PAYTE
Extension Architect North London
Principal Designer & Higher Risk Building Expert
Our North London architects have extensive experience in extension architecture, specialising in loft conversions, basement extensions, bespoke extensions, rear extensions, two-storey and single-storey extensions, contemporary designs, double-storey extensions, Mansard roof extensions, and ground-floor extensions.
house extension architect North London
Our firm specialises in house architecture in North London, most commonly Victorian houses. We take pride in helping our clients enhance their property value while optimising space. We create bespoke designs and contemporary design extensions with interior reconfigurations to maximise natural light and extra space. Our creative design team elevates the planning process to a new level.
As a leading architectural practice, we specialise in helping homeowners navigate the planning process, building regulations, planning permissions, party walls, and building control. Our experienced team handles all regulatory challenges in extension projects, making your home’s transformation seamless and stress-free.
We carry out architectural work for rear, wraparound, side return, or infill extensions to best suit your space and increase its value. We begin with our design process, initial drawings, structural calculations, and 3D visualisations to assist clients in envisioning the transformation, alongside a precise scope of work for the building contractor.
Our expertise ensures that each project is expertly designed to meet your specific needs.
Working with experienced architects for extensions in London allows you to add space and value while preserving the architectural integrity of your home.
apartment architects North London
We specialise in providing comprehensive design and architectural services for apartment extensions in North London. Our offerings include detailed planning advice, design layout changes, custom joinery, and regulatory drawing preparations.
Whether you are looking to completely revamp your apartment’s layout or to implement specific modifications, we manage every aspect of the project.
Our services encompass the entire process, from securing planning permission and building approvals to obtaining landlord consents and the necessary license to alter documentation. We also handle all planning applications ourselves.
As an established architect practice, we bring clarity, design rigour, and technical expertise to every stage of the apartment transformation process.
extension conversion package
3 Meter rear extensions package
£60,000.00 INC. VAT
What’s included:
6 Meter rear extensions package
£104,700.00 INC. VAT
What’s included:
At Payte Architects London, our rear extension service is about making it simple to gain more space without losing control of cost or complexity. With over 10 years’ experience on North London homes, we offer two fixed‑price packages at three and six metres (including VAT), so you choose how far to extend and we handle design, approvals and on‑site work up to first fix.
You’ll work with a friendly architectural team that actually picks up the phone. All architectural work is carried out by architects registered with the Architects Registration Board (ARB) or chartered with the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), and we coordinate closely with our dedicated extension build team so design and construction stay joined‑up from day one.
We take care of the planning route – from Lawful Development Certificates for three‑metre projects to prior‑approval applications for six‑metre schemes – using our experience with boroughs such as Haringey Council’s planning team, Lambeth Council’s planning service and Brent Council planning to shape proposals around what local councils typically support.
Throughout, we keep communication simple and regular so you always know where your project is and what’s coming next, aiming for a bright, well‑built North London extension that quickly becomes the main room everyone uses.
Exclusions
This package is not applicable to property where you need planning permission or listed building consent, or if there is an article 4 on your property.
In addition to the above, the following exclusion applies:
- Party wall award
- Building control fees
- Any specialist consultants
- Asbestos removal fees
- Finishing (sanitary ware, tiling, floor finishing, wall finishing, joinery).
- Party wall award
- Building control fees
- Any specialist consultants
- Asbestos removal fees
- Finishing (sanitary ware, tiling, floor finishing, wall finishing, joinery).
ARRANGE A FREE CONSULTATION
Arrange a free consultation with one of our ARB or RIBA extension architects today. We offer clients a complimentary 30-minute consultation.
FREE NO OBLIGATION CONSULTATION
VIRTUAL CONSULTATION AVAILABLE
ON SITE CONSULTATION AVAILABLE
Innovative North London Extensions Crafted with Exceptional Architecture
Our North London architects create smart, sustainable extensions that suit your space perfectly.
Wraparound
We specialise in wrap-around extensions. This is a popular way to expand and transform properties. This extension combines a rear and side addition. It creates an L-shape that expands ground-floor space. This is ideal for open-plan kitchens, living spaces, or adaptable rooms that fit modern lifestyles. We handle everything from design and planning permission to construction.
Single Storey
A single-storey extension can really boost space in your North London property. It can be added to the back or side of the property. This addition offers more space for a modern kitchen, a living area, or a home office. This extension improves the flow inside and makes the property more practical. Our architectural team makes it easy for you to get great results that suit your property.
