Extension drawings from £250

Often not. Most single-storey rear extensions fall under permitted development, which means no planning application, though you still need building regulations approval. Send us your address and a few details on WhatsApp and we'll check your specific property. That check is free, and if you don't need us we'll tell you.

Because a measured survey is arithmetic, not magic. We send a one-page guide and a sketch sheet, you walk round with a tape measure and your phone, and we cross-check what comes back against the Ordnance Survey plan and satellite imagery. We also check that what you've sent is enough for us to work from, and come back to you if anything is missing. If your property is genuinely too awkward for that, such as split levels, a period house that isn't square, or a very tight site, we'll say so and recommend the in-person survey instead.

A complete planning drawing set: existing and proposed plans, elevations, and site and location plans, plus a design & access statement if your council requires one. It's checked and approved by a Chartered Civil Engineer, then submitted through the Planning Portal as your agent. The price is £250 because you do the survey and submit it yourself, and there's no high-street overhead, not because anything is left out. This price covers a typical terraced, semi-detached or detached house. Larger or unusual homes are priced individually and still fixed in writing before we start.

Yes. In the UK, claiming to be a "Chartered Engineer" (CEng) when you are not registered is unlawful, because it's a protected title rather than a marketing phrase. Everything here is produced by a design team and then checked and approved by the Chartered Civil Engineer, who is the person responsible for what you receive.

The first thing we do is understand the reason given, because that decides what happens next. Some refusals come down to a detail that can be adjusted; others are about planning policy on your street. We can't guarantee that permission will be granted, and anyone who promises otherwise is selling you something. What we can say is that if things go sideways we're happy to support you, and we'll agree what that involves at the time. Before you commit, we look at what your council has actually approved nearby and tell you up front when a scheme looks marginal.

A first draft is usually ready about a week after we get your survey. The council then runs an eight-week consultation on a householder application. Building regs we can turn around in two to three weeks. So from first message to a builder starting on site, plan on roughly three to four months for a straightforward extension.

It depends on the package. Submitting is straightforward either way. On the £250 option you submit it yourself, either online through the Planning Portal or by posting the documents to the council, and every council has to accept both. On our submitted packages we act as your agent, lodge it through the Planning Portal and handle the case officer's questions. At the payment stage we nominate you to pay, so the Portal emails you a secure link and the fee goes straight from your card to the council. It never passes through us, so there's nothing for us to mark up.

On the planning side, the council's householder fee is £548 in England from April 2026. If you submit online there's also the Planning Portal's service charge of £75.83 plus VAT, roughly £91, which you avoid by submitting by post. A Lawful Development Certificate has its own fee: half the householder fee for a proposed certificate, the full fee for an existing one.

On the building regulations side, the building control body sets its own charge, which varies by authority and by the size of the job, and there's a flat £21 including VAT if it goes in through the Portal. All of these are paid by you, directly to them. We'll tell you which apply to your project before you commit to anything.

You do, and that's deliberate. We produce the full package and issue it to you, which means you can send it to builders to price the job and lodge it with building control on your own timeline. It also keeps their fees between you and them, with nothing marked up through us.

Submit it as a Full Plans application rather than a Building Notice. Full Plans means your drawings are checked and approved before anyone digs, which is what you want on anything structural. A Building Notice skips that check, so if something isn't right you find out on site with the work already done.

If building control raise a technical query about something we've drawn, send it to us and we'll answer it. That's included.

Either is fine, and both sign the work off legally and issue the completion certificate at the end. Your options are your local authority's building control team, or a Registered Building Control Approver, which is the private route and used to be called an approved inspector.

Councils are often a little cheaper. Private approvers are often faster and more flexible about inspection times, which matters if your builder is working to a tight programme. Ask both for a price and pick whichever suits the job.

That's the whole point of the building regs package. Insulation build-ups, foundation sizes, steel sections and connections, joist and rafter spans, drainage runs, fire requirements. We issue it to you so your builders can price the job accurately and build it without ringing you every second morning.

No, that's handled in house. Beams, columns, padstones, lintels and foundations are designed and calculated by our team, then checked and approved by the Chartered Civil Engineer. Most drawing services subcontract this, which is usually where the delays and the surprise invoices come from.

Yes. The remote service works with any local authority in England and Wales, and we've dealt with councils from Cornwall to Northumberland. The in-person survey option is UK-wide.

Half when you instruct us, half when the drawings are issued. Bank transfer or card. You get a written fee proposal listing exactly what's included and what isn't before either payment.

Occasionally, on genuinely minor work. Usually not. Structural alterations, new drainage, altered openings and anything affecting fire escape are notifiable, and the liability for unapproved work sits with you as the homeowner, not with him. It surfaces when you sell. A call to building control costs nothing and settles it in ten minutes.

Completely. We answer WhatsApp directly and there's no charge for a straight question. Plenty of people message, get an answer and never become clients. That's fine, and it's how the videos pay for themselves.