Two-storey extension drawings for Bury homes — bedroom above, living space below, drawn against the 3-metre projection and 7-metre boundary rules and to Bury Council's design guidance, delivered in days and revised free until your decision.
Bury Council granted 88% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — 1 point above the 87% England-wide householder average. Extensive Green Belt across the northern moorland fringe and the green wedges between townships limits the scale of extensions and outbuildings on affected plots, which is where a policy-literate drawing pack earns its keep. Its dominant Victorian (1837–1901), Edwardian (1901–1910), interwar (1918–1939) and postwar (1945–1970) 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 Bury Council needs a full application. Bury carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Ramsbottom, Brooksbottoms and Rowlands and Holcombe remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Bury is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Ramsbottom (Pennine-fringe gritstone weavers' cottages, mill terraces and stone villas under conservation control), Prestwich (Victorian and Edwardian villas and interwar semis around the St Mary's and Poppythorn conservation areas), Whitefield (mixed Victorian terraces and 20th-century semis near the All Saints conservation area), Radcliffe (former textile township of brick terraces and later estate housing), Tottington (stone and red-brick millworkers' terraces with suburban semi expansion) and Bury town centre (Victorian market-town commercial core with surrounding brick terraced streets) — these are the Bury pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Ramsbottom, Brooksbottoms and Rowlands, Holcombe, Summerseat, St Mary's, Prestwich and Bury Town Centre. Bury Council weighs each proposal against Places for Everyone (the Greater Manchester joint plan, effective March 2024) alongside the borough's saved Unitary Development Plan policies, where conservation policy specifically protects gritstone weavers' cottages and stone-flag roofs on the Holcombe, Ramsbottom and Summerseat uplands, so materials matching is decisive there. Converted terraced and villa flats are common through Prestwich and central Bury, and those units carry no householder permitted-development rights.. On roofs the borough is natural slate on the Victorian brick terraces and stone-flag roofs on the older Pennine-fringe cottages, over Victorian brick and stone millworkers' terraces, Pennine-fringe gritstone weavers' cottages and interwar and post-war suburban semis.
Adding at first floor changes the question the case officer asks. A single-storey extension is judged mostly on daylight and garden loss; a two-storey extension is judged on overlooking, bulk against the neighbouring roofline, and whether it reads as part of the house or bolted onto it. Bury is largely Victorian brick and stone millworkers' terraces, Pennine-fringe gritstone weavers' cottages and interwar and post-war suburban semis, and natural slate on the Victorian brick terraces and stone-flag roofs on the older Pennine-fringe cottages set what a matching roof actually means here.
The permitted-development route exists but is narrow: 3 metres of rear projection, a 7-metre stand-off from the rear boundary, eaves and ridge no higher than the original, and side-facing upper windows obscure-glazed and non-opening below 1.7 metres above floor level. Most two-storey schemes fail one of those, usually the 7-metre boundary rule on a shorter garden, and go in as a full application instead. We establish which route applies before designing, because it changes the drawing set.
Extensive Green Belt across the northern moorland fringe and the green wedges between townships limits the scale of extensions and outbuildings on affected plots. Bury brought in a borough-wide Article 4 direction in 2025 removing permitted-development rights for the change of use from a house (C3) to a small HMO (C4), and older directions in Holcombe and St Mary's, Prestwich strip PD rights from unlisted buildings of character.
Some two-storey rear extensions are permitted development. You will need a full application to Bury Council if any of these apply:
We set the projection and boundary distance on the site plan, prove the roof-pitch match on the elevations, and specify obscure glazing on the side windows — the three things Bury Council checks first — then submit a validation-complete pack.
Below is Bury Council's real householder decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. Bury approves close to nine in ten planning applications, roughly in line with the national average, with its Pennine-fringe stone conservation areas and Green Belt the main constraints on what larger schemes can achieve. Two-storey schemes attract more neighbour comment than any other householder work, so the overlooking and daylight case has to be made on the drawings.
Source: MHCLG planning application statistics (householder decisions, England, 1 April 2025 - 31 March 2026). 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 Ramsbottom, Prestwich and Whitefield, the schemes that succeed set the first floor back from the ground floor, keep the ridge below the original, and treat the flank wall as blank or obscure-glazed. On victorian brick and stone millworkers' terraces, matching the eaves line matters more than matching the brick: an extension that carries the existing eaves through reads as original even in a different material.
