Merton, SM4
Ground floor wraparound extension
One trip round the back, rather than two jobs a few years apart.
Project type
Planning route
Borough
Wraparound
Permitted development
Merton
The decision that mattered
Another conservatory in need of modernisation, this time on a mid-terrace in Merton. We took it out and extended the full width of the property to the rear, producing an open plan kitchen and dining room across the back of the house.
Why a wraparound rather than a side return
A wraparound combines the side return infill and the rear extension into a single build. The groundwork, the scaffold, the party wall process, the structural design and the disruption are all shared once rather than paid for twice.
If there is any prospect of you eventually wanting both, doing them together is almost always the better decision — not because the build is cheaper in absolute terms, but because doing it in two stages means going through the whole process twice, including living through it twice.
The WC that had to be planned, not squeezed in
We folded a ground floor WC into the design. On a terrace this is a drainage question before it is a layout question: it needs to reach the existing soil stack with adequate fall, which usually determines where it can go long before anyone thinks about whether the door swings the right way. Decide it early and it lands somewhere sensible. Add it late and it ends up under the stairs at an awkward angle.
Worth knowing if you are planning the same thing
Light was handled with two large rooflights, a window over the garden and bi-fold doors. On a full-width rear extension the rooflights matter more than the doors — the doors light the last two metres beautifully and do very little for the rest of the room.
Start with a survey, not a guess
If your house is a similar shape, most of the same decisions will apply. We will come and look, and tell you what the building allows before anyone spends anything.
Photographs from this job
