Do I need council approval for an extension in Burwood?

Yes. Inside the Appian Way and other Burwood heritage conservation areas it is a Development Application through Burwood Council, and a rear extension that sits behind the main roofline and is not visible from the street is well supported. Outside the conservation areas many detached homes qualify for a Complying Development Certificate through a private certifier, which is significantly faster. We confirm which pathway applies to your property before quoting.

How long does a home extension take to build in Burwood?

Most extensions run 12 to 20 weeks on site. Design and approvals happen before that: a CDC takes about 4 to 8 weeks, and a DA can take up to 6 months, depending on council. We give you a programme with the quote, not after you have signed.

Can I live at home during the extension?

Usually yes. Because the work is concentrated at the rear or side, most Burwood families stay in the house for most of the build, with a shorter disruptive period when we break through and connect the new space to the old. We plan the breakthrough stage with you so you know exactly when it is coming.

Should I extend out or add a second storey in Burwood?

On most Burwood blocks a rear extension is the first option because it keeps the original front of the house intact and the heritage controls favour work that sits behind the existing roofline. Going up is harder in conservation areas and on semis, but it can be the right call on a small block where the yard has to be kept. We build both, so the advice is honest: we look at your block and tell you which one your home actually wants. A house extension and a second storey are different builds with different engineering, and we quote both honestly.

Will the extension match my Federation house?

That is a design decision, and in Burwood the heritage controls often shape it. Council generally prefers a rear extension that reads as clearly new rather than a copy of the original, as long as it sits behind the main roof and respects the scale of the house. Matched brick and rooflines are still possible where the controls allow. What must always match is the standard of the junction between old and new, which is where our detailing does its work.

How will I know what is happening during my extension?

Two ways. You get a weekly update from the builder running your job, whether or not there is good news in it. And you get access to our client portal, where you can log in any time to see your documents, selections, variations and job status. No chasing, no phone tag, no wondering.

Are you licensed and insured?

Yes. Strava Group holds NSW Builder's Licence 487370C and carries public liability insurance and Home Building Compensation Fund cover on all residential work over the statutory threshold. You can verify the licence directly through Verify NSW at verify.licence.nsw.gov.au.

Timber roof and wall framing in a renovation

Home Extensions · Burwood NSW 2134

Home extensions in Burwood, done properly.