Two-storey extension drawings for Tandridge homes — bedroom above, living space below, drawn against the 3-metre projection and 7-metre boundary rules and to Tandridge District Council's design guidance, delivered in days and revised free until your decision.
Tandridge District Council granted 87% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — level with the 87% England-wide householder average. Metropolitan Green Belt covers around 94% of the district, one of the highest proportions in England, so the presumption against inappropriate development dominates decisions, 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.
Under Class B, a rear dormer stays permitted development up to 40m³ of added roof volume on a terrace or 50m³ on a semi-detached or detached house, while Class A allows a single-storey rear extension of 3m beyond the original rear wall on a terrace and 4m on a detached house before a full application is needed. Tandridge carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Oxted, Limpsfield and Godstone remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Tandridge is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Oxted (the principal town with railway-era Victorian and Edwardian housing, twentieth-century growth and a conservation area), Caterham (the district's largest settlement, dense Victorian-to-postwar housing across Caterham-on-the-Hill and the Valley), Warlingham (a hilltop commuter village of largely interwar and postwar detached houses and semis), Godstone (a historic green-belt village around a pond and green with a conservation area), Limpsfield (an affluent AONB-edge village of period and large detached stock with a conservation area) and Lingfield (a historic rural village with a medieval core and a conservation area) — these are the Tandridge pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Oxted, Limpsfield, Godstone, Bletchingley, Lingfield and Chaldon. Tandridge District Council weighs each proposal against the Tandridge District Core Strategy (adopted 2008) and Local Plan Part 2: Detailed Policies (adopted July 2014), where the Surrey Hills and High Weald National Landscapes (AONBs) affect the district around Limpsfield, Oxted and the south, adding national landscape protection. Converted flats appear around Oxted and Caterham, and none of them hold householder permitted-development rights.. On roofs the borough is dual-pitch tiled roofs on the railway-era terraces and villas and hipped roofs on the interwar and postwar semis, over Victorian and Edwardian and interwar railway-era housing in Oxted and Caterham, postwar suburban semis and detached houses, large detached houses on generous plots at Woldingham and Limpsfield and historic vernacular cottages in the green-belt villages of Godstone, Bletchingley and Lingfield.
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. Tandridge is largely Victorian and Edwardian and interwar railway-era housing in Oxted and Caterham, postwar suburban semis and detached houses, large detached houses on generous plots at Woldingham and Limpsfield and historic vernacular cottages in the green-belt villages of Godstone, Bletchingley and Lingfield, and dual-pitch tiled roofs on the railway-era terraces and villas and hipped roofs on the interwar and postwar 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.
Metropolitan Green Belt covers around 94% of the district, one of the highest proportions in England, so the presumption against inappropriate development dominates decisions. Tandridge has Article 4 directions removing permitted-development rights in parts of the district, which owners can check against the council's constraints map before assuming suburban PD rights, and its conservation areas such as Oxted, Limpsfield and Godstone add further character controls.
Some two-storey rear extensions are permitted development. You will need a full application to Tandridge District 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 Tandridge District Council checks first — then submit a validation-complete pack.
Below is Tandridge District Council's real householder decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. Tandridge grants a fair share of applications broadly in line with the national picture, with overwhelming Green Belt coverage and AONB protection the pressures on anything beyond modest householder work. 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 Oxted, Caterham and Warlingham, 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 and interwar railway-era housing in oxted and caterham, 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 Surrey Hills and High Weald National Landscapes (AONBs) affect the district around Limpsfield, Oxted and the south, adding national landscape protection. 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 Tandridge. A few of the areas where they come up most often:
Two storey extension drawings for Oxted — the principal town with railway-era Victorian and Edwardian housing, twentieth-century growth and a conservation area — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Tandridge District Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Caterham — the district's largest settlement, dense Victorian-to-postwar housing across Caterham-on-the-Hill and the Valley — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Tandridge District Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Warlingham — a hilltop commuter village of largely interwar and postwar detached houses and semis — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Tandridge District Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Godstone — a historic green-belt village around a pond and green with a conservation area — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Tandridge District Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Limpsfield — an affluent AONB-edge village of period and large detached stock with a conservation area — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Tandridge District Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Lingfield — a historic rural village with a medieval core and a conservation area — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Tandridge District 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 Tandridge District 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 Tandridge District Council validates and decides two-storey applications.
Send us your Tandridge postcode and garden depth. We measure the 7-metre boundary rule against your plot, confirm designation status, and score your odds against live Tandridge District 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 Tandridge District 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 Tandridge, the 7-metre rule is what most commonly forces a full application to Tandridge District 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 Tandridge gardens this is decisive, and we measure it on survey before any design work rather than discovering it at validation. Tandridge District Council is the decision-maker.
Not under permitted development — two-storey side extensions always need a full application to Tandridge District 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 Tandridge address specifically. Tandridge District 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 Tandridge District 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 Tandridge address specifically. Tandridge District Council is the decision-maker.
We quote each Tandridge 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 Tandridge District Council approves. Call 020 7864 7245 to start.
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