Porch or not a porch?

moneysaver1978

Section62 said:

moneysaver1978 said:

We don't mind doing it properly with insulation, etc. We are however unsure of the process. Do we say to the council "We want to add an insulated porch and we intend not to have a door between the porch and the house. Here's a fee of £XXX." or what?

You'll probably need both planning consent and building regulations approval.

The normal process is to get planning consent first.  For that you'll need reasonably detailed drawings, in particular given how thick walls tend to be now to comply with building regs, you'll need a design which gives you enough space on the inside, without being too big on the outside.  The planning drawings are possibly something you could do yourself, but with BR involved they will need to be more technical... so it probably makes sense to get an architect to draw up the plans for you, and help guide you through the whole process.

One advantage of getting full planning consent is you won't be constrained by the limits of PD - therefore think carefully about exactly what you want to achieve and whether a larger extension would suit your needs better.  E.g. if there is space outside, how about adding a cloakroom or study/office.

Thank you, this all makes sense. In future, we'd like to add an extension in the back so we wanted to keep the front porch as simple as possible (within 3m and not take up too much space of the driveway). Sadly, we don't have the budget for a large extension after moving in!

If we go down the route of planning consent and building regulations approval for the front, would it impact on the future extension planning?

Section62

moneysaver1978 said:

If we go down the route of planning consent and building regulations approval for the front, would it impact on the future extension planning?

It depends, sometimes planning authorities remove or restrict permitted development rights when giving full planning consent, so that may affect your ability to extend using PD.  A full planning application may also be assessed on the basis of the total additional floor area (or volume) added to the 'original' house, so again the porch may limit what you can do at the rear (in some situations).

How far into the future would the rear extension happen?

The obvious route would be to make the planning application for both the rear extension and the 'porch' at the same time. This means you pay only the one fee, and have the architect doing the one job for you, so it is more economical in terms of design/planning costs.

In theory once you start work on the porch you comply with the (typical) three-year time limit on commencing work for planning purposes, and you can then get round to doing the rear extension in your own time.  However, it would be safer to 'start' the rear extension within the 3-year limit just to be sure.

If it were something like 10 or 15 years before you'd think about extending the rear then this probably isn't a wise strategy, as things can change over that timescale and you may never build the extension in accordance with the approved plans.

moneysaver1978

Due to our budget, we probably won't be able to do an extension in the back for at least 3 years. The back extension probably would require an architect and planning applications but that's something to consider for the future if/when budget allows.

However, is an architect necessary for a simple extension (essentially a small insulated open-ended glorified porch)? Would a builder be able to help with the process?