Multi Storey
A multi-storey extension in North London can provide a lot of space. You can use it for extra bedrooms, bigger living areas, or more bathrooms. Building up on your property lets you make the most of it without losing any garden space. We take care of everything. This includes planning, permissions, and construction. We ensure your extension fits well with the current architecture.
Side Return
A side return extension utilises the unused space beside your home. You often find this addon in Victorian and Edwardian buildings in North London. Clients can extend into this narrow area to make a wider, open-plan kitchen. This change will let in more natural light. Our architects are experts in side return extensions. These designs boost functionality and add to the property’s value.
Rear Extension
A rear extension expands the back of your property. This gives you room for an open-plan kitchen, a larger dining area, or a more spacious living room. This is ideal for clients looking to improve their ground floor. These extensions boost natural light and link indoor and outdoor spaces smoothly. We create rear extensions that match your home’s style. They also boost efficiency and value.
Seamless Home Extensions from Concept to Completion
Our team of architects, designers, and builders in North London creates stylish and practical home extensions. We handle each stage, from the first meeting to the final build, with care and precision.
Free Initial Consultation
In your 30-minute free consultation, we’ll discuss your project vision, design choices, size, and budget for the extension. This process ensures that we can align your ideas with the practical aspects of the project with accuracy.
Full Architecture Service
We offer bespoke services for home extensions. This features on-site assessments, detailed drawings, 3D visualisations, planning applications, and tender management. We customise each service to meet your unique needs.
Planning & Permissions
Our North London architects focus on extension planning. Our professional practice handles it all, from the initial idea to final approval. We carefully find ways to handle local rules, stay within zoning laws, and meet building codes.
Complete Building Works
We’re a full-service architecture firm that specialises in extensions. We have in-house architects, interior designers, and building contractors. Our team ensure easy collaboration, guiding your project till its delivery.
Local Topic
General information only. Planning and licensing rules change and depend on the individual property. This article is not legal or professional advice.
NORTH LONDON — THE FLAT-ROOFED EXTENSION DONE PROPERLY: WARM ROOFS, FALLS AND PARAPETS (DOC L; BS 6229)
Flat roofs ruined their own reputation. The grey chippings-and-felt lids slapped onto 1970s North London extensions leaked, ponded, baked and failed — often inside a decade — and a generation concluded the type was the problem.
It wasn’t. The spec was. A flat roof built to current practice is a thirty-year-plus piece of construction, and for the low, wide extensions North London’s Victorian terraces want, it’s usually the right answer. Here’s what separates the modern roof from the one that gave the type its name.
Warm, not cold
The single biggest upgrade is invisible: insulation position. The old failures were “cold roofs” — insulation between the joists, timber deck above sitting cold, condensation quietly rotting the structure from inside. The modern standard is the warm roof: insulation above the deck, membrane above that, so the whole structure stays on the heated side of the building.
No condensation risk worth the name, and the thick insulation quota that Approved Document L now demands fits naturally into the build-up.
The governing code is BS 6229, and one of its numbers should be tattooed on every builder’s forearm: flat roofs aren’t flat. Design falls so water actually leaves — the convention aims at a finished fall of around 1 in 80, designed at 1 in 40 to allow for tolerance — because ponding water finds every weakness a membrane has.
Edges decide everything
Membranes rarely fail in the middle. They fail at edges, upstands and outlets. The parapet junction against the main house — that’s the detail to obsess over, with the cavity tray above it. Upstands taken high enough at doors, which fights the step-free threshold everyone wants and has to be designed, not fudged.
Outlets sized generously and doubled up, because one blocked leaf-trap shouldn’t flood a roof.
Single-ply membranes, liquid systems, hot-melt — the Single Ply Roofing Association and the NFRC, the roofing trade’s main body, both publish guidance on what good looks like, and using their member contractors buys you workmanship standards and meaningful guarantees. Building control will want the thermal and structural sums either way.
One more modern habit: think of the flat roof as space, not just lid. It can hold rooflights, a sedum blanket, the air-source unit nobody wants visible from the garden. The 1970s roof was something you hoped to ignore.
The current one is a working part of the architecture — and it doesn’t leak, provided the falls, the edges and the warm build-up were drawn by someone who cared. That someone is the difference. It always was.
