Kitchen Extensions Stevenage

Just over half of Stevenage's homes, 51.3 per cent, are terraced houses, so a kitchen extension here is often a single storey room across the back of a New Town terrace. Where it needs planning permission, the borough's Design Guidance sets the size. Principle HD8 says it should project no more than 3.5 metres where it sits within 1m of a shared boundary, and 4 metres in other cases, with eaves and ridge limits too. We plan the steel, drainage, roof and new kitchen as one programme, built to your designer's drawings.

For Stevenage, on London-derived ranges 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; Hertfordshire work generally runs below that. GS Renovation Ltd, a building contractor based in Potters Bar, does the work in Stevenage: 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 rear kitchen extension can go in Stevenage

Up to 3.5 metres from the rear wall if the extension comes within 1m of a shared boundary, and up to 4 metres otherwise, where the extension needs planning permission. On a mid terrace the neighbouring fence is normally within that metre, so the shorter figure is the one to design to. A smaller rear extension may fall within permitted development and need no application, though building regulations apply either way, and a flat has no householder permitted development rights at all. The depth decides whether a dining table fits beside the island, so settle it before the kitchen layout is drawn.

The same principle limits a single storey rear extension in Stevenage to 3 metres at the eaves and 4 metres at the ridge. A pitched or lean to roof has to fit inside those two heights, which in turn fixes the pitch the roof lights sit at and how much headroom you keep where the extension meets the old back wall. We check the finished levels on site against the approved section before the roof goes on.

Housing in Stevenage

The stock in Stevenage runs to roughly 38,430 dwellings, 24% of them flats and 76% houses, built 2% before 1919, 1% between 1919 and 1939 and 96% after 1945. A terrace kitchen extension in Stevenage starts in a narrow side return, and 52% of homes here are terraced.

Neighbour tests that shape the plan in Stevenage

The borough tests householder extensions against the 45-degree rule wherever the new work would sit next to a neighbouring window. On a terrace that window is often the kitchen or back room next door, a few feet from your party line. Passing the test can mean pulling the extension in, hipping the roof down towards the boundary, or stepping the depth, and each of those choices changes where the steel and the roof lights go.

Stevenage also applies the Local Plan's minimum separation distances between dwellings to extensions, and it considers a balcony or roof terrace on a rear extension rarely acceptable because of neighbour privacy. If you were hoping to step out onto a flat roof from a bedroom, plan the extension as a plain single storey room instead. A flat roof can still carry a lantern or a row of roof lights over the new kitchen.

Drains under the garden decide the building control route

A Stevenage terrace can have a public sewer running behind the houses, and building close to one changes the paperwork. Hertfordshire Building Control states that a Building Notice cannot be used if you are building over or within 3 metres of a public sewer. The job then needs the plans route to building control, and the water company's build over agreement as well. We lift the manholes and trace the run at the survey stage, so the route is known before a start date is fixed.

Where no public sewer is in the way, work under a Building Notice can start on site after 48 hours, which shortens the lead in. Either way the new kitchen's waste, the sink position and any rainwater from the extension roof need a fall to a connection point. We lay the new runs, book the drainage inspection before the trenches are backfilled, and keep the existing kitchen working as long as the sequence allows.

Broadwater terraces with long gardens and low roofs

The council describes Broadwater's two storey terraced housing as built in terraces of six to ten houses with long rear gardens. In Stevenage that leaves room for the full depth the guidance allows without losing the lawn, but materials still travel through the house or along a rear path, so we plan deliveries in small loads. Some of Broadwater's first houses were Wimpey no-fines homes with a cast concrete outer structure, so the structural engineer we appoint details the opening in that back wall before it is cut.

The Broadwater Conservation Area Management Plan records that many properties there have monopitch and flat roofs. Tying a new extension roof into a shallow monopitch leaves little height at the junction, so the ridge and eaves limits and the existing roof line have to be drawn together. Designation also rules out the paid fast track planning service for a householder application, so allow for the standard determination period in your programme.

• Boiler relocation and flue changes on the enclosed rear wall
• Soil stack and gully rerouting beneath the new floor
• New kitchen circuits, with Part P certification from a registered electrician

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for all 12 statistical areas in Stevenage. Counts rounded by the VOA.

Alongside kitchen extensions in Stevenage, the pages that usually help next are kitchen renovation in Stevenage, kitchen extensions in Hitchin, fitting the kitchen itself, party wall notices for a kitchen extension, our London kitchen extensions page and Getting Daylight Into a Deep Plan.

Why Choose GS Renovation in Stevenage

We run a kitchen extension as one job: groundworks, drainage, steel to the calculations issued by the structural engineer we appoint, the roof and glazing, then the kitchen itself. You deal with one person from the survey to the handover. We build to the approved drawings, book each building control inspection at the stage it is needed, and hand over the completion paperwork for your records. A registered electrician certifies the new circuits and a Gas Safe engineer handles any gas hob or boiler move.

• Free follow-up visit after completion if anything needs attention
• Screed left to dry before the kitchen floor finish goes down
• Building control and Part P certificates handed over together at the end

Reviewed jobs near Stevenage

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

• Kitchen worktops, Stevenage, 24 Jun 2021 (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.