Penwith · TR19
Extensions for St Levan (TR19)
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. St Levan sits in Penwith, and that geography ends up in the drawings — St Levan is a rural parish in the TR19 area, with farmsteads, lanes and scattered homes defining its built character, with a building stock that leans toward smallholdings and farmhouses.
St Levan sits in Penwith — covering TR19 from Porthcurno, Truro, St Austell outward.
- Cornwall AONB
- Rural / open-countryside policy area
- ✓ Measured-survey accuracy from day one
- ✓ One studio — design, planning and build under one roof
- ✓ Fixed-fee planning packages, no surprise invoices
- ✓ Same team on paper as on site
Our process
How a St Levan 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 — Recent extension enquiries from St Levan have clustered around smallholdings — we know the route through Cornwall Council on these.
Get a free feasibility viewWhat we focus on
Extensions considerations specific to St Levan.
01
Drainage on older Cornish properties is rarely on a clean modern map; CCTV survey before design is often money well spent.
02
Permitted development for rear extensions runs to four metres on a detached house, three on a semi or terrace — but Article 4 areas remove this in some parishes.
03
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.
04
Cornish granite and slate-hung walls react differently to new openings than modern brickwork — lintel choice and structural sequencing matter.
Local context
Why St Levan is its own job.
In St Levan the planning picture is specific: open-countryside policy, access lanes, drainage and agricultural building history all need to be addressed before drawings go too far. 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; Cornwall Council's Local Plan applies tighter tests to isolated rural dwellings here, so design rationale and policy fit need to be set out clearly from the outset. That local reading is what makes a St Levan (TR19) project different from a generic Cornwall scheme — and is the whole reason we work this way. On smallholdings in particular — the kind you'll also find toward Newquay — 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
The TR19 constraints that shape a extension brief.
Watch #1
AONB landscape-impact scrutiny on visible elevations
Watch #2
Tighter Local Plan tests on isolated rural dwellings
St Levan is part of Porthcurno
St Levan sits inside the Porthcurno catchment — we cover both as one extension territory.
See Extensions in Porthcurno →Local fabric
St Levan extensions — the local-studio difference.
Building stock
Across St Levan (TR19) we work on farmhouses, converted barns, rural cottages, smallholdings, scattered modern homes. Each stock type drives a different extension response — smallholdings in particular needs careful detailing here.
Parish & policy
St Levan sits in the parish of St Levan, which matters for how parish-level consultation lands on a extension application.
Coverage
We cover TR19 from our studio, with regular extension jobs also running in Porthcurno, Truro, St Austell. Most St Levan site visits get booked within the same week.
Can you handle both planning and build in St Levan?
Yes — design, planning, building regs and full construction run under one roof. For clients with an existing St Levan builder we can stop at a tender-ready Full Plans pack instead.
Request a free visitWho this is for
St Levan 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
St Levan Extensions — local questions answered.
- 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. In St Levan specifically, we'd start by checking AONB landscape sensitivity before committing to a direction.
- 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 much does an extension cost in Cornwall?
- 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.
- 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 St Levan
Nearby places we cover
Every St Levan extension we work on is treated as a TR19 job in its own right — local fabric, local policy, local builders.