If you live in Hendon, Millfield, Pallion, Fulwell, High Barnes or Ryhope, there's a fair chance you live in a Sunderland cottage. Single-storey terraced houses, mostly built between the 1860s and the early 1900s for shipyard and colliery workers, with a front door into a narrow passage and the rooms running back to a yard.
They're solid little houses. But they're short on space, and most owners end up asking the same two questions: can I go up into the loft, and can I build out the back? Usually yes to both. Here's what's involved.
Plenty of cottages already have an attic room or a front dormer added decades ago. If yours doesn't, the loft is the obvious place to find a bedroom or office.
A rooflight conversion (windows set into the existing roof slope) is the simplest and cheapest, but only works if there's enough height under the ridge. Many cottage roofs are fairly shallow, so a rear dormer is often what makes the room usable. It adds proper head height and floor space you can actually stand up in.
Under permitted development, a terraced house can usually add up to 40 cubic metres of roof space without full planning permission, as long as the dormer isn't on the roof slope facing the road and the materials match. A new dormer on the front, facing the street, normally needs planning permission.
The back yard is the other way to win space: a bigger kitchen, a downstairs bathroom or a utility room. Many cottages already have a rear offshot, and extending or rebuilding it is common.
A single-storey rear extension on a terraced house can often be built under permitted development if it projects no more than 3 metres from the original back wall and stays under 4 metres high. Larger extensions (up to 6 metres) can go through a quicker prior approval process with the council, where neighbours are consulted.
Yards are tight, so access matters. Materials often come through the house or the back lane, and drainage usually runs under the yard. We check where the drains go before anything is designed, because building over a shared drain needs extra approval.
Sunderland City Council handles planning and building control for the whole city, including Washington, Houghton-le-Spring and Hetton. If your cottage is in a conservation area (parts of Ashbrooke and Old Sunderland, for example), the rules are tighter and it's worth checking before you design anything.
This is general guidance, not formal advice on your property. Rules change, so we check the current position at the free site visit and handle any applications as part of the job.
Usually, yes. Whether you need rooflights or a rear dormer depends on the head height under the ridge, which we measure at the free site visit.
A rear dormer within 40 cubic metres is often permitted development on a terraced house. A dormer on the front, facing the street, normally needs planning permission. Conservation areas are stricter.
A single-storey rear extension up to 3 metres deep is often permitted development on a terrace, and up to 6 metres through the prior approval process. Yard size and drains usually set the real limit.
If steels go into the shared wall, or you dig foundations close to their house, the Party Wall Act means you must serve notice. It's also just good manners on a terraced street.
Whatever the brief, the route in is the same: ring us, we'll visit, we'll come back with a fixed price in plain English. Free site visits across Durham, Sunderland and Newcastle.
Or email enquiries@atkinsonsgroup.co.uk
No call-out charge for quotes. Fixed prices, in writing.
