A tired rear orangery replaced with a proper extension: open-plan kitchen-diner, new under-stairs WC, side-access door. Built by HYPE inside Permitted Development.
Project · Snapshot
The owners had an orangery at the rear of the house that had served its purpose but was no longer the living space they wanted. The brief: replace it with a proper extension, open up the ground floor to create an open-plan kitchen-diner, add a downstairs WC under the stairs, and put a new side door in for access: all within Permitted Development. HYPE built it inside Permitted Development and delivered through the winter window the client needed.
Project · The Story
The same three questions we ask every project: what they bought, what we did, what changed. Honest. Specific. No marketing fluff.
A lovely Stoke-on-Trent property with a tired orangery at the rear. The orangery had done its job, but it wasn't what the owners wanted for their living space any more. They wanted a proper extension, a proper kitchen-diner, and a layout that flowed from the front of the house to the back without breaking into separate rooms.
The Hawleys came to HYPE for the build, with John's advice along the way on keeping it inside Permitted Development.
Original orangery taken down. New extension footings dug, concrete slab laid with damp-proof course. Brickwork built up. Roof constructed. Window and patio door openings formed. Internal wall between the original kitchen and the new extension removed to create the open-plan kitchen-diner the owners wanted.
Underneath the staircase: a new downstairs WC built out: the kind of small layout move that significantly improves day-to-day usability without consuming any usable square-meterage. New side-access door installed.
Programme constraint: the build ran through autumn into winter. Tight roofing window, careful sequencing of the wet trades around weather. The trades held the schedule.
From an orangery the owners had stopped using to an extension they live in every day. Open-plan ground floor, proper kitchen-diner volume, the downstairs WC the house was missing, side-access door that fixes how the family moves through the property.
House Extensions & Refurbishment · Stoke-on-Trent
The owners had an orangery at the rear of the house that had served its purpose but was no longer the living space they wanted. The brief: replace it with a proper extension, open up the ground floor to create an open-plan kitchen-diner, add a downstairs WC under the stairs, and put a new side door in for access: all within Permitted Development. HYPE built it inside Permitted Development and delivered through the winter window the client needed.
The original rear orangery: characterful, but no longer the living space the owners wanted. The plan: take it down, replace with a proper extension at the same footprint, open the internal layout up to make the new space feel like part of the house rather than an addition.
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Concrete floor poured. Damp-proof course in. Brickwork starting on the new extension. The shape of the building begins to register from the rear of the property.
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The extension begins to take shape. Brickwork up to lintel level. Openings clearly visible for the new window and patio doors: both critical for the natural light the open-plan kitchen-diner needs to feel like the volume the Hawleys signed off.
"John helped us to design (and construct) our extension, kitchen and cloakroom. He was available from the beginning of the build to the end: his advice was invaluable and he ensured everything was within permitted development rules. His team of professional tradesmen were exceptional."
Ben Hawley, owner of the property
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Internal wall between the original kitchen and the new extension now removed: the moment the open-plan kitchen-diner exists as a single volume. New roof constructed over the extension, weather-tight in time for the winter window. Under-stairs WC framed up.
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Beautiful new space delivered. The owners now have the spacious open-plan kitchen-diner they were hoping for. New downstairs WC under the stairs. Side-access door working as the day-to-day route in and out of the kitchen.
The extension reads as part of the original house: that's the design discipline that separates a good extension from a tacked-on one. Roofline, brick coursing, fenestration rhythm all aligned to the existing property.
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Orangery the owners had stopped using to an extension they live in every day.
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What the client said
His team of professional tradesmen were exceptional, they turned up when they said they would and worked extremely hard to ensure the work was completed before Christmas 2022 - even with the weather against them. They managed the project between them very professionally and were honest and upfront about progress and potential issues. All in all they managed to make the wife happy and that is a massive achievement.
Ben Hawley
Google review, 2023
On camera · Watch the build
Every HYPE build is documented on camera. The videos from this project sit at the top. Below them: three of John’s most-watched videos from HypeTV.
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Extensions, lofts & refurbishment
