Click on the top right icon to view in full screen mode:

If you would like to discover the potential in your home and be featured in a future issue of the magazine, we require the following info:

• photos of your house – an external shot of the front & internal shots of the problem areas;
• a floor plan, if you have one – even a rough sketch will do!
• a description of your home, highlighting the problems you’re experiencing.

Send these to info@livingroom.ie or anthea@decorateireland.ie, with ‘Property Potential Feature’in the Subject line. Decorate & Improve Your Home is a Quarterly magazine and we can only feature one home potential project per issue, so if you aren’t selected initially, please keep trying!

If you enjoyed this post, you may also be interested in:

The Elephant in the Room 1: The Bad Extension

The Elephant in the Room 2: Spaced Out

It’s Not About Looks: Good Design Works

Did you find this article useful? Do you have any any pet peeves about housing? Please leave a comment with your thoughts on this subject or any other home improvement or design issues you’d like to know more about.

So your neighbour is building an extension.. You’ve taken a look at the drawings and don’t like what you see – what is the most effective way to tell the planner about your concerns? The first rule of good communication is to make sure you’re talking the same language.

The planner is looking out for anything in an application that might limit other people’s ability to enjoy living in that neighbourhood – this is called residential amenity and includes issues like size, height, appearance, parking, traffic and size of garden. Take a look at ‘How Do I Object to a Planning Application?’ or your local Development Plan for more information.

I’ve dealt with many planning applications and appeals for clients, often succeeding in achieving permission where others have failed or successfully appealing proposals that had previously been refused. I’ve been on both sides of the fence – defending applications and objecting to unsuitable proposals by others, on projects of various types and sizes. I’ve read hundreds of observations / objection letters and there is just one golden rule:

An objection to a planning application must be made on planning grounds!

What does that mean? Well, here’s an example of what not to do:

Now this person (entirely imaginary, I might add) has real and legitimate reasons for complaining about the neighbour’s application but they don’t come across in the letter, as the bulk of the comments are emotional and, therefore, not relevant to the planner.

Think about how a doctor might deal with a patient when he gives him bad news – he won’t burst into tears and tell him how terrible he feels about it all. He maintains a professional detachment from the patient’s cirumstances and doesn’t get emotionally involved.

The planner makes a decision on a planning application in the same way – he considers issues that impact upon residents based on planning concerns, not on the emotions behind them. By focusing on how you feel, you may miss the opportunity to make a legitimate complaint and undermine your credibility, to boot. And don’t forget, your letter goes on public record and an initial, angry reaction on file for all to see may make it difficult to resume friendly relations after..

I would recommend keeping the letter as simple as possible – stay cool, calm & detached. No emotion, no personal slurs, no multiple exclamation points. Probably not a good idea to threaten the planner either.

Let’s take a look again at how the issues raised in the letter above can be written in way that makes it easier for the planner to take note:

1. The proposed extension is out of keeping with the visual appearance of the area – this is an established residential area and there is no precedent for this kind of development.
2. The size of the extension is out of scale with the existing and neighbouring properties – both in terms of height and overall size.
3. The extension will overshadow the garden of my property preventing the use and enjoyment of this amenity space.
4. The construction process presents potential hazards in the form of building dust, noise pollution and movement of heavy machinery in a small residential street, where there are a number of children resident.

It really doesn’t have to be more complicated than that. Not all of these issues warrant a refusal – construction noise / traffic, for example – but the planner can add conditions to the permission to limit working hours and exposure to any hazards. Some people hire an Architect to write the initial letter of objection but, in my opinion, it isn’t always necessary. The important thing is to register your concern and to make sure the points in your letter relate to the areas of ‘residential amenity’that the planner is looking to protect. If in doubt, get a professional opinion.

If the initial objection is unsuccessful and you want to Appeal to An Bord Pleanala, I would certainly recommend having an architect put together the documentation, as the requirements at this stage are usually more detailed and the architect will have more experience of how best to challenge a successful planning application.

And remember, a neighbour getting planning permission to extend is not necessarily a bad thing! It can establish a precedent that makes it easier for you to make changes to your home or can highlight its potential to buyers, if you’re selling.