North London Home Extension Planning, Design, and Construction
Feasibility Studies for Home Extensions
Our North London property extension architects carry out comprehensive feasibility studies. They look at structural integrity, space potential, and costs. This ensures that property expansions are smart and efficient.
Planning Permission for Extensions
Our team of architects collaborates with local councils. We navigate planning policies, building codes, and zoning laws to ensure smooth compliance. Our expertise simplifies the process, providing a stress-free experience.
Project Management and Contractor Coordination
We monitor construction progress, project timelines, and project quality. This way, we ensure everything operates without issues and according to schedule. We focus on details to ensure everything runs smoothly from start to finish.
Sustainable Extension Materials & Energy Efficiency
Our eco-friendly extension designs and insulation solutions improve property energy efficiency, sustainability, and comfort. Our approach reduces environmental impact and improves thermal performance.
Structural Engineering and Load-Bearing Analysis
We check that extensions meet safety, stability, and regulatory standards. We do this with structural assessments and compliance checks. Our team makes sure that a property extension blends in well, is safe, strong, and built to endure.
Interior To Exterior Extension Flow and Aesthetic Integration
Our architects mix new extensions with the current style. This creates a smooth transition between the old and the new. Our architects respect the original structure while enhancing functionality, aesthetics, and flow.
why work with us?
Fast Turn Around
Our team of extension experts completes projects quickly. We use smart planning, a skilled team, and clear project management goals. This makes the process smooth and fast.
Fixed Pricing
We offer clear, fixed pricing for architectural and building services for extensions. This helps clients understand the costs better. This approach allows for confident budgeting.
We Maximise Value
We help clients get the best results for extensions. We balance investment benefits with a comfortable living space. Our expert advice ensures maximum financial value.
Turnkey Operation
A complete solution for North London extensions, interior design, and construction. Our clients relax while we manage the project. From concept and planning to interior detailing and build.
recent EXTENSION projects
Local Topic
General information only. Planning and licensing rules change and depend on the individual property. This article is not legal or professional advice.
NORTH LONDON — THE ROOM BEHIND THE EXTENSION: KEEPING DAYLIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE HOUSE (BRE)
Every North London extension improves one room and threatens another. The glossy photographs show the new kitchen, full of garden light. Nobody photographs the old dining room behind it — the one that used to have the garden window, and now looks into the new room instead.
That middle room is the silent casualty of half the extensions in London, and protecting it is a design job that should start on day one, not a discovery made the first November after completion.
Light doesn’t turn corners
The physics is unforgiving. Daylight falls off fast with distance from glass, and the BRE’s daylight guidance — the same numbers planners use to protect your neighbours’ windows.
Will tell you bluntly what a six-metre-deep extension does to the room at its back: it moves that room from “lit” to “borrowed light,” and borrowed light needs designing.
The Victorian terrace plan makes it worse. Those houses were drawn as chains of rooms, each with its own window; extend across the back and you’ve amputated the middle link’s daylight while leaving its function intact.
The Victorian Society would tell you the original plan had a logic — and it did, which is exactly why breaking it needs compensation.
Paying the light back
The compensations are well-established; the failure is forgetting to use them.
Top light first. A rooflight placed at the junction — over the seam where old house meets new — throws daylight backwards into the middle room, and it’s worth several windows’ worth of side glass. Second, keep the connection open or glazed: a structural opening rather than a door, or glazed screens that let the middle room share the new room’s light while keeping some separation. Third, be honest about function.
If the middle room can’t be saved as a sitting space, give it the jobs that thrive in low light — utility, pantry, snug, WC — and let the plan admit what the physics decided.
Ventilation follows light into the middle of the plan: an internalised room still needs air, and Approved Document F has expectations whether or not the estate agent mentions them. Mechanical extract, transfer paths, sometimes a rethink of the whole strategy — the CIBSE literature covers the engineering for anyone who wants the deep end.
The test we apply before any rear extension leaves the office is simple, and we’d commend it to anyone reviewing a builder’s sketch: walk the plan backwards. Start in the new room, then ask what every room behind it just lost, and what the design gives back. An extension that only improves the room it creates hasn’t been designed yet. The RIBA’s guidance on briefing makes the same point politely. The November afternoon in the middle room makes it brutally.
FAQ
Services
We offer a comprehensive suite of architectural services for North London, our skilled architects each specialise in distinct disciplines. This diversity allows us to tailor our approach to meet the various facets of architectural design.