Rear dormer drawings for Ealing roofs — the box across the back slope that turns a low attic into a full-height room, drawn to Ealing Council's guidance and the volume limits, delivered in days and revised free until your decision, with a free approval-odds check first.
Ealing Council granted 85% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — 2 points below the 87% England-wide householder average. Case officers apply the borough's daylight and outlook tests strictly across tight Victorian plot lines, which is where a policy-literate drawing pack earns its keep. Its dominant Victorian (1837–1901), Edwardian (1901–1910) and interwar (1918–1939) housing stock sets the design brief on most streets.
Class A and Class B set the thresholds — a rear dormer to 40m³ on a terrace or 50m³ on a semi or detached, and a single-storey rear extension to 3m on a terrace or 4m on a detached house — beyond which Ealing Council needs a full application. Ealing carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Bedford Park, Ealing Common and Ealing Green remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Ealing is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Ealing Broadway (red-brick Victorian and Edwardian terraces around the town centre), Hanwell (Edwardian terraces and the Hanwell Village Green conservation area), Northfields (Edwardian streets around Lammas Park), West Ealing (mixed Victorian terraces and converted flats), Greenford (interwar semi-detached estates) and Perivale (1930s Metroland semis with hipped roofs) — these are the Ealing pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Bedford Park, Ealing Common, Ealing Green, Hanwell Village Green and Northfields (Lammas Park). Ealing Council weighs each proposal against Ealing Local Plan and the Residential Extensions and Alterations SPD, where roof bulk on paired 1930s houses is a recurring refusal reason. Converted terraces are common across West Ealing and Hanwell, and flats and maisonettes have no householder permitted-development rights.. On roofs the borough is London butterfly / valley roofs on the terraces and hipped roofs on the 1930s semis, over Victorian and Edwardian terraces, interwar semi-detached houses and converted period flats.
The box dormer is the workhorse loft, and most of Ealing is built for it — the borough runs to Victorian and Edwardian terraces, interwar semi-detached houses and converted period flats under London butterfly / valley roofs on the terraces and hipped roofs on the 1930s semis, and a flat-roofed box across the rear slope is the cheapest cubic metre of full-height space those roofs give up. Ealing Council tests the dormer against Ealing Local Plan and the Residential Extensions and Alterations SPD, and because permitted development turns on a number, the volume you propose against the volume you have left is the first thing an officer or a certificate checks.
That is why the arithmetic goes on the drawings. We calculate the box against the 40- or 50-cubic-metre allowance, count any earlier roof enlargement into the total, hold the flat roof below the ridge and set the face back off the eaves so the dormer reads as subordinate. Case officers apply the borough's daylight and outlook tests strictly across tight Victorian plot lines, so the cheeks, the window line and the material are drawn to answer it rather than invite a query.
Where Ealing's streets are protected — Bedford Park, Ealing Common, Ealing Green, Hanwell Village Green and Northfields (Lammas Park) among them — the Class B dormer right is switched off and even a modest rear box needs consent. Bedford Park — shared with Hounslow — carries a long-established Article 4 direction, and several other Ealing conservation areas remove permitted-development rights, so PD can never be assumed on those streets. We confirm the designation before the box is sized.
Many rear dormers in Ealing are permitted development, but the volume and position decide it. You will normally need a full application to Ealing Council if any of these apply:
We draw the box within its volume allowance, the flat roof below the ridge and the face set back off the eaves — the three things a dormer stands or falls on — and submit a validation-complete pack, whether that is a lawful development certificate or a full householder application.
Below is Ealing Council's real householder decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. Ealing grants around the London average of householder applications, with roof bulk on paired 1930s houses and neighbour daylight across narrow plots the most common sticking points. A dormer is decided on volume and set-back, so a pack that shows the calculation and the eaves detail is cleared faster and refused less often than a DIY submission.
Source: MHCLG planning application statistics (householder decisions, rolling year). Compare every borough on our London approval-rate league table.
Tell us about your project and get a fixed, no-obligation quote back within one working day. If you don't need planning permission at all, we'll tell you that too — for free.
Across Ealing Broadway, Hanwell and Northfields, the dormer that goes through is the subordinate rear box: flat roof kept low, cheeks clad to recede, side windows obscure-glazed against overlooking, and the whole thing set back so the original eaves line still reads from the garden. On London butterfly / valley roofs on the terraces, this returns a full-height double and en-suite from what was standing-room-only, usually inside the permitted-development volume.