Did you find this article useful? Do you have any suggestions for articles? Please leave a comment with your thoughts on this subject or any other home improvement or design issues you’d like to know more about.

Most of my advice here on the blog is designed to help homeowners spot and take advantage of the potential in their homes but what if the boot is on the other foot? What if it is a neighbour who is adding space to his home in a way that will impact on yours? What action can you take?

Well, the Irish Planning system gives you two opportunities to lodge an objection to an unsuitable planning application – firstly, through the planning process at your local Planning Department and then, if you feel that your comments have not been given full consideration, through An Bord Pleanala. Here’s how it works:

Objecting to your Local Planning Department

When a planning application is lodged, the applicant must advertise the fact in two ways – an advert in a local or national newspaper and a sign at the front of the property, visible from the public footpath. For the first 5 weeks of the application, the drawings are available to view at the local planning office. Many Planning Departments now have this information online, making the process even easier.  Anyone can take a look at the drawings and submit an Observation about or an Objection to the application – the fee is €25.00 and the objection must be received by the Planning Department within the initial 5 week period.

There is no official format for making an observation or objection – you simply write a letter to your local planning department, quoting the reference number on the planning file and listing the issues you are concerned about.

When weighing up a planning application, the planner considers what a homeowner wants to do to his home in relation to something called ‘residential amenity’– in simple terms, this means the ability to enjoy living in your home and neighbourhood.

The factors that contribute to ‘residential amenity’are laid out in the Development Plan (available at your local planning department counter and to view on-line) but here are the basics:

• Height – will it be taller than the existing or surrounding houses?
• Scale / Massing – will it be bigger and bulkier than surrounding houses?
• Visual Appearance – will it be in keeping with the colours & materials of houses in the local area?
• Overlooking – will they be able to look in the windows of your house from the new extension,  especially at the back and at first floor level?
• Overshadowing – will it cast part or all of your home or garden into shade?
• Traffic – will it create a lot of additional traffic particularly on a quiet street?
• Parking – are there existing parking problems that will be made worse?
• Private Garden – will the reduced garden size meet planning standards?

At the end of the 5 week period, the planner reviews the application taking account of all information submitted – the application and observations / objections – and has a further 3 weeks to make a decision, 8 weeks in total from the lodgement date.

At this point, if you feel that the decision did not take full account of the issues raised in your observation or objection, you can appeal to An Bord Pleanala.

Appealing to An Bord Pleanala

The typical planning process takes 8 weeks, as described above, at the end of which the Planning Department will issue either a Notification to Grant Permission or a Refusal – there are other alternatives that could arise at this point and, for more information on these, please take a look at ‘How Long Does Planning Permission Take?‘

If you have already made an observation or objection to the planning application, and you are not happy with the decision, you can submit a Third Party Appeal to An Bord Pleanala. Note: if you have not submitted an observation or an objection to the original application with the Planning Department, you cannot make an Appeal to the Board.

The fee for lodging an appeal is currently €200 (check www.pleanala.ie for up-to-date information) and it must be submitted within 4 weeks of the Planning decision. Typically, it takes 16 weeks for the Bord to reach a decision and uring this time the applicant will be notified, asked to respond to the issues raised in your objection and you will have a further opportunity to address any items raised in their response.

At the end of the 16 weeks, the Board will make its decision and notify all parties. In some cases, where the application in a complicated one, the Board will ask for an extension of the time required to make a decision – although this is rare in the case of typical house extension projects.

Check back soon for advice on the Do’s and Don’ts of Writing a Planning Objection.

Did you find this article useful? Do you have any suggestions for articles? Please leave a comment with your thoughts on this subject or any other home improvement or design issues you’d like to know more about.

In the first of the Elephant in the Room series, I talked about common problems to watch out for with home extensions. This week, I’m looking at the problem of lack of space – it’s the No. 1 reason given by homeowners for moving or extending but often the real problem lies in the type of space we have and how we use it.

When it comes right down to it – how much is enough?

