An open plan conversion is a structural job with a kitchen fitted afterwards. Walls come out, a beam goes in, the services move, and all of it has to be approved. We appoint the structural engineer, build to the calculations, and coordinate the building control application and inspections. We never produce structural calculations ourselves. This page covers the Slough rules that shape what the finished room can be.
Slough Borough Council decides the planning side, borough wide
The local planning authority for Slough is Slough Borough Council, which determines householder planning applications across the borough, including Cippenham, Langley, Britwell, Chalvey, Colnbrook and Poyle. If your open plan scheme includes a rear extension, that is the authority you are dealing with.
Slough Borough Council adopted its Residential Extensions Guidelines Supplementary Planning Document in January 2010, and it remains the document your extension design is judged against. Where an open plan room reaches into a new rear extension, that is what the depth, the height and the roof form are measured against.
An existing rear extension counts against the new one
If your Slough house already has a single storey rear extension, the council will allow a further one only where the combined depth of the existing and proposed extensions stays inside the guideline maximum depth. Leap-frogging past the guideline is not permitted.
That changes the design conversation on a house that has already been added to. The depth available to you is the guideline maximum less what has already been built, not a fresh allowance from the back of the current addition. We take that measurement at survey, so the layout you are pricing is the layout that can be approved.
Openings in a wall next to the boundary are restricted
Slough Borough Council states that under current building regulations there are restrictions on windows and openings in any wall adjoining a boundary, for fire safety purposes. An open plan room that wants glass down one flank is the design that runs into that first.
It is a question to settle at design stage. The alternative is a rooflight strategy worked out after the walls are up. We raise it before the drawings are fixed, and we price the glazing that can be built.
Planning and building regulations are two separate consents
Slough Borough Council reminds householders that planning permission may not be required for certain house extensions. It states that this does not remove the requirement to make an application under the building regulations, which deal with the health and safety and structural aspects of the building.
On an open plan job the building regulations side is the larger of the two. The beam, the bearings, the fire separation to any stair, the ventilation and the drainage all sit there. We make that application and book the inspections against the programme.
- Flush beam detailing where a downstand would look wrong
- Openings formed in stages to keep the home usable
- Broken-plan layouts and Crittall-style glazed dividers
- Knock-throughs between front and rear reception rooms
- Utility and boot room space carved out of the new layout
Trusted Open-Plan Conversions in Slough
An open plan room is finished by the trades that follow the steel, so the order of work matters more than it does on a single wall. We survey, appoint the structural engineer, agree the beam and the bearings, apply to Slough Borough Council's building control service, then run the propping, the removal, the services and the making good against one written programme. Where the room reaches into a new extension, the 2010 Residential Extensions Guidelines shape what the plan can be, and we say so before drawings are fixed rather than after. GS Renovation Ltd is fully insured and registered in England, company number 14611254, and rated 4.9 from 31 reviews on MyBuilder. Quotations are free and carry no obligation.
- Free follow-up visit after completion if anything needs attention
- Heating and radiator positions reworked for the new layout
- Aftercare and snagging support once the job is finished
- Registered in England, Companies House no. 14611254
- Clean, tidy and reliable tradespeople
- Broken-plan and Crittall-style options priced alongside full open-plan