Two-storey extension drawings for Stonehouse homes — bedroom above, living space below, drawn against the 3-metre projection and 7-metre boundary rules and to Plymouth City Council's design guidance, delivered in days and revised free until your decision.
Plymouth City Council granted 93% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — 6 points above the 87% England-wide householder average. Stonehouse's naval and victualling heritage — Durnford Street, Emma Place and the Grade I Royal William Yard — puts fine-grain military architecture at the centre of most heritage assessments, which is where a policy-literate drawing pack earns its keep. Its dominant Georgian (1714–1837), Victorian (1837–1901) and postwar (1945–1970) 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. Stonehouse carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Stonehouse Peninsula, North Stonehouse and Millfields remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Stonehouse is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Durnford Street (long Georgian naval terrace running down the peninsula to the Royal William Yard), Emma Place (Regency set-piece terrace merged into the Stonehouse Peninsula conservation area in 2006), Wyndham Square (the North Stonehouse conservation area's church-centred Georgian square), Millfields (the former Royal Naval Hospital grounds, now gated period housing), Adelaide Street (close-grained early-Victorian terraces off Union Street) and Royal William Yard (Sir John Rennie's listed Grade I Victualling Yard buildings, converted to flats) — these are the Stonehouse pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Stonehouse Peninsula, North Stonehouse, Millfields, Adelaide Street & Clarence Place and Union Street. Plymouth City Council weighs each proposal against the Plymouth and South West Devon Joint Local Plan (2019), where much of the Georgian stock was war-damaged and patched with post-war infill, so officers weigh a scheme against whatever original terrace rhythm survives on the street. Large parts of Stonehouse are already converted flats, maisonettes and HMOs, which hold no householder permitted-development rights of their own.. On roofs the borough is parapet-hidden valley and butterfly roofs behind the Georgian terraces and pitched and hipped slate roofs on the Victorian streets, over Georgian and Regency terraces around Durnford Street and Emma Place, converted flats, maisonettes and HMOs and Victorian terraces and post-war infill on the wartime-cleared plots.
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. Stonehouse is largely Georgian and Regency terraces around Durnford Street and Emma Place, converted flats, maisonettes and HMOs and Victorian terraces and post-war infill on the wartime-cleared plots, and parapet-hidden valley and butterfly roofs behind the Georgian terraces and pitched and hipped slate roofs on the Victorian streets 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.
Stonehouse's naval and victualling heritage — Durnford Street, Emma Place and the Grade I Royal William Yard — puts fine-grain military architecture at the centre of most heritage assessments. The northern edge of Stonehouse falls within Plymouth's city-wide HMO Article 4 direction, in force since 14 September 2012, which removed the permitted-development right to turn a family house into a small (C4) house in multiple occupation, so shared-house conversions here need a planning application.
Some two-storey rear extensions are permitted development. You will need a full application to Plymouth 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 Plymouth City Council checks first — then submit a validation-complete pack.
Below is Plymouth City Council's real householder decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. Plymouth grants the large majority of householder applications, but in Stonehouse the density of Georgian terraces, the Royal William Yard's Grade I listing and the HMO Article 4 controls make heritage and shared-housing policy the usual deciding issues. 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.
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Across Durnford Street, Emma Place and Wyndham Square, 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 georgian and regency terraces around durnford street and emma place, 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.
Much of the Georgian stock was war-damaged and patched with post-war infill, so officers weigh a scheme against whatever original terrace rhythm survives on the street. 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 Stonehouse. A few of the areas where they come up most often:
Two storey extension drawings for Durnford Street — long Georgian naval terrace running down the peninsula to the Royal William Yard — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Plymouth City Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Emma Place — Regency set-piece terrace merged into the Stonehouse Peninsula conservation area in 2006 — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Plymouth City Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Wyndham Square — the North Stonehouse conservation area's church-centred Georgian square — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Plymouth City Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Millfields — the former Royal Naval Hospital grounds, now gated period housing — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Plymouth City Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Adelaide Street — close-grained early-Victorian terraces off Union Street — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Plymouth City Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Royal William Yard — Sir John Rennie's listed Grade I Victualling Yard buildings, converted to flats — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Plymouth 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 Plymouth 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 Plymouth City Council validates and decides two-storey applications.
Send us your Stonehouse postcode and garden depth. We measure the 7-metre boundary rule against your plot, confirm designation status, and score your odds against live Plymouth 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 Plymouth 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 Stonehouse, the 7-metre rule is what most commonly forces a full application to Plymouth 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 Stonehouse gardens this is decisive, and we measure it on survey before any design work rather than discovering it at validation. Plymouth City Council is the decision-maker.
Not under permitted development — two-storey side extensions always need a full application to Plymouth 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 Stonehouse 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 Stonehouse address specifically. Plymouth 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 Plymouth City Council's planning decision, so we flag the notice period early and detail the junction on the drawings. This applies to your Stonehouse 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 Stonehouse address specifically. Plymouth City Council is the decision-maker.
We quote each Stonehouse 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 Plymouth City Council approves. Call 020 7864 7245 to start.
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