Kitchen Extensions Hammersmith and Fulham

A kitchen extension in Hammersmith and Fulham is built onto a terrace far more often than onto a semi. The VOA count puts terraced houses at 21% of the borough's homes, semi-detached or detached houses at 2% and flats at 77%. So the house brief is a side return infill or a rear box behind a narrow Victorian or Edwardian back addition, and the flat brief is a ground floor extension that needs planning. We build the shell, the steel, the drainage and the new kitchen as one programme.

In Hammersmith and Fulham, 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 Hammersmith and Fulham: 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 suits a Hammersmith and Fulham terrace

On a Hammersmith and Fulham terrace the side return is usually the space worth filling. The strip beside the back addition is dead ground, and building over it lets the old galley kitchen become one wide room across the full width of the plot. A rear extension off the end of the back addition is the other route, and some owners do both as a wraparound. A terrace shares a wall with the house on each side, so the plan is shaped by those party walls and by a neighbour's window that may sit a metre or two away.

That neighbour matters for the design as well as the paperwork. A side return wall built up to the boundary changes the light reaching the house next door, so the roof profile, the parapet height and where the rain goes all need settling before the drawings are frozen. Work on or near a party wall also brings in the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, which the council strongly recommends following before any work starts, and you as building owner serve the notices. We price from the drawings, walk the boundary with you, and flag anything awkward to build against old brickwork, such as a stepped footing.

Housing in Hammersmith and Fulham

The Council Tax list puts Hammersmith and Fulham at about 95,080 homes, 77% flats against 23% houses; 56% went up before 1919, 9% between the wars and 34% after 1945. Since most homes here are flats, only a ground floor flat in Hammersmith and Fulham with its own garden can extend its kitchen.

Permitted development limits and the conservation area question

National permitted development allows a single-storey rear extension on a terraced house of up to three metres beyond the original rear wall, and no more than four metres high. Side extensions lose that route entirely on designated land such as a conservation area, where householder planning permission is needed. In Hammersmith and Fulham that is a live question: the borough has 44 conservation areas covering about half of its land. A side return infill on a conservation area street therefore goes through a planning application, not a lawful development certificate.

Some streets carry more than the conservation area. The council's list of property-specific Article 4 Directions includes Parsons Green (1), Parsons Green (2) and Parsons Green (3), and Central Fulham (1) and Central Fulham (2). In Hammersmith Grove, directions have also been made on some properties since its conservation area profile was published. Where a direction covers your house, permitted development rights you would expect to have may already be removed. Check the address with your designer before a builder is booked, because the answer decides whether the programme starts with a planning wait or with a set of building regulations drawings.

Flood zones, drainage and the steel into the house

Two thirds of Hammersmith and Fulham sits within a flood risk zone, and the council's planning guidance requests a flood risk assessment with an application for a property in one. For a kitchen extension that needs planning, the assessment can shape the floor level, the way the new slab meets the old suspended floor, and where surface water from a large flat roof is sent. On a permitted development scheme the same three details are still worth settling with your designer. We build the finished floor to the level the assessment and the drawings set, and detail the threshold to the garden to match.

Drainage is the other early job. A rear or side return extension on a terrace can land on top of the run that serves the kitchen and the bathroom above, so the drain may need diverting or a new inspection chamber built before the foundations go in. Where that run is a shared public sewer, building over or near it needs the water company's agreement. The steel that opens the back of the house is sized by the structural engineer we appoint, and it goes in on padstones with the floors above propped, so the kitchen, the extension and the old back wall become one room.

Inspections, glazing and fitting the kitchen in one programme

Hammersmith and Fulham Council runs its own building control service and lists its inspection stages as commencement, foundation excavations, covering of foundations, completed foundations, damp proof course and membrane, and backfilling drain excavations. Most visits need 1 day's notice, while drainage and completion inspections need 5 days' notice. We book each visit into the programme so the trench is not left open waiting for an inspector, and the completion certificate the council issues at the end goes into your house file.

Glazing and roof lights set the lead times. A side return usually takes a long glazed roof or a run of roof lights to bring daylight into the middle of the house, and the rear wall often takes sliding or folding doors. Those are ordered once the opening sizes are fixed on site. The kitchen itself is measured from the finished walls, not the drawings, and fitted by the same team, so the units, worktops, plumbing and electrics follow straight on from plastering without a gap between two contractors.

• New kitchen circuits, with Part P certification from a registered electrician
• Rear, side return and wraparound kitchen extensions
• Drain diversions and build over agreements with the water company

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for all 25 statistical areas in Hammersmith and Fulham. Counts rounded by the VOA.

If you are weighing up kitchen extensions in Hammersmith and Fulham, it may help to read kitchen renovation in Hammersmith and Fulham, our Hammersmith and Fulham area guide, a wraparound kitchen-diner, party wall notices for a kitchen extension, how we handle kitchen extensions across London and Renovating a 1930s Semi.

Why Choose GS Renovation in Hammersmith and Fulham

You get one firm for the whole job: the extension shell, the steel set in by our team to the structural engineer's design, the drainage, the glazing, and the kitchen fitted afterwards. The founder has more than thirty years of hands-on building experience. We visit, read the drawings and give a written quotation for the work shown. We build to the drawings and to any consent your designer obtains, and we keep the building control visits in the programme so the final inspection is not a wait at the end.

• Screed left to dry before the kitchen floor finish goes down
• Aftercare and snagging support once the job is finished
• One contract for the groundworks, the steel and the kitchen fit

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.