House Extensions in Warlingham (CR6)
The two halves of Warlingham want two different things from an extension. Near the centre the job is to add without the addition announcing itself; out towards the edges there is room to build properly and the question is what the house actually needs.
Adding to a period property near the village
On the older cottages the difficulty is not structural, it is visual.
Brick and render have to be matched rather than approximated, window proportions have to follow what is already there, and a roof pitch that does not match the original is the thing everyone notices without being able to say why. Render is particularly unforgiving — a modern mix next to an old one will read as a patch for years, and it is worth getting right at the outset. Where the setting is conservation-minded, what is acceptable is constrained before anything is drawn, so it is worth an honest conversation early rather than a set of drawings that will not fly.
The larger family homes
Out from the centre the 1960s and later detached and semi-detached houses have the width and the plots for single and double-storey work, and the constraints are practical rather than aesthetic. A double-storey addition means thinking about what the existing foundations will take. Anything touching the roof means dealing with trusses properly. And on a lot of these houses the useful question is whether more space is the answer at all, or whether the layout inside is the actual problem — adding a room at the back does not help if the bottleneck is in the middle of the house.
One firm answerable from survey to handover
Our own team does the building work, with specialists for electrics, roofing and decorating brought in and managed by us. One firm answerable throughout, and one number to ring afterwards.
More in Warlingham
Everything we do in Warlingham is on the Warlingham area sheet, and the full detail of how we approach this trade is on the extensions & renovations page.
Common questions
Q.01Will an extension on my cottage look like an addition?
Not if the brick, render and proportions are matched properly, which is most of the work on a period Warlingham property. It is where the money is well spent.
Q.02Can I go double storey?
Often, but it depends on what the existing foundations will take, which we check rather than assume. It is priced as its own item.
Q.03Do you work from an architect's drawings?
Yes. We price the scheme as drawn and flag anything that will cause difficulty on site or cost more than it needs to before you commit.
Q.04Is an extension always worth it?
No. On plenty of these houses reorganising the existing layout achieves more for less. We will say so if that is what we think.
Thinking about extensions & renovations in Warlingham?
Tell us what you are planning. We come out, look at the job properly and give you a price for it.