Design and build · Surrey
House extensions in Esher, designed and built by one team from our base in New Haw, about 5 miles away.
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10 to 14 weeks
to build a single-storey rear extension
Borough Council decides planning
Conservation areas
Esher, West End (Esher), Lakeside Drive and others
5 miles
from our base in New Haw
Building in Esher
Extensions in Esher start from very different houses: large detached homes on private estates, 1930s houses on generous plots in Esher Place, and Hinchley Wood's early-1930s semis and detached houses on deep plots. A double-storey or wrap-around extension takes longer to build, usually 16 to 24 weeks, against 10 to 14 weeks for a single-storey rear extension.
Local guidance shapes the design. Householder applications submitted after 6 January 2025 are assessed under the Elmbridge Design Code, adopted in April 2024, and must include its checklist. In the Esher, West End (Esher), Lakeside Drive, Claygate Village and Claygate Foley Estate conservation areas, side and two-storey rear extensions need planning permission. A Claygate community workshop flagged poor extensions that often double the size of a house, and a terracing effect where extensions run close to boundaries, so scale and spacing need care. Where a house is in the Green Belt, an extension is judged on whether it is proportionate to the original building. A standard planning decision takes 8 to 13 weeks, and your route is confirmed before design starts.
What we build
Push out into the garden to create a bright kitchen-diner or family room, often achievable under Permitted Development.
Add space across two floors at once, gaining extra living space below and a bedroom or bathroom above.
Combine a rear and side-return extension into one L-shaped footprint for a dramatic increase in ground-floor space.
Reclaim the narrow, underused alley beside Victorian and Edwardian homes to widen and flood the rear with light.
Open the back of the house into a single sociable hub built around cooking, dining and family life.
Roof lanterns, rooflights, bi-fold and sliding doors that pour daylight deep into the new space.
Our nearest finished extension
Greenwich, London · about 17 miles from Esher
Opening the rear of a 1930s semi into one room meant removing a load-bearing wall between the existing kitchen and the new extension, on a site where a narrow side passage was the only route for materials in and spoil out. The new ground-floor shower room also had to be formed within the existing rear lobby, well away from the original layout's plumbing.
The structural opening was formed with a steel beam cased into a shallow flush bulkhead that follows the line of the removed wall, keeping the ceiling clean and the sightline from kitchen to garden completely open. Deliveries were sequenced in small daily loads through the side passage to keep the neighbouring boundary clear, and services for the new shower room were routed within the extension's floor build-up so no boxing-in was needed in the finished rooms.
View this projectExtension FAQs
Straight answers on house extensions in Esher.
No. Permitted Development does not cover side extensions in a conservation area, so in Esher, West End (Esher), Lakeside Drive, Claygate Village and Claygate Foley Estate one needs a planning application. The application is judged on its design against the Elmbridge Design Code, so the outcome is never automatic.
Free Cost Proposal
Tell us about the project. We'll arrange a free site visit, then send a clear, itemised Cost Proposal.
“The attention to detail and absolute financial transparency provided by Grand Innovations completely redefined our expectations of what a home renovation could be. High standard of work, the extension is beautiful and has added so much value onto our home. Really appreciated the weekly billing, rather than a big amount upfront.”
