House Extensions in Durham

Yes. We work to the approved plans, book the stage inspections and meet the inspector on site at foundations, damp proof course, drainage and completion.

Yes, and it is worth knowing early. The ground under much of the Durham coalfield carries a mining legacy, and Durham County Council routinely expects a coal mining risk assessment where foundations are being formed in a high risk area. Where that applies we say so before you commit, not once the trench is open.

We match as closely as the available brick allows and take samples before ordering. On older property an exact match is often impossible, so the usual approach is to choose the closest available brick and use a mortar mix and joint profile that lets the two read together.

It is Durham County Council. People sometimes send paperwork to a neighbouring authority because of the postal address or the historic county, and that costs time rather than money. For house extensions you will need permitted development limits and a full building regulations approval.

A structural engineer produces the calculations for beams and lintels. If you do not already have one we can point you toward engineers we work with regularly, and we build to whatever the approved calculations specify.

Foundations are dug and inspected before anything is poured. If the inspector requires a deeper or wider foundation than allowed for, we price the extra work openly and show you the reason rather than absorbing it quietly into the final bill.

It depends on the address. The Durham City conservation area is extensive and the cathedral and castle sit within a World Heritage Site with its own buffer zone, so anything visible from a public view near the peninsula is looked at far more closely than a comparable job on the edge of the city. We check the designation before any design work goes far enough to be expensive to change.

We do. Langley Park, Esh Winning, Stanley are all within our normal working area for house extensions, as is most of Tyne and Wear, County Durham and south east Northumberland.

Everything from stone and brick properties on and around the peninsula, Gilesgate and Crossgate through to later estates at Newton Hall, Belmont and Framwellgate Moor. Which of those you have changes the method more than the postcode does, which is why we look before we quote.

Not always. A large number of single storey rear extensions fall within permitted development, but the allowances depend on whether the house is detached, semi detached or terraced, how far it projects, the eaves and ridge heights and whether anything has already been added. Building regulations approval is a separate requirement and applies either way.