There’s a famous quote by architect Mies Van Der Rohe – ‘Less Is More’– I take this to mean there is a richness and a quality in simplicity. It’s a mantra that can be applied to your home, how you dress, even how you live your life. A former boss of mine was fond of quoting it in reverse – ‘Too Much Is Never Enough’– and in a way this version is more revealing and says more about how we live our lives today.

It always makes me think about how, whenever I got a pay rise in the good old days, it didn’t put more money in my pocket because I’d automatically adapt my lifestyle to suit the new level of wealth, however small that increase might be! The same principle applies to our homes – the more space we have, the more we adapt to fill the space, creating a ‘need’for even more space!

Simplicity is about making choices – it’s as much about what we don’t have, as what we do. In the good times, we don’t have to choose and so we indulge, we accumulate, we expand. In doing so, we lose the ability to evaluate between one choice and another.

When we experience constraints in life – and who isn’t feeling the pinch, at the moment – our choices are reduced and we prioritise those things that are fundamental to our well-being or our values. In many ways it is a positive experience – by stripping the excess away we put greater focus and value on what remains.

Less becomes more.

Fewer available choices re-tunes our ability to decide what is of most value to us but more importantly, it teaches us to tackle our problems from a more creative point of view.

I’m seeing a lot more ingenuity in how people design and / or use their homes at the moment and, in particular, how they tackle the problem of making more out of less space.

Take this apartment in the Marais district of Paris, where 2 adults, 2 children and a dog live in a home measuring only 40sqm..

Courtesy of Apartment Therapy

When Apartment Therapy published this article, it sparked a raging debate amongst readers about whether it is possible, legal, moral for a family to live in such a small space and even if it was cruel to the children, the dog or both!

For me there are three key criteria that contribute to the success of this home:

1. The owners recognise that some activities require space to function properly and others can do without – so the living area is a large multi use room and other rooms become small and functional.
2. The integrated storage means that everything has a place and by building it right up to the ceiling the space is used efficiently – see below how creative they’ve been in using every available inch.
3. The apartment is located in one of the most sought after areas of Paris with excellent amenities and, presumably, the owner’s work environments, all within walking distance.

Courtesy Apartment Therapy

The owners have clearly made informed choices (and sacrifices) in opting for this type of home but they haven’t sacrificed style, quality or creativity.

The Paris apartment has lots of ideas for making the most of a small space and this is another favourite project – The Remainder House in British Columbia by Openspace Architecture – where big value has been leveraged out of a small home.

Courtesy Openspace Architecture

Have you ever walked into a room or a house and there was something about it that was instantly appealing? Some spaces just feel right and often it has nothing to do with the size of the room but the quality of natural light. A small room with good natural lighting is much more pleasant to be in than a large room with poor light.

Although the footprint of The Remainder House is modest (under 110sqm) it achieves the sensation of space by doing something rather clever – it borrows it from the outside. Instead of creating a large living room, for example, it has a cosy living space with full height windows that blur the boundary between inside and out – the outdoor space then becomes part of the indoors without the expense of building additional floor area!

Courtesy Openspace Architecture

In this case, the dramatic forest landscape adds significantly to the experience of using the living room but there is no reason why this idea wouldn’t work in an urban or suburban house project, creating a dynamic connection between house and garden.

So here are some things to consider if you feel you need more space in your home:

• De-cluttering – a simple way to create space is simply to get rid of the things you don’t need. Think charity shop, Freecycle or earn a few extra pennies by selling items on E-bay or taking them to designer exchange outlets;
• Storage Space – by creating dedicated storage space for your possessions you can prevent them from cluttering up rooms. Don’t forget to use all the space available – recesses, space under stairs, high level storage options etc.
• Natural Light – is there enough light in the room and can you create more? The ideal is to have light coming from 2 directions, eg. 2 different walls or a wall and the roof. If it is a main living area, look at creating the illusion of more space by using full-height glazing to connect the room with the garden.

For more ideas on making the most of your home, take a look at our article on Home Potential in the new issue of ‘Decorate & Improve Your Home’Magazine.

