Rustington extends outwards, not upwards
Much of Rustington, especially on the seaward side towards East Preston, is detached houses and bungalows on decent plots. In the census area covering East Preston and Rustington East, half of all homes were detached in 2021, almost two-thirds were owned outright, and more than half of the residents were 65 or over. That is the profile of a village where people extend their house rather than move from it, and where the extension they want is on the level they already live on.
A ground-floor extension on a bungalow is about the roof. The new room has to meet the old roof without an awkward valley or a step in the ceiling, and the choices are a hipped roof continued from the existing one, a gable, or a flat roof with lanterns that sits below the old eaves. Each changes the look of the house and the light in the room, and we sketch them side by side before anyone commits.
Wide plots, side extensions and wrap-arounds
A detached house or bungalow on a wide plot gives more choice than a semi. A side extension can be up to half the width of the original house under permitted development, a single-storey rear extension up to four metres deep on a detached house, and a wrap-around joining the two needs planning permission but often makes the best plan: a kitchen across the back, a utility or a ground-floor bedroom and shower room down the side. That last is common in Rustington, where a ground-floor bedroom means a house can be lived in for longer.
Parking: do not build over the only space
Rustington's neighbourhood plan, made in 2015, asks in its Policy 2 that development meets adopted parking standards, and the residents' survey behind it showed strong support for enforcement against verge parking. An extension over a drive or a garage that leaves no off-road space is the kind of scheme the parish council's planning committee, which meets fortnightly, will raise. We plan where the car goes before we plan the room.
Drainage: a few roads with history
The same survey recorded residents' concern about surface water on Station Road and at the seafront ends of Sea Lane and Broadmark Lane. In March 2020 Overstrand Avenue flooded after heavy rain, and Southern Water acknowledged that its sewers there were vulnerable. The ground is chalk overlain by sand, which drains well in places and not in others. So the rainwater from a new roof is designed rather than assumed: a soakaway tested on site, or a connection agreed with Southern Water, and where it fits, the permeable paving, rainwater harvesting or green roof that Policy 4 of the neighbourhood plan supports.
The conservation area and the listed houses
Rustington has a small conservation area, around The Street and North Lane, with fourteen listed buildings; across the parish there are thirty-eight, plus thirty-five locally valued Structures of Character. The best known is Knightscroft on Sea Lane, designed by Norman Shaw in 1879 for Sir Hubert Parry, who lived there until 1918; it is Grade II* listed. An extension to a listed building needs listed building consent and usually planning permission; in the conservation area, side extensions, two-storey extensions and new cladding need planning permission. Elsewhere the ordinary permitted development limits apply, and we apply for a lawful development certificate so the position is on paper.
Building on the Sea Estate
The Sea Estate on the seafront was laid out in the 1920s and 30s and is now run by its residents' association. As local agents describe it, building work is limited to weekdays, skips stay on the drive, and major works are checked with the association first. An extension brings deliveries, a skip and noise for several months, so we agree the arrangements before we start and write them into the programme.
What it costs
Our price guide puts extensions at £2,400 to £3,600 per square metre including VAT, and a large single-storey extension at £75,600 to £120,000. The 50m² extension at 29 Victoria Road in Bognor Regis is contracted at £120,000 including VAT, which is £2,400 per square metre, the bottom of the per-square-metre band, and is written up on the Victoria Road extension. Rustington is priced on the same rates. What moves the figure is the roof choice, the glazing and the drainage.
The wider service is house extensions; next door is house extensions in Littlehampton. The village is on builders in Rustington, and if the bathroom is the real reason for the extension, see bathrooms in Rustington.
Send a photograph of the back of the house and tell us where the car lives, and James will sketch the roof options before anyone pays for drawings. Send us your drawings or ring 07470 078236.