Kitchen Extensions Putney

A kitchen extension in Putney starts with the house type. The site describes the housing here as post-war and modern flats with Edwardian terraces and riverside homes, and houses are only 25% of homes: 16% terraced and 8% semi-detached or detached. So a house owner is usually extending a terrace, by a side return or a rear addition, while the 75% who own flats have no permitted development allowance at all. Which route applies depends on the house and where it sits in SW15.

In Putney, 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 Putney: 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 Putney house

The shape of the plot decides the kitchen extension in Putney more than the budget does. A terrace with a narrow side passage usually gains most from infilling that return and pushing a short way into the garden, so the kitchen, dining space and doors to the garden line up across the full width. A semi or detached house has a side as well as a rear, which allows an L-shaped plan that puts a dining area beside the old back room.

Only a quarter of homes in Putney are houses at all, with 16% terraced and 8% semi-detached or detached, so terraces outnumber the other houses and a terrace is the more likely starting point. We look at the existing rear wall, the neighbour's extension line and where the soil stack drops before the designer draws anything, because those three points set how far the room can reasonably go and where the new doors can open.

Housing in Putney

For Putney the Council Tax list gives about 20,990 homes; by type 75% flats and 25% houses, by age 54% post-war, 8% interwar and 36% older than 1919. Where most homes are flats, only a ground floor flat in Putney with its own garden can extend its kitchen.

Permitted development limits and West Putney side extensions

National permitted development lets a single-storey rear extension go up to three metres beyond the original rear wall of a terraced or semi-detached house, and four metres for a detached one. With prior approval, and outside designated land, those limits rise to six and eight metres. The height cap is four metres. These rights only exist where they have not been removed, so check the planning history of the house and any Article 4 direction before relying on them.

Side extensions are where a Putney plan most often needs an application. On designated land such as a conservation area, every side extension needs householder planning permission, and the West Putney Conservation Area appraisal says side extensions are not encouraged because they interrupt the spaciousness between houses that the architect intended. There is also an Article 4 Direction in the Putney Lower Common Conservation Area covering 15 to 36 Commondale. If your house is in either area, plan around a rear addition first and let your designer check what the direction covers.

Why a Putney flat cannot extend under permitted development

A flat in Putney has no householder permitted development rights, so any kitchen extension from a ground floor flat needs a planning application. Householder rules for extensions apply to houses only and not to flats and maisonettes, and Wandsworth's conservation area guidance says any external change to a flat or a house converted to flats requires planning permission. With 75% of Putney homes being flats, that covers a large share of the owners who would like a bigger kitchen.

The practical sequence for a ground floor flat is longer. The outside walls, and sometimes the garden, are often retained by the freeholder, so the freeholder's licence under the lease comes first, then the planning application, then the building control application. We price and programme the build once the drawings reflect all three, and we give the owner's designer the construction details they need for the application, so the approved scheme is one we can actually build.

Steel, drainage and the Wandsworth building control charge

The structural opening into the old house is the part of a Putney kitchen extension that drives cost and programme. Wandsworth's extension charge includes forming an opening up to 1.5m wide, and a wider structural opening may attract an additional charge. An opening across the full width of a house will exceed that, so ask building control to price the actual opening, and expect the steel beam, padstones and propping as their own item in our quote. Where the steel bears on a party wall, the building owner serves the party wall notices.

Drainage comes next. In a terrace the soil stack and drain run are commonly at the back, so a rear extension can end up over or beside a drain. A run shared with the neighbours is normally a public sewer, and building over it needs the water company's agreement. We expose and survey the run early, and sequence the slab, underfloor heating and kitchen first fix so the kitchen fitters arrive to a dry, level and plastered room in the same programme.

• Cooker hood extraction ducted through the roof or flank wall
• Utility rooms and larders at the back of the extension
• Wet underfloor heating laid in the new screed

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for Putney Embankment & Lower Common, Putney Town & Wandsworth Park, Putney West and East Putney. Counts rounded by the VOA.

For the wider picture around kitchen extensions in Putney, see kitchen renovation in Putney, kitchen extensions across Wandsworth, fitting the kitchen itself, the Party Wall Act on a boundary build, our London kitchen extensions page and Underfloor Heating Costs.

Why Putney Homeowners Choose GS Renovation

We run a kitchen extension as one job, from the groundworks and steel to the finished kitchen. The structural engineer we appoint sizes the steel, we build to the approved drawings and the building control plans, and a registered electrician certifies the electrics while a registered gas engineer handles any gas work. You get one programme and one point of contact in a founder-led firm using our own trades, so the extension shell and the kitchen fit-out do not run as two separate contracts.

• Boiler flue, soil pipe and gully moved off the rear wall in the right order
• Materials priced at options, so you choose the finish
• Rooflights set out against the engineer's steel layout

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.