Kitchen Extensions Havering

A kitchen extension in Havering is a single storey addition to the back or side of a house, and 74% of homes here are houses: 29% terraced and 36% semi-detached or detached. Havering's Residential Extensions SPD sets starting depths of 3 metres for a terrace and 4 metres for a semi or detached house when planning permission is sought. We build the shell, the steel and the new kitchen as one job, to the drawings your designer prepares.

In Havering, 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 Havering: 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.

How deep a Havering kitchen extension can go under the SPD

The SPD depth is where a Havering kitchen extension plan starts. Havering's Residential Extensions SPD says houses can generally be extended up to 3 metres from the original rear wall for a terrace house and up to 4 metres for a semi-detached or detached house. That is the planning application yardstick, and it differs from permitted development, which allows 3 metres on any house other than a detached one. An earlier lean-to built by a previous owner counts against the depth, so the designer measures from the wall the house was built with.

Going deeper than that is possible, but the extra length has to sit inside a line drawn from the boundary. The SPD says any rear extension depth beyond 3 or 4 metres should sit within a 45 degree angle taken from that dimension on the boundary. In practice that pulls the extra depth away from the neighbour, so a deeper kitchen often steps in along the side or narrows at the garden end. We set out the footings to the approved plan line by line.

Housing in Havering

Havering's housing, as the Council Tax list records it, is about 108,680 homes: 74% houses, 26% flats, with 5% pre-1919, 36% interwar and 59% built since 1945. A semi in Havering can take its kitchen extension across the back and round into the side passage, which leaves room for a utility behind the kitchen, and 29% of homes here are semi-detached.

Roof height, roof lights and flat roofs in Havering

Havering's SPD generally accepts a flat roof on a single storey rear extension, within a height limit. It says a flat roofed single storey extension should generally be no more than 3 metres high. It also says flat roofs are generally acceptable on single storey rear extensions unless easily seen from the street or next to a pitched roof neighbouring extension. That height has to hold the roof joists, insulation, falls and the upstand at the parapet, so it shapes how thick the roof build-up can be.

Roof lights are how a flat roofed kitchen gets its daylight back into the middle of the house. A lantern or a run of fixed glazing over the worktop or the dining table lifts the part of the room furthest from the garden doors. Where your neighbour already has a pitched roof extension, the designer may match a pitch instead, which changes the timber, the flashings and the glazing we order.

Side extensions, set backs and roof balconies on Havering houses

A side addition in Havering is normally kept behind the front of the house. Havering's SPD says single storey side extensions should normally be set back from the main building line. In the Gidea Park Conservation Area, the Article 4 Direction confirmed on 24 June 2016 removes Class A permitted development to the front and sides, so a side kitchen there needs planning permission. On a semi with a driveway down the flank, a set back side kitchen can link to a rear extension to form an L shaped room, with steel carrying the corner.

The flat roof over the new kitchen stays a roof, not a terrace. The SPD says a balcony on the roof of an extension will generally not be permitted because of overlooking, so bedrooms above keep their windows and the roof is detailed for maintenance access only. That lets us specify a simple single ply or felt finish with a proper fall to the gutter, rather than a trafficable deck with balustrades and extra structure beneath it.

Kitchen extensions to Havering flats and maisonettes

A Havering flat does not come with the householder rights a house has, so any extension needs its own planning route. 26% of homes in Havering are flats, and householder permitted development rules for extensions apply to houses only and not to flats and maisonettes. A ground floor flat or maisonette with a garden can still be extended, but it goes through a full planning application and normally needs the freeholder's consent under the lease before anything is built.

Where a flat owner cannot extend, the kitchen can still move. Knocking a kitchen into a living room, moving the sink to a window or re-routing the waste to a new stack gives a larger kitchen inside the existing footprint. Expect the freeholder's licence to alter, and building control where a wall is load-bearing, new drainage goes in or an open plan layout changes the flat's escape route from the bedrooms. We plan the drainage run, the extraction path and the electrics together before the first wall comes out.

• New kitchen circuits, with Part P certification from a registered electrician
• Cooker hood extraction ducted through the roof or flank wall
• Kitchen-diner layouts planned before the foundations

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for all 30 statistical areas in Havering. Counts rounded by the VOA.

If you are weighing up options for your Havering property, it is worth reading kitchen renovation in Havering, our Havering area guide, a wraparound kitchen-diner, sign-off by building control on a kitchen extension, kitchen extensions anywhere in London and Permitted Development Explained.

The GS Renovation Difference in Havering

We run the whole kitchen extension in one programme: the groundworks, the drainage diversion, the steel into the house, the roof and glazing, then the kitchen fitting, plastering and decoration. The structural engineer we appoint designs the beam and foundations, and building control inspects each stage. You deal with one firm and one programme, with the fit-out ordered early so cabinets arrive when the room is dry. We build to your designer's approved drawings and give you a written programme before we start.

• New floor level matched to the existing house, with no step at the opening
• Rooflights set out against the engineer's steel layout
• Honest updates if a date or a detail has to move

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.