Edwardian terraces and period family homes, and terraces are 28% of all homes against 6% semi-detached or detached, so the wide rear addition of a suburban semi is the exception. The narrow passage beside a back addition does little, and bringing it into the kitchen gives the room width it never had.

The shape decides the structure. A side infill means opening the flank wall of the back addition, so steel designed by the structural engineer we appoint carries the wall above on posts or padstones. A wraparound adds a corner where two beams meet and a roof that has to fall to one gutter. We settle the shape with your designer before any drawings are priced, because each choice changes the steel, the roof and the drainage run, and so the programme.

Housing in Catford

Catford has around 7,650 homes on the Council Tax list: 33% post-war, 4% interwar and 61% predate 1919, with 66% flats and 34% houses. Most homes here are flats, and only a ground floor flat in Catford with its own garden can extend its kitchen.

Lewisham's extension SPD sets the depth and height in Catford

Lewisham adopted its Alterations and Extensions SPD on 24 April 2019, and it is the guidance a planning application for your Catford extension is read against. It says a rear extension on a terraced or semi-detached house should generally be no more than 3m deep, and that an extension up to 3m long should generally be no more than 3m high on the boundary. Those two lines shape the profile of a single storey kitchen scheme before a designer adds any detail.

The SPD also says an extension should never take up more than half the depth of the original rear garden or yard. On a short Catford plot that rule can bite before the depth limit does, so measure the garden early. We build to whatever the approved drawings show, and where the design sits close to these limits we set out the footprint on site with you before digging, so the built extension matches the consent.

Drains under the new kitchen floor in Catford

The drain run is the first thing to check on a Catford kitchen extension, because a new footprint behind a terrace can land over or beside a shared sewer. Lewisham's guidance is plain on this: where your home is within 3 metres of a public drain, or within 1 metre of a public lateral drain, you must apply for a build over agreement before doing any works. The agreement comes from the sewerage undertaker, so it belongs early in the programme.

Building over or within 3 metres of a drain or sewer also means a full plans application where Lewisham is your building control body, so the drawings are checked before the site opens. We open an inspection chamber at survey stage, trace the run with a camera if needed and price the foundation around what we find. Where a private inspection chamber has to sit inside the new room, it gets a sealed, bolted cover set flush with the kitchen floor.

Roof lights and glazing on a Catford kitchen extension

Glazing is where a Catford side return gets its light, since the infill takes away the side window of the old back room. Lewisham's SPD rule on rooflights is written for the slope of an original roof: ideally flush, and never more than 150mm above it. That applies where a kitchen scheme adds rooflights to the pitched roof of the back addition. On the new flat or low pitch roof of the infill, the rooflights sit on upstands that shed water, and a low profile keeps the roof line quiet.

A wide opening to the garden needs a steel over the doors, sized by the structural engineer we appoint. A long run of glass also loses heat, so the glazing has to satisfy Part L of the Building Regulations together with the rest of the build. We order the doors and roof lights once the steel is in and the openings are measured, not from the drawings, so the frames fit the masonry you actually have in your Catford house.

• Foundations, drainage and slab with the kitchen services cast in
• Kitchen-diner layouts planned before the foundations
• Soil stack and gully rerouting beneath the new floor

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for Catford East & Mountsfield Park and Catford Bridge. Counts rounded by the VOA.

When comparing kitchen extensions in Catford with other work, it helps to read kitchen renovation in Catford, kitchen extensions across Lewisham, a wraparound kitchen-diner, sign-off by building control on a kitchen extension, our London kitchen extensions page and Permitted Development Explained.

Why Choose GS Renovation in Catford

We take a kitchen extension from the empty site to the working kitchen under one contract. Groundwork, drainage, steel, roof, glazing, plastering, electrics certified by a registered electrician, and the kitchen fit-out itself are sequenced as one job, so there is no gap while you wait for a second firm to start. You get a written quotation after a survey, a written programme, one named point of contact and our own trades rather than a subcontractor chain.

• Dust screens and floor protection in occupied homes
• Old kitchen kept in use until the new shell is weathertight
• Cooker extract taken outside through the new roof or flank wall, not recirculated

Reviewed jobs near Catford

1 MyBuilder review from Crofton Park, with each customer's own job title:

• Replace small section of wooden worktop, sink, tap and gas hob, Crofton Park, 17 Apr 2024 (5 out of 5)

Read all 31 on our reviews page.

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.