West Cornwall · TR20
Extensions for Praa Sands (TR20)
Extensions are the bread and butter of Cornish homes — adding the kitchen-diner the original layout never had, the bedroom for a growing family, or the light and views the back of the house should always have had. Praa Sands sits in West Cornwall, and that geography ends up in the drawings — Praa Sands is a south-coast surf beach village backed by dunes and low cliffs, mostly mid-twentieth-century holiday and family housing in the parishes of Breage and Germoe, with a building stock that leans toward converted barns inland and wooden cabins and chalets.
Praa Sands sits in West Cornwall, inside the TR20 postcode district.
- Cornwall AONB
- Coastal exposure zone
- ✓ One studio — design, planning and build under one roof
- ✓ Local to West Cornwall — not a national franchise
- ✓ Measured-survey accuracy from day one
- ✓ Fixed-fee planning packages, no surprise invoices
Our process
How a Praa Sands extension project runs.
Step 1
Brief
We meet on site, talk through how you live now and what's missing from the current layout.
Step 2
Design
Two or three sketch directions with rough budgets, then refinement of the chosen route.
Step 3
Approvals
Planning or Cert of Lawfulness, then a full building regs package.
Step 4
Build
Either through your own builder with our drawings, or as a full build by our team.
Step 5
Handover
Snag, certify, hand over the keys to your new space.
Typical single-storey rear extensions run twelve to twenty weeks on site; two-storey and wraparound projects sixteen to thirty weeks.
Local proof — Our West Cornwall workload means a Praa Sands extension project never has to wait for an out-of-county team to drive down.
Get a free feasibility viewWhat we focus on
Extensions considerations specific to Praa Sands.
01
Extensions over a certain proportion of the original house trigger full Part L upgrade obligations to the existing building — worth knowing before brief is set.
02
Cornish granite and slate-hung walls react differently to new openings than modern brickwork — lintel choice and structural sequencing matter.
03
Wind and sea-spray exposure can drive material choices on west-facing extensions; we detail accordingly.
04
Drainage on older Cornish properties is rarely on a clean modern map; CCTV survey before design is often money well spent.
Local context
Why Praa Sands is its own job.
In Praa Sands the planning picture is specific: aONB designation covers the whole village; coastal and dune-edge sites face strict material and ridge-height controls. Holiday-let and second-home pressure has shaped recent local plan policy. For extension specifically, the surrounding landscape falls inside the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, so massing, height and landscape impact carry extra weight in any planning decision; coastal salt-laden air around Praa Sands drives detailing choices — fixings, render systems and timber treatments all need to be specified for exposure. That local reading is what makes a Praa Sands (TR20) project different from a generic Cornwall scheme — and is the whole reason we work this way. On converted barns inland in particular — the kind you'll also find toward Perranuthnoe — the extension brief always has to read the existing fabric first.
Planning note
Most extensions in Cornwall are either permitted development or a straightforward householder application — but Conservation Area and AONB sites need a more careful design conversation upfront.
Local watch-list
Praa Sands-specific issues we screen on the first visit.
Watch #1
AONB landscape-impact scrutiny on visible elevations
Watch #2
Coastal exposure driving fixing, render and joinery spec
Local fabric
Praa Sands extensions — the local-studio difference.
Building stock
Across Praa Sands (TR20) we work on 1950s and 1960s coastal bungalows, wooden cabins and chalets, modern coastal new builds, converted barns inland. Each stock type drives a different extension response — converted barns inland in particular needs careful detailing here.
Parish & policy
Praa Sands sits in the parish of Breage, which matters for how parish-level consultation lands on a extension application.
Coverage
We cover TR20 from our studio, with regular extension jobs also running in Porthleven, Perranuthnoe. Most Praa Sands site visits get booked within the same week.
Can you handle both planning and build in Praa Sands?
Yes — design, planning, building regs and full construction run under one roof. For clients with an existing Praa Sands builder we can stop at a tender-ready Full Plans pack instead.
Request a free visitWho this is for
Praa Sands runs the full mix — owner-occupier, holiday-let, commercial and the occasional smallholding — so we scope every extension enquiry from the use-class up.
FAQs
Praa Sands Extensions — local questions answered.
- How much does an extension cost in Praa Sands?
- Build costs in Cornwall typically run from around £2,200 to £3,200 per square metre for a good-quality single-storey extension, more for kitchen-grade fit-out or complex glazing. We give a realistic budget before drawings start, not after. In Praa Sands specifically, we'd start by checking AONB landscape sensitivity before committing to a direction.
- Can you handle the build as well as the design?
- Yes — that's the whole point of the studio. One contract, one point of contact, no finger-pointing between architect and builder when something needs a decision on site.
- What about the Party Wall Act?
- If you share a wall with a neighbour or build close to a boundary, the Act applies. We flag it early, recommend a surveyor and keep the programme aligned with the notice period.
- How long does the whole process take?
- Allow roughly three months for design and approvals, then twelve to twenty weeks on site for a typical single-storey extension. Wraparounds and two-storey add-ons take longer, mostly through approval and groundworks.
- Do I need planning permission for an extension?
- Often no — single-storey rear extensions, side extensions and modest two-storey additions can sit inside permitted development on a typical detached house. Conservation Areas, AONB and Article 4 zones remove some of those rights, so we always check the address first.
Other services in Praa Sands
Nearby places we cover
Every Praa Sands extension we work on is treated as a TR20 job in its own right — local fabric, local policy, local builders.