Conservation policy specifically protects gritstone weavers' cottages and stone-flag roofs on the Holcombe, Ramsbottom and Summerseat uplands, so materials matching is decisive there. We draw the 45-degree daylight test from the neighbour's nearest habitable window, show the window positions in section, and set out the steel and foundation implications early — a two-storey extension changes the load path, so the structural design and the planning design have to be developed together rather than in sequence.
We draw two-storey extensions across Bury. A few of the areas where they come up most often:
Two storey extension drawings for Ramsbottom — Pennine-fringe gritstone weavers' cottages, mill terraces and stone villas under conservation control — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Bury Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Prestwich — Victorian and Edwardian villas and interwar semis around the St Mary's and Poppythorn conservation areas — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Bury Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Whitefield — mixed Victorian terraces and 20th-century semis near the All Saints conservation area — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Bury Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Radcliffe — former textile township of brick terraces and later estate housing — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Bury Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Tottington — stone and red-brick millworkers' terraces with suburban semi expansion — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Bury Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Bury town centre — Victorian market-town commercial core with surrounding brick terraced streets — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Bury Council's guidance.
The first-floor limits are tighter than the ground-floor ones. This is how the common cases compare.
| Scheme | Permitted development? | Deciding limit | What Bury Council checks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Two-storey rear, 3m projection, 7m+ to boundary | Often yes | 3m projection / 7m boundary | Roof match, side-window glazing |
| Two-storey rear, under 7m to boundary | No — full application | Rear-boundary distance | Overlooking, daylight, garden loss |
| Two-storey side extension | No — full application | Side elevation | Gap to boundary, street rhythm |
| Two-storey wraparound | No — full application | Combined footprint | Bulk, massing, neighbour amenity |
| Any two-storey on designated land | No — full application | Designation | Character and appearance |
Limits from the GPDO 2015, Schedule 2, Part 1, Class A — two-storey rear extension conditions.
A fixed process built around how Bury Council validates and decides two-storey applications.
Send us your Bury postcode and garden depth. We measure the 7-metre boundary rule against your plot, confirm designation status, and score your odds against live Bury Council decisions.
We measure the original rear wall, eaves and ridge heights, garden depth and every neighbouring window that faces the site — the inputs the daylight and overlooking case is built from.
Chartered designers develop the two-storey addition to your brief with the roof and eaves resolved, and we coordinate the load path so the structural scheme and the planning scheme are the same building.
We submit the application, manage validation and case-officer queries, and revise the drawings free until Bury Council issues its decision.
Often, but not always. A two-storey rear extension can be permitted development if it projects no more than 3 metres, sits at least 7 metres from the rear boundary, does not exceed the existing eaves and ridge, and has obscure-glazed non-opening side windows below 1.7 metres. In Bury, the 7-metre rule is what most commonly forces a full application to Bury Council.
No part of a permitted-development two-storey rear extension may come within 7 metres of the boundary opposite the rear wall of the house. It exists to protect the neighbour behind you from being overlooked at first floor. On shorter Bury gardens this is decisive, and we measure it on survey before any design work rather than discovering it at validation. Bury Council is the decision-maker.
Not under permitted development — two-storey side extensions always need a full application to Bury Council. They are assessed on the gap to the boundary, whether the street's rhythm of spaces between houses survives, and whether the extension is subordinate to the original. Setting the first floor back from the front building line and down from the ridge is what usually makes the difference.
Overlooking is the most common objection, and it is answerable on the drawings. We position habitable-room windows away from neighbouring gardens, obscure-glaze and fix shut anything on the flank below 1.7 metres, and show the sight lines in section. Where the geometry is tight, a rooflight or a high-level window gives the same daylight without the mutual overlooking that draws objections. This applies to your Bury address specifically. Bury Council is the decision-maker.
Almost certainly. Excavating within 3 metres of a neighbouring structure and building on or up to the boundary both trigger the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, and a two-storey extension usually does both. It is entirely separate from Bury Council's planning decision, so we flag the notice period early and detail the junction on the drawings.
Yes. Adding a floor changes the load path from roof to foundation, so beams, padstones and foundation depths all need designing and calculating for building control. Planning and building regulations are separate consents, and the structural set is what building control assesses — we prepare both so the approved scheme is the buildable one. This applies to your Bury address specifically. Bury Council is the decision-maker.
We quote each Bury two-storey extension individually, because plot depth, roof form and structural complexity vary house to house, and send a fixed, no-obligation quote within one working day. It covers the drawing pack with free revisions until Bury Council approves. Call 020 7864 7245 to start.
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