Did you find this article useful? Do you have any pet peeves about housing design? Please leave a comment with your thoughts on this subject or any other home improvement issues you’d like to know more about.

If you’re feeling the squeeze and would like to discover how to make the most of your home, then there’s still time to enter our competition in the Spring issue of ‘Decorate Extend and Renovate’ magazine.

We’re offering a free Property Potential Report to one homeowner and the chance to be featured in a future edition of the magazine. The winner will have their home assessed and receive an individually tailored report that examines how their spatial needs can be met based on the type of property and local planning criteria. The report  includes sketch design drawings showing the possible transformation, a breakdown of any planning issues and an assessment of the costs required to carry out the work – take a look at a typical report here: www.livingroom.ie/report

If you’re thinking of extending and would like to find out if your home can be adapted  to create that extra bedroom or the kitchen of your dreams, then tell us what discovering that potential would mean to you – send it along with a photo of your home & a brief description, to:

Decorate Extend & Renovate Magazine,

119 Cahard Road,

Saintfield,

Co. Down.

BT24 7LA.

The competition is open to homeowners throughout Ireland – North & South. Entries should be marked WIN 3 and arrive by 29th May 2009.

Earlier today, I watched a great talk by Seth Godin (entrepreneur, author and self-styled ‘agent of change’), called ‘This is Broken’, where he highlighted various ways that people or businesses design around a problem rather than fix the problem itself.

It made me think about housing design and the kind of problems that I come across time and time again – things that are ‘broken’and with a little bit more thought and care could be designed out, so that they are no longer a problem.

I came up with so many examples that I’m preparing a series of posts highlighting the issues to watch out for when buying or extending a home.

The Bad Extension

Many of the enquiries I have received lately have been from homeowners who bought a home in the past few years that had already been extended but now, having lived in it for a while, they find doesn’t actually work.

Often, they have lots of space but the rooms are too dark or are in the wrong place or there is no natural flow between rooms and some become corridors.

Does this sound familiar?

The No. 1 culprit in the Bad Extension category is the extension that has been built across the full width of the back of the house, blocking all natural light to what were the main rooms and making these spaces almost unusable.

This bad boy will have the worst impact on a terraced house, where there are no side walls to add new windows and bring natural light back in. If you have a semi-detached or detached home, there may be the possibility of introducing new windows on the side elevation, to light those middle rooms, but if you also have a neighbouring house only a couple of metres away, these windows will have only a limited effect.

It is a double-whammy, cost-wise – not only do you end up with space you can’t use but you’ve paid extra for that space and will have to shell out again to get it fixed.

The other main offender is the ‘Designed (and possibly Built) it Myself’extension, whose distinguishing features include a warren of small rooms that have either no or limited use, rooms that become through-routes to the next room and rooms that aren’t connected but should be.

These are sometimes enhanced by ribbons of boxed in pipework where kitchens or bathrooms have been moved around, without considering existing water and drainage outlets and single skin external walls without insulation that retain little or no heat and will increase heating costs.

It is not always necessary to use an architect, if you are carrying out work – but would you have the know-how to recognise if your project is a simple or a complicated one? An architect will usually save money – and earn their fee – by identifying the most cost-effective way to extend your home, reducing the build costs and ensuring that the final result enhances your home and protects its value.

When buying a house that has already been extended, make sure your solicitor requests Compliance Certificates from the seller – these are documents, signed by an architect or engineer, confirming that the extension complies with the appropriate Planning & Building Regulations.

It is perfectly feasible, however, that an extension could be granted planning permission, built to the correct standards and still be a ‘bad extension’, as described above. Planning criteria relate to the impact of new building work on neighbouring properties and the surrounding area – not the quality of the space created in the building itself.

The lesson then, if you are extending, is avoid these mistakes and you will be on your way to creating a pleasant and functional home. If you are considering buying a previously extended house and spot any of the above tell-tale signs – approach with caution.

Did you find this article useful? Do you have any pet peeves about housing design? Please leave a comment with your thoughts on the subject and also any other home improvement issues you’d like to know more about.

