Two-storey extension drawings for Wollaton 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. Hip-to-gable and rear dormer schemes on paired interwar semis are judged on roof bulk and the symmetry of the pair, which is where a policy-literate drawing pack earns its keep. Its dominant 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 Nottingham City Council needs a full application. Wollaton carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Wollaton Village, Sutton Passeys and Wollaton Park remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Wollaton is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Wollaton Village (historic village core of cottages and period frontages under conservation control), Sutton Passeys (planned 1920s garden-suburb estate beside Wollaton Park), Wollaton Park (large detached and semi-detached houses in the setting of the Elizabethan hall), Bramcote Lane (1930s Metroland-style semis on generous suburban plots) and Russell Drive (interwar semis and detached houses on tree-lined roads) — these are the Wollaton pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Wollaton Village, Sutton Passeys and Wollaton Park. Nottingham City Council weighs each proposal against the Nottingham City Local Plan (Land and Planning Policies) and the Greater Nottingham Strategic Plan, where the setting of Grade I-listed Wollaton Hall pulls extra scrutiny onto scale, materials and boundary treatments near the park. On roofs the borough is hipped roofs on the interwar and 1930s semis and gabled and clay-tiled roofs on the village and detached stock, over interwar and 1930s semi-detached suburban houses, the planned 1920s Sutton Passeys estate on the eastern edge of Wollaton Park and older village cottages and detached houses in Wollaton Village.
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. Wollaton is largely interwar and 1930s semi-detached suburban houses, the planned 1920s Sutton Passeys estate on the eastern edge of Wollaton Park and older village cottages and detached houses in Wollaton Village, and hipped roofs on the interwar and 1930s semis and gabled and clay-tiled roofs on the village and detached stock 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.
Hip-to-gable and rear dormer schemes on paired interwar semis are judged on roof bulk and the symmetry of the pair. Nottingham's city-wide Article 4 HMO Direction applies here as elsewhere, but Wollaton's greater constraint is heritage: the Wollaton Village and Sutton Passeys conservation areas, together with the setting of Grade I-listed Wollaton Hall, strip permitted-development cover from protected streets.
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 grants around 86% of applications, and Wollaton's generally leafy, low-density suburbs approve well, though the symmetry of its paired semis and the heritage setting of the hall govern how much extension is acceptable. 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 Wollaton Village, Sutton Passeys and Wollaton Park, 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 interwar and 1930s semi-detached suburban houses, 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 setting of Grade I-listed Wollaton Hall pulls extra scrutiny onto scale, materials and boundary treatments near the park. 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 Wollaton. A few of the areas where they come up most often:
Two storey extension drawings for Wollaton Village — historic village core of cottages and period frontages under conservation control — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Nottingham City Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Sutton Passeys — planned 1920s garden-suburb estate beside Wollaton Park — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Nottingham City Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Wollaton Park — large detached and semi-detached houses in the setting of the Elizabethan hall — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Nottingham City Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Bramcote Lane — 1930s Metroland-style semis on generous suburban plots — dimensioned against the 3m and 7m limits and drawn to Nottingham City Council's guidance.
Two storey extension drawings for Russell Drive — interwar semis and detached houses on tree-lined roads — 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 Wollaton 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 Wollaton, 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 Wollaton 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 Wollaton 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 Wollaton 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 Wollaton 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 Wollaton address specifically. Nottingham City Council is the decision-maker.
We quote each Wollaton 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.
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