Builders in Verwood

Building work in Verwood

Bungalow and house extensions in Verwood

Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd builds single storey extensions, opens up kitchens with a steel beam, lays new brickwork, insulates and boards lofts, and plasters, renders and roofs the work, across Verwood and the villages round it. Thomas Hannen comes out for free and puts an itemised price in writing.

Much of Verwood is bungalows and houses built from the 1980s on, and that stock suits extending. Dorset Council is the planning authority, and there is no conservation area over the town, so a single storey rear extension within the size limits is usually permitted development under the householder rules. The questions are practical ones: how far back you can go, where the drains run, and whether the new roof can tie into the old one cleanly. A kitchen knock-through needs a steel beam sized by an engineer and set on padstones.

Going up into a bungalow roof is a bigger job than it looks. The ceiling joists become a floor and usually need strengthening, the stair has to fit somewhere, and building regulations apply to the whole room. They cover the structure (Approved Document A), fire safety (Approved Document B: a protected route down the stairs to an outside door, fire doors onto it, and smoke alarms), the stair itself (Approved Document K), the insulation (Approved Document L) and the ventilation (Approved Document F). We tell you at the visit whether the roof has the headroom to be worth it. The insulating and boarding stage is in our recent projects, next to extensions at plate height.

For a single storey extension in Verwood the paperwork is short: a building notice or full plans, a party wall notice if the house is attached, and a completion certificate from building control at the end. Alongside, we build garden walls and garages, plaster, lay drives and soakaways and fit kitchens. For the roof on its own, see the page for roofers in Verwood.

Around the house

Side extensions, garages and soakaways

Most Verwood houses were built from the 1980s on, in cavity brick with room at the side or the back, so they extend well. The work below is the building that goes with an extension or on its own: side extensions, garage conversions, and the drains that take the water away.

Rear and side extensions on a newer house

On a house of this age the new walls are cavity brick or block to match, and the join to the old wall is straightforward: tied in, with a cavity tray over the new roof so water in the old cavity is turned out. A single storey side extension on a bungalow is often permitted development within the householder rules, as long as it stays single storey and no wider than half the original house. Some estate houses were approved with conditions that removed those rights, so we check the planning history before anything is drawn. Building control inspects the footings, the damp-proof course, the drainage and the roof, and issues a completion certificate at the end.

Garage conversions

Plenty of 1980s and 1990s houses have an integral or attached garage, and it is the quickest way to add a room. It rarely needs planning, unless a condition keeps the garage for parking. It does need building regulations: a new cavity wall on a footing where the door was, the floor raised and insulated to meet the house, and a window for light and ventilation. We also check whether a drain runs under the floor before anything is dug.

Soakaways and surface water

Every new roof and hard surface sends water somewhere. Approved Document H puts a soakaway first where the ground will take it, so we dig a trial hole and test it before designing one. If the test fails, the water goes to a surface water drain. On a front drive, an impermeable surface over five square metres needs planning permission unless it drains, so we lay block paving or resin that lets water through, or fall the drive to a soakaway.

On the estates the roofs are mostly concrete interlocking tile and still fairly young, so the roof work is usually at the edges: the ridge, the verges and the felt at the eaves. That is on the page for roof repairs in Verwood.