If you’re thinking of extending your home and can’t decide whether a Planning Application or Exempt Development is the right route for you, here are some of the benefits and drawbacks of Exempt Development – extending without the need for a Planning Application – to consider:

The Pros:

It’s Faster – If the changes you want to make to your home meet the requirements of the Exempt Development guidelines, you can begin work straight away (subject to submitting the correct notices). The planning process takes a minimum of 12 weeks and can take up to 6 months or longer, if there are objections or appeals – for more info, see How Long Does Planning Permission Take?

It’s Cheaper – You can save money on planning fees, a newspaper advert, Ordnance Survey maps, possible appeals and professional or consultant fees for preparing the planning application submission.

It’s Private – There is no requirement to advertise under Exempt Development – neighbours and interested third parties will not have an opportunity to lodge observations or objections, although we would always recommend keeping your neighbours informed, as a goodwill gesture. Building is a slow process and you may need access from your neighbour’s property or their permission for something along the way, so best not to cut the lines of communication right at the beginning!

It’s Legit – If you are going down the Exempt Development route and want peace of mind that everything you are doing is legal and above board, you can apply to your local Planning Department for confirmation that your proposals are compliant with the guidelines, by means of a Section  V Exemption Certificate – currently €80.00 and takes 4 weeks. If you apply for the Exemption Certificate, the application may be available to view in the planning department’s on-line database, but the aforementioned restriction on objections and observations still applies. The Certificate is a very useful document to have, as any future buyer of the property will want assurance that any additional work you have carried out either has Planning Permission or meets the Exempt Development criteria.

The Cons:

It’s Limited – Well, there had to be a catch.. There are restrictions on the type and extent of work you can do when extending or improving your home, usually relating to size, height and scale – these issues come under the blanket heading of residential amenity – the ability to enjoy living in your home or neighbourhood. For example, you can only add up to 40sqm and, typically, only 12sqm can be added at first floor level, subject to the height of the roof and distances from neighbouring properties.

It’s Complicated – As mentioned above, the Exempt Development doesn’t give you carte blanche to extend your home – for everything that you are permitted to do, there are a number of qualifications restricting how you are able to do it. It’s important to make sure that the changes you make to your home, without applying for planning permission, comply with the guidelines, as breaches can be prosecuted (see below). This is why we always recommend working with an Architect, even if you do not plan to make a formal application.

It’s the Law – If you exceed the Exempt Development guidelines, the planning authority can stop your work and you may have to submit a planning application to retain the work you’ve already completed – this costs 3 times as much as a standard application and, even then, permission is not guaranteed. The local authority can also prosecute breaches in planning law, with the possibility of fines and even imprisonment.

To weigh up these factors against the option of extending with Planning Permission, take a look at ‘The Pros & Cons of Planning Permission’.

Did you find this article useful? Please leave a comment to let us know your thoughts on the subject and also any other home improvement issues you’d like to know more about.

Want to extend your home and still feeling unsure about whether you should apply for Planning Permission or explore your options without planning, also known as Exempt Development?

Here’s a summary of the benefits and drawbacks of going down the full planning permission route.

The Pros:

Its Comprehensive – There are fewer restrictions on the type and extent of work you can do when applying for planning permission, allowing you to fully explore the potential of your home – attic conversions, garage conversions, larger extensions at ground and first floor level, changes to the front of a property etc. The restrictions that will apply to this type of work are described in your local Development Plan and are designed to protect residential amenity.

It’s Transparent – When you make a planning application, the requirement for a site notice and a newspaper advert means that everyone is informed, and the opportunity to make an observation means everyone can have their say. The planning decision is then made taking everyone’s views and comments into consideration, along with the planning requirements for that location. If you or any other interested party are not happy with the decision, it can be appealed to An Bord Pleanala, for review.

It’s Conclusive – The Planning Application process gives you 2 opportunities to achieve Planning Permission – firstly, through the local planning department and secondly, through An Bord Pleanala. If you achieve a Grant of Permission through this process, it can only be challenged through the courts – an outcome that is very unlikely in a domestic planning application!

