Back-of-house extension drawings for Ealing homes — the glazed kitchen-diner across the rear, drawn to Ealing Council's depth and daylight 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 rear extension is the workhorse of Ealing home improvement — it is how a dark back kitchen becomes an open family room facing the garden. Because the borough is built largely from Victorian and Edwardian terraces, interwar semi-detached houses and converted period flats, most back walls sit close to a neighbour on at least one side, and that proximity, not the design, is what Ealing Council scrutinises. The council reads the proposal against Ealing Local Plan and the Residential Extensions and Alterations SPD, and the first line an officer draws is the 45-degree splay from the neighbour's nearest window.
So the drawings live or die on geometry. We set the depth against the exact permitted-development figure, hold the eaves and the flat-roof or lantern build-up under the 4-metre height ceiling, and show the projection tested against both the 45-degree plan angle and the 25-degree section angle to the neighbouring windows. Case officers apply the borough's daylight and outlook tests strictly across tight Victorian plot lines, so the rear elevation is composed around it rather than corrected after an objection.
Where the property sits in a conservation area — Bedford Park, Ealing Common, Ealing Green, Hanwell Village Green and Northfields (Lammas Park) among Ealing's — the larger-home extension route is switched off and even a modest rear addition 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 survey.
Many single-storey rear extensions in Ealing are permitted development and need no application. You will normally need to apply to Ealing Council, or use the larger-home prior-approval route, if any of these apply:
We draw the depth, the roof build-up and the daylight splays to each neighbour on the page — the tests Ealing Council's officers apply first — and submit a validation-complete pack, whether that is a lawful development certificate, a larger-home prior-approval notice or a full householder application.
Below is Ealing Council's real householder decision record, taken 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. Rear extensions turn most often on neighbour daylight and depth, so a drawing pack that proves those tests upfront is decided 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 approved rear extension is typically a single-storey glazed box within the depth limit, roofed either flat with a lantern or in a shallow mono-pitch, and finished in brick or render to match the host wall. On the borough's victorian and edwardian terraces, keeping the projection to the permitted-development figure often avoids an application entirely; where owners want the full 6 metres, the larger-home route succeeds when the neighbour-consultation period passes without a sustained objection.
Roof bulk on paired 1930s houses is a recurring refusal reason. We keep the extension inside the daylight splays, set any glazed roof below the first-floor cill, and retain the garden depth Ealing Council expects — so the back elevation answers the amenity case before a neighbour can lodge one. Two-storey rear extensions we draw with the 7-metre boundary gap and privacy screening resolved on the plan.
We draw rear extensions on every street in the borough. A few of the neighbourhoods where Ealing back-of-house projects come up most often:
Rear extension drawings for Ealing Broadway's red-brick Victorian and Edwardian terraces around the town centre — depth-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Ealing Council's guidance.
Rear extension drawings for Hanwell's Edwardian terraces and the Hanwell Village Green conservation area — depth-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Ealing Council's guidance.
Rear extension drawings for Northfields's Edwardian streets around Lammas Park — depth-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Ealing Council's guidance.
Rear extension drawings for West Ealing's mixed Victorian terraces and converted flats — depth-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Ealing Council's guidance.
Rear extension drawings for Greenford's interwar semi-detached estates — depth-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Ealing Council's guidance.
Rear extension drawings for Perivale's 1930s Metroland semis with hipped roofs — depth-checked, daylight-tested and drawn to Ealing Council's guidance.
How far you can extend at the back in Ealing depends on your house type and the route you take. This is how the options compare.
| Route | Depth allowed | Consent needed | What Ealing Council checks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard permitted development | 3m terrace/semi · 4m detached | Lawful development certificate (optional) | Depth, 4m height, materials |
| Larger-home prior approval | 6m terrace/semi · 8m detached | Prior-approval notice + neighbour consultation | Neighbour objections on amenity |
| Full householder application | Beyond the above, or two-storey | Full planning permission | Daylight (45°/25°), bulk, garden retained |
| Conservation area | Case by case | Full planning permission | Character, roof form, boundary treatment |
The larger-home route is switched off on designated land — conservation areas such as Bedford Park and Ealing Common and Article 4 streets need a full application.
A fixed process built around how Ealing Council validates and decides rear-extension applications — most drawings are submission-ready within seven days of survey.
Send us your Ealing postcode and house type. We confirm your conservation and Article 4 status, how much rear-extension depth you have under permitted development, and score your odds against live Ealing Council decisions.
We measure the original rear wall, floor and eaves levels, side and rear boundary distances and the neighbours' window positions — the numbers the depth limit and daylight splays depend on.
Chartered designers develop the single or two-storey rear extension to your brief, drawn inside the permitted-development limits or to Ealing Council's extension design guidance, with the daylight angles shown.
We submit the certificate, prior-approval notice or application, handle validation and case-officer queries, and revise the drawings free until Ealing Council issues its decision.
Often not. A single-storey rear extension up to 3 metres deep on a terrace or semi, or 4 metres on a detached house, and no higher than 4 metres, is usually permitted development in Ealing. You will need to involve Ealing Council for anything deeper via the larger-home route, for two-storey rear extensions, and for any rear extension in a conservation area such as Bedford Park and Ealing Common, where those permitted-development rights fall away.
The larger-home extension scheme lets a single-storey rear extension reach 6 metres on a terrace or semi, or 8 metres on a detached house — double the standard allowance. It is not automatic: you submit a prior-approval notification to Ealing Council, neighbours are consulted, and if one objects on amenity grounds the council rules on it. It also does not apply on designated land such as Ealing's conservation areas.
It is the daylight test Ealing Council applies to protect neighbours. Drawn on plan, a line at 45 degrees from the midpoint of the neighbour's nearest ground-floor window should not be crossed by your extension; a companion 25-degree line is checked in section. If the projection breaches it, the extension is likely to be shortened or refused, so we test and prove it on the drawings before submission.
A two-storey rear extension almost always needs a full householder application to Ealing Council, as it sits outside permitted development on most homes. The council checks that it stays at least 7 metres from the rear boundary, does not overbear the neighbours and avoids new overlooking. We resolve the boundary gap, privacy and daylight on the plans so the application is decided on its merits.
Frequently, yes. If the rear extension involves work to a shared wall, building up to the boundary, or excavating foundations near a neighbour's structure, the Party Wall etc. Act applies and you must serve notice — this is separate from Ealing Council's planning decision. We flag it early and can prepare the drawings a party-wall surveyor needs alongside the planning set.
We price each Ealing rear extension on its own footprint 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 extension is permitted development, needs prior approval, or a full application. Call 020 7864 7245 to begin.
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