Extensions in Solihull, priced in writing before anything starts.
Solihull is physically easy to extend in and legally harder than almost anywhere else on our patch, and the gap between those two facts is where projects go wrong.
The houses have space around them, the construction is conventional and the plots take a substantial addition comfortably. What decides the project is which of three constraints applies. If the property is within the affected part of the Olton Conservation Area, the Article 4 direction has removed permitted development rights for most householder development, so an application is needed for work that would elsewhere need nothing.
If the property is in the Green Belt, which covers most of the undeveloped borough, an extension is tested against whether it is disproportionate to the original dwelling, and that test bites on size rather than on appearance. If neither applies, the ordinary rules operate and a single storey rear extension of up to four metres on a detached house or three on a semi can fall within permitted development.
The trees are a fourth consideration that cuts across all three. On a plot with mature planting the buildable footprint is frequently set by root protection areas rather than by the planning envelope, and it is far better to design around that at the start than to redraw at week six.
There is also the larger home extension route on unlisted, unaffected property, allowing up to eight metres on a detached house or six on any other by prior approval, with neighbours notified and an answer in about six weeks. On Solihull plot sizes that is often genuinely usable.
Our extensions work is set out in more detail there, including how the Building Control inspections fit around the build.
Four things we commit to on every job, rather than four things we say about ourselves.
Permitted development is not an exemption from Building Regulations. We arrange the Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council inspections, meet the inspector on site at each stage and see the work through to sign off. We do not make the application itself, and we will tell you what is needed and when.
Free, and you get it before you commit to us. Party walls and skip licences are raised at quotation stage, not three weeks into the dig.
The same people do the groundworks, the brickwork and the fit out. Nobody hands your job to a subcontractor you have never met.
You get a straight answer rather than a padded price. It costs us a job occasionally and saves you a great deal more.
Process, specification and what moves the price are set out on our extensions page.
The answers that genuinely differ from one Solihull street to the next.
We check the Article 4, the Green Belt position and the trees before any design work is commissioned, and we will tell you honestly if we think a scheme is going to struggle. That conversation costs nothing at survey stage and a great deal after an architect has been paid.
On most plots a skip stands on your own drive and no licence is needed. Where one is needed it comes from Solihull Council, which is also the authority deciding your application.
Where a foundation comes near a protected tree we hand dig within the root zone rather than putting a bucket through it, and that is priced in from the start rather than appearing later.
Part of our wider building work in Solihull.
Send photographs and a rough brief, or call and talk it through. We will tell you if a job is not right for us.
Southfield Construction (Rugby) Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company 14209138.