Roof bulk on paired 1930s houses is a recurring refusal reason. We keep the box off the ridge, match the cheek material to the roof, and where the volume is already spent — or the street is designated — draw the dormer as a householder application composed to Ealing Council's roof-alteration guidance rather than push a certificate that would be refused.
We draw rear dormers on the terraced and semi-detached streets across the borough. A few of the neighbourhoods where Ealing dormers come up most often:
Dormer loft drawings for Ealing Broadway's red-brick Victorian and Edwardian terraces around the town centre — volume-checked, set-back-detailed and drawn to Ealing Council's guidance.
Dormer loft drawings for Hanwell's Edwardian terraces and the Hanwell Village Green conservation area — volume-checked, set-back-detailed and drawn to Ealing Council's guidance.
Dormer loft drawings for Northfields's Edwardian streets around Lammas Park — volume-checked, set-back-detailed and drawn to Ealing Council's guidance.
Dormer loft drawings for West Ealing's mixed Victorian terraces and converted flats — volume-checked, set-back-detailed and drawn to Ealing Council's guidance.
Dormer loft drawings for Greenford's interwar semi-detached estates — volume-checked, set-back-detailed and drawn to Ealing Council's guidance.
Dormer loft drawings for Perivale's 1930s Metroland semis with hipped roofs — volume-checked, set-back-detailed and drawn to Ealing Council's guidance.
Whether a dormer in Ealing needs permission comes down to where it sits and how big the box is. This is how the cases compare.
| Dormer type | Permitted development? | What it gains | What Ealing Council checks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rear box, within volume | Usually yes | Full-height room across the back | Volume total, 20cm eaves set-back |
| Rear box, over volume limit | No — full application | A larger room | How far over the allowance, bulk |
| Front or side dormer | No — full application | Light to the front rooms | Visibility from the street, character |
| Dormer in a conservation area | No — full application | Same space, extra scrutiny | Roof form and street appearance |
In conservation areas such as Bedford Park and Ealing Common, Class B dormer rights are removed and every dormer needs a full application.
A fixed process built around how Ealing Council validates and decides dormer applications — most drawings are submission-ready within seven days of survey.
Send us your Ealing postcode and roof type. We confirm your conservation and Article 4 status, work out how much permitted-development volume you have left, and score your odds against live Ealing Council decisions.
We measure ridge and eaves heights, roof pitch and the existing loft floor — the numbers the volume calculation, the set-back and the head heights depend on.
Chartered designers develop the box to your brief, drawn inside the Class B volume limits or, where those are exhausted or removed, to Ealing Council's roof-alteration guidance.
We submit the certificate or application, manage validation and case-officer queries, and revise the drawings free until Ealing Council issues its decision.
Often not. A rear box dormer within 40 cubic metres on a terrace, or 50 on a semi or detached house, set back at least 20 centimetres from the eaves and kept below the ridge, is usually permitted development. In Ealing you will need a full application to Ealing Council for a front or side dormer, a box that exceeds the volume, and any dormer in a conservation area such as Bedford Park and Ealing Common, where those rights are removed.
The permitted-development limit is a volume, not a footprint: 40 cubic metres of added roof space on a terraced house and 50 on a semi-detached or detached one, and any earlier loft enlargement counts against that total. In Ealing the box must also sit below the ridge and back from the eaves. We measure your roof and calculate the exact volume you have left before drawing. Ealing Council is the decision-maker.
Not under permitted development. A dormer on the front roof slope, or one facing a highway, always needs a full application to Ealing Council, because it changes how the house reads from the street. Rear box dormers are far more likely to be approved — or to be permitted development outright — which is why almost every Ealing dormer we draw sits on the back slope.
Often, on a terrace or semi. If the dormer or the loft steelwork meets the party wall with your neighbour, the Party Wall etc. Act applies and notice must be served before work starts — separately from Ealing Council's planning decision. We flag the party-wall junction on the drawings so a surveyor can be appointed early and the build is not held up.
If your dormer is permitted development, a lawful development certificate from Ealing Council is council-stamped proof of it — worth holding, because a buyer's solicitor will ask for it when you sell. We prepare and submit the certificate with the same measured drawing pack that shows the box within its volume allowance.
We price each Ealing dormer individually, because the roof pitch and the volume left vary house to house, and send a fixed, no-obligation quote within one working day. It covers the full drawing pack with free revisions until Ealing Council approves, and we confirm at the outset whether your box is permitted development or needs an application. Call 020 7864 7245 to start.
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