House Extensions in Felpham
The extension depends on which Felpham you are in
Felpham runs from private beach estates to ordinary post-war family housing in about a mile, and the extension you can build, and what it costs, changes with the address. On the Beach Estate and the Summerley Estate the houses are large, the plots are larger and the briefs match: first-floor extensions over garages, glass across the back, balconies facing the sea, structural work to open the ground floor into one room. Through the middle of the village it is 1950s and 60s semis and chalet bungalows, and the job is the one we do most of around Bognor Regis: the back wall out, a single-storey rear extension, the kitchen moved into it and the garden brought in through a run of glazed doors.
Around the old village, near the church and Limmer Lane, the houses are older and the conservation area applies. Extensions there are smaller, more carefully detailed and more often about repairing what is there before adding to it.
The planning numbers for an ordinary Felpham house
Arun District Council decides. Outside the conservation area most rear extensions are permitted development: a single-storey rear extension up to four metres deep on a detached house or three on a semi, extendable to eight and six metres through the prior-approval route where the neighbours do not object, with a maximum height of four metres. A two-storey rear extension can go three metres. Side extensions are limited to half the width of the original house. We apply for a lawful development certificate so the position is on paper, because that is what the next buyer's solicitor asks for.
Inside the conservation area those rights are cut back and most of what you would want is an application, which the parish council's planning committee comments on before Arun decides. Most ordinary householder proposals there go through without objection, provided the drawings respect the plot and the street. We would rather get the drawings right than argue an appeal.
The estates: a second rulebook and a logistics line in the quote
Working behind a private estate gate is not the same job as working on a public road. There are weight limits on delivery vehicles, restricted working hours with no noisy work at weekends or over holidays, requirements to protect private tarmac and verges, and a damage deposit conversation. Materials often have to be shuttled in from the main road in a smaller vehicle, and that transport is written into the tender rather than absorbed and resented later. The estate associations frequently run their own design committees alongside the council, and their approval of a render colour or a glazing finish needs to be in hand before anything is ordered.
The job of ours on the Summerley Estate is the best illustration: a first-floor extension over an existing garage with a glass-balustrade balcony facing seaward and full external render, deliveries held to an 8am to 5pm window enforced by the gate association, and the glazing lift stood down whenever the wind got up. Sixteen weeks, £120,000 + VAT as contracted. It is written up on the Felpham area page.
Ground, water and the sea
Underfoot the coastal plain is silt and marine clay with the water table close to the surface, and what the trial hole shows decides the footing design, not the drawing. We dig one before pricing the foundations. Parts of Felpham nearer the front and the Rife sit inside the Environment Agency's flood zones, and an application there may need a flood risk assessment with it — a missing one is a routine reason for the parish council to flag an application, so we check the address against the flood map at the first visit.
Anything facing the sea gets the full weather. On an exposed elevation the specification is A4 marine-grade stainless fixings, powder-coated aluminium bi-folds and windows, and a silicone render system that will take wind-driven rain. Standard exterior ironmongery on a seafront extension will not see out three years.
What it costs here
A Felpham extension is priced on the same rates as one in Bognor Regis, where we have a 50m² rear extension running on Victoria Road as you read this. The bands are on the price guide, before VAT. What moves a Felpham figure is the estate logistics, the exposure specification and the glazing — a wall of sliding doors facing the sea is a different product from a set facing a sheltered garden. The quotation after the visit runs past two hundred itemised lines, with skips, scaffold and waste inside the price, so you can see which of those is costing what.
Where to start
The wider service is house extensions; the town page is house extensions in Bognor Regis, and the village is on builders in Felpham. If the plan is a bigger ground floor and an extra bedroom in the roof, loft conversions in Felpham covers the other half. The Victoria Road job is on currently on site and you are welcome to walk round it.
Tell us the estate, if there is one, and which way the back of the house faces, and the quotation will include the logistics and the exposure rather than leaving them out. Send us your drawings or ring 07470 078236. Building around Bognor Regis since 2008, £2m public liability with employers' liability alongside it, quotations itemised line by line.