The Cons:

It’s Time Consuming – The standard Planning Application process takes a minimum of 12 weeks and can take up to 6 months or longer, depending on whether there are objections or appeals – take a look at How Long Does Planning Permission Take? for more info.

It’s Expensive – There are fees for submitting a Planning Application – more if you want to either make or fight an Appeal – costs for submitting a newspaper advert, buying Ordnance Survey maps and putting up a sign at the front of your property. There is additional work for your Architect in preparing the planning application drawings and documentation, which may increase their fee. And there is no guarantee that your application will be successful, although working with an experienced and competent Architect will greatly improve your chances.

It’s Conclusive – Yes, this is a double-edged one… As above, the Planning Application process gives you 2 opportunities to achieve Planning Permission – firstly, through the local planning department and secondly, through An Bord Pleanala. If you achieve a Grant of Permission through this process, it can only be challenged through the courts – an outcome that is very unlikely in a domestic planning application! If you are refused after going through both these processes, then it’s back to the drawing board..

To weigh up these factors against the option of extending without Planning Permission, take a look at ‘The Pros & Cons of Exempt Development’.

Did you find this article useful? Please leave a comment to let us know your thoughts on the subject and also any other home improvement issues you’d like to know more about.

In this article I’ll tell you about the planning process itself - the timescales involved and the various scenarios that can arise along the way. If you’d like to learn more about what should actually be submitted as part of a planning application, please take a look at the article entitled, ‘Making a Planning Application’.

The typical timescale for a Planning Application is 12 weeks, which breaks down like this:

Week 0:

Submit Planning Application

Week 1-2:

Application is verified by planning office. If the application does not include all the necessary information as laid down in the Planning Acts, then it and the planning fee will be returned and a new submission will be required.

Week 1 – 5:

Planning Application is available to view at Planning Office and, depending on local authority, on-line. This is the period of time that allows neighbours and other interested parties to inspect the application and make objections / observations to the planning authority – these are known as Third Party objections or observations. The fee for making an observation is €20.00.

It is also a requirement that the Planning Application Site Notice remain in place at the front of the property and visible from the public footpath throughout the initial 5 weeks – the planning office will check at some point during this period. If the sign is not in place, has been defaced or is illegible, the planning application will be returned and a new submission required.

It is possible to appeal this – if the sign has been in place and been subjected to vandalism – but this will require proof, eg. letter from neighbour or photographic evidence. It’s a good idea to take a photo of the site notice in place with the time and date printed, when the sign is first erected, and regularly after that until the 5 week period expires – the notice should be removed at the end of this time.

If a number of objections or observations have been made during the 5 week period, the applicant can respond to these points by also submitting an observation and paying the required fee, as long as it is submitted within the 5 week period.

Week 5 – 8:

The planner will review the application along with any observations or objections submitted. He / she may also invite comments from other interested local authority departments – usually the Roads & Drainage departments will have some input. The planner prepares a report and makes their recommendation for review and issue by the Planning Department.

At the end of the 8 week period, the applicant will receive a Notification of one of the following responses:

• Application Approved;
• Application Rejected;
• Request for Additional Information.

What happens next will depend on which of these circumstances arise, as follows.

Application Approved:

Week 8 – 12:

Any third party who made observations or objections to the application can, if they choose, make a further Appeal to An Bord Pleanala, at a cost of €200.00. The Board will then consider the existing application and invite further information from the applicant, the objectors and any relevant parties (including the planning department) in order to make their decision – this takes a minimum of 16 weeks.

If there have been no objections to the application, the formal Grant of Approval will be issued at the end of the 12 weeks.

Application Rejected:

Weeks 8 – 12:

The applicant can, if he chooses, lodge an Appeal to An Bord Pleanala, as above – this is known as a First Party Appeal.

Alternatively, the applicant can choose to take on board the comments made in the planner’s report and modify the proposals to make a new application.

Request for Additional Information:

If the Planning Department requests additional information, the applicant has a period of 6 months in which to reply. When this information has been submitted, the Planning Department will respond within a period of 4 weeks.

