Two-storey extension drawings for Sherwood homes — bedroom above, living space below, drawn against the 3-metre projection and 7-metre boundary rules and to Nottingham City Council's design guidance, delivered in days and revised free until your decision.
Nottingham City Council granted 86% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — 1 point below the 87% England-wide householder average. Class C3-to-C4 HMO conversions are refused far more readily here than elsewhere because the Article 4 Direction lets officers manage student and shared-house density directly, 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.
Before permission is required, Class B allows 40m³ of added loft volume on a terrace and 50m³ on a semi or detached house, and Class A allows a 3m single-storey rear extension on a terrace or 4m on a detached house. Sherwood carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Sherwood Rise, Carrington and Winchester Street remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Sherwood is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Sherwood Rise (Victorian and Edwardian villas inside a designated conservation area), Carrington (tight grid of Victorian workers' terraces around Mansfield Road), Winchester Street (elevated Victorian terraces forming their own small conservation area), Haydn Road (long Edwardian terraced streets running east off Mansfield Road) and Woodthorpe fringe (interwar semis on generous plots towards the park edge) — these are the Sherwood pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Sherwood Rise, Carrington and Winchester Street. Nottingham City Council weighs each proposal against the Nottingham City Local Plan (Land and Planning Policies) and the Greater Nottingham Strategic Plan, where the uniform frontages of the Victorian terrace runs make front-facing alterations and roof changes a common reason for amendment. Many of the larger villas along the Mansfield Road corridor have been split into flats, and those units carry no householder permitted-development rights.. On roofs the borough is pitched slate and clay-tile roofs on the Victorian and Edwardian terraces and hipped roofs on the interwar semis, over Victorian and Edwardian red-brick terraces along the Mansfield Road corridor, larger Edwardian villas and semis around Sherwood Rise and interwar semi-detached houses on the northern fringes.
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. Sherwood is largely Victorian and Edwardian red-brick terraces along the Mansfield Road corridor, larger Edwardian villas and semis around Sherwood Rise and interwar semi-detached houses on the northern fringes, and pitched slate and clay-tile roofs on the Victorian and Edwardian terraces and hipped roofs on the interwar semis 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.
Class C3-to-C4 HMO conversions are refused far more readily here than elsewhere because the Article 4 Direction lets officers manage student and shared-house density directly. Nottingham's city-wide Article 4 Direction, in force since March 2012, removes the permitted-development right to convert family dwellings into small (Class C4) houses in multiple occupation across the whole city, so on Sherwood's terraced streets even a modest HMO conversion needs a full planning application.
Some two-storey rear extensions are permitted development. You will need a full application to Nottingham City 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 Nottingham City Council checks first — then submit a validation-complete pack.
Below is Nottingham City Council's real householder decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. Nottingham approves roughly 86% of applications overall, but in Sherwood the Article 4 HMO controls are the decisive constraint, and change-of-use to a shared house is unlikely to pass where family housing is being protected. 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 Sherwood Rise, Carrington and Winchester Street, 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 and edwardian red-brick terraces along the mansfield road corridor, 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.
The uniform frontages of the Victorian terrace runs make front-facing alterations and roof changes a common reason for amendment. 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 Sherwood. A few of the areas where they come up most often:
Two storey extension drawings for Sherwood Rise — Victorian and Edwardian villas inside a designated conservation area — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Nottingham City Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Carrington — tight grid of Victorian workers' terraces around Mansfield Road — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Nottingham City Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Winchester Street — elevated Victorian terraces forming their own small conservation area — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Nottingham City Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Haydn Road — long Edwardian terraced streets running east off Mansfield Road — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Nottingham City Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Woodthorpe fringe — interwar semis on generous plots towards the park edge — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Nottingham City 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 Nottingham City 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 Nottingham City Council validates and decides two-storey applications.
Send us your Sherwood postcode and garden depth. We measure the 7-metre boundary rule against your plot, confirm designation status, and score your odds against live Nottingham City 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 Nottingham City 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 Sherwood, the 7-metre rule is what most commonly forces a full application to Nottingham City 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 Sherwood gardens this is decisive, and we measure it on survey before any design work rather than discovering it at validation. Nottingham City Council is the decision-maker.
Not under permitted development — two-storey side extensions always need a full application to Nottingham City 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. This applies to your Sherwood address specifically.
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 Sherwood address specifically. Nottingham City 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 Nottingham City Council's planning decision, so we flag the notice period early and detail the junction on the drawings. This applies to your Sherwood address specifically.
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 Sherwood address specifically. Nottingham City Council is the decision-maker.
We quote each Sherwood 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 Nottingham City Council approves. Call 020 7864 7245 to start.
Answer five quick questions and get a free planning score for your exact address — instantly. Then, if you want the full picture, unlock the detailed analysis: your council's live approval rates, local precedents, constraints on your street and a step-by-step route to permission.
Same fixed quotes, same fast drawings — wherever your project is.