House Extensions in Bletchley
The oldest part of the new city, with big gardens, wide plots and houses that were built to be extended.
Five star
Google reviews
£5m
Public liability
10+
Years’ trade experience
Family run
Milton Keynes based
Bletchley was a town before Milton Keynes was a plan, and its housing is older than most of the grid. The interwar semis along the Buckingham Road and around Far Bletchley, the fifties and sixties council built estates towards Water Eaton and the Lakes, the Victorian terraces at Fenny Stratford, and then the first of the new city estates from 1968 onwards. Compared with the later grid squares the gardens are generous and the side access is usually good, which makes the groundworks easier.
The extension we build most in Bletchley is the single storey rear on a thirties or fifties semi: the kitchen, the dining room and the old lean to made into one room across the full width of the back. Two storey side extensions on the wider plots are the other regular, adding a bedroom over a new garage or utility.
Typical works can include
Every project in Bletchley is different. Depending on the agreed scope, works may include:
- Site setting out, excavation and muck away
- Foundations, oversite, drainage runs and inspection chambers
- Cavity blockwork and matched facing brickwork
- Steel beams and padstones to the engineer’s calculations
- Flat or pitched roof, insulation, membranes and rainwater goods
- Bifold, sliding or French doors, windows and roof lanterns
The full list, and how we run the job, is on the main house extensions page.
What Bletchley houses tend to bring to an extension
The interwar semis have cavity walls, usually, but with the early type of cavity that has no insulation and sometimes no ties worth the name, so the junction gets looked at properly. The rear additions from the fifties and sixties were often built on shallow foundations and are frequently the thing being knocked down and replaced. On the council built estates the construction is solid and honest and takes a rear extension well; it is the drainage, often shared and often in the wrong place, that wants checking first.
Fenny Stratford’s Victorian terraces bring party wall matters and a narrow side return, and the Grand Union Canal end of the town has ground worth a trial hole before anything is designed. All of Bletchley is Milton Keynes City Council, and most of the estate housing sits outside any conservation area, so permitted development is often available. That is general guidance, and we will say when it needs confirming.
We recently had work completed by CB Builders & Son and couldn’t be happier with the result.
House extensions we have built
Our own photographs, some mid build, because that is where you can see how a job was put together. More on the projects page.
Questions from Bletchley
How far can I extend a 1930s semi in Bletchley without planning permission?
As general guidance, a single storey rear extension up to 3 metres deep on a semi usually falls within permitted development, and up to 6 metres through the Larger Home Extension prior approval process, subject to the height and boundary limits and provided rights have not been removed. Building Regulations approval is needed regardless. We will set out the likely position on the first visit and say when to confirm it with the council.
Can you replace an old lean to or conservatory with a proper extension?
Yes, and it is one of the most common jobs we do in Bletchley. The old structure comes down, the foundations are dug properly rather than reusing the shallow ones underneath, and the new room is insulated, heated and usable all year. It nearly always needs its own Building Regulations approval even where the conservatory did not.
Will I need planning permission for my extension?
Often not. A single storey rear extension can usually go to 3 metres on a semi or terrace and 4 metres on a detached house under permitted development, with a 4 metre height limit and a tighter one within 2 metres of the boundary. You also cannot cover more than half the land around the original house.
The Larger Home Extension route can take those depths further, but it requires prior approval from Milton Keynes City Council before work starts and that process takes time. Conservation areas, listed buildings and properties that have had permitted development rights removed are all different again.
This is general guidance rather than planning advice, and the position depends entirely on your property and what has been built before. We can flag the likely requirements at the first visit and advise when confirmation should be obtained from the council or an appropriate professional.
How long will the work take?
It depends on the job, and anyone who gives you a number without seeing the house is guessing. As a rough guide: a bathroom is two to three weeks, a kitchen refit two to four, a single storey rear extension is usually ten to fourteen weeks from breaking ground, and a full house renovation runs three to six months depending on scale.
Weather, Building Control inspections and lead times on windows, doors and kitchens all move those numbers. We build realistic float into the programme rather than promising a date we cannot hold.
Other work we do in Bletchley
House extensions nearby
Also covering Fenny Stratford Simpson Woughton on the Green Stoke Hammond Newton Longville Bow Brickhill
Planning house extensions in Bletchley?
Send a few photographs and tell us what you have in mind. We will come and look, and the written quotation costs nothing.