Again, the possible reponses are Approval or Rejection (with timescales and options, as above) or they can request Clarification of the Further Information submitted. Clarification will relate exclusively to the issues highlighted in the Request for Additional Information, and not raise new queries to be addressed. Once submitted, the Planning Department will make a final decision within 4 weeks.

If the applicant fails to submit the Additional Information or Clarification of Additional Information within 6 months of the request, the application will lapse and a new Planning Application will be required.

Permission Granted – What Next?

Once Planning Permission has been obtained, any conditions stipulated in the Grant of Permission by either the Planning Department or An Bord Pleanala will have to be addressed prior to commencing with building work and may require a further submission, known as a Compliance Submission.

A Notification of Commencement of Building Works should also be submitted prior to proceeding with building work.

Did you find this article useful? Please leave a comment to let us know your thoughts on the subject and also any other home improvement issues you’d like to know more about.

You may also be interested in:

The Pros & Cons of Planning Permission

What's Involved in Making a Planning Application?

So you want to extend or make changes to your home and you know that the work will require an application for Planning Permission – what happens next?

Whether you are making changes to your home under the Exempt Development guidelines (without the need for a formal application) or applying for Planning Permission, the purpose of the planning system is to protect your local built environment and its residential amenity (the ability to enjoy living there), which is why there are restrictions and guidelines in the first place. The main issues are described in your local Development Plan, which is usually available to view on-line and also at your local planning office.

Remember that your proposals not only affect yourself and your home but will also have an impact on those around you, so think about how you would react to a neighbour making the same changes to his or her house. The more respectful and sympathetic you are to your neighbours homes when making your plans, then the better chance you have of getting planning permission and avoiding a long drawn out planning process to say nothing of a difficult and fraught building process!

I would always recommend working with an Architect to develop the design proposals for your home and prepare the Planning Application, as they will bring expert knowledge and experience to your project. Whether the Architect needs to be involved for the whole project or only part of it will depend on what you want to achieve:

• Do you have very limited space?

• Is there an existing extension to be taken account of?

• Do you want the new space to integrate seemlessly with the existing house?

• Do you want to maximise natural light?

If you’ve answered yes to any of the above questions then using an Architect is likely to bring greater value to your project.

The Architect will help you to develop a Brief – this a detailed description of the changes you’d like to make and what you hope to achieve from the proposed changes to your home, taking account of your needs, timescale and budget. He / she will carry out a detailed survey of the property – plans, elevations and sections – and use this information to prepare drawings of the house as existing which will then form the basis for the new proposals. He / she will also advise you of the various regulations that may apply to your project – the most common ones are Planning, Building Regulations and Health & Safety.

Sketch drawings are prepared for discussion and, when you are happy with the proposals, these are developed into the architectural planning drawings.

So what’s actually required for a Planning Application?

Although complex projects may require more information in order to explain the proposals more clearly and the planner can also request more information, as part of the process, these are the basics:

• Planning Application form;
• Site Notice (to be erected at front of property for first 5 weeks of application period and a copy included with the application);
• Newspaper Notice – original & a copy of advert;
• OS Maps – these have to be originals and can be purchased from Ordnance Survey outlets in the form of Planning Packs, which cost around €55.00
• 6no. copies of the architectural drawings showing the existing house and the proposed changes – site layout, floor and roof plans, elevations and sections, proposed drainage routes ( if appropriate) along with a description of the materials to be used or design specification.

The site notice and newspaper notice can be erected / published up to 2 weeks prior to submitting your application. Your local planning office will have a list of newspapers that are acceptable for your area – local weekly papers are often less expensive but will require your notice to be submitted approx. a week in advance whereas national newspapers can usually print within a day or two of receiving your notice. The site notice must be visible from the public footpath at the front of your house – it’s a good idea to have it mounted just beyond the reach of anyone passing, to prevent vandalism.

If you’d like to find out about the Planning Application process itself – the timescales involved and what they could mean to your project – take a look at How Long Does Planning Permission Take?

Did you find this article useful? Please leave a comment to let us know your thoughts on the subject and also any other home improvement issues you’d like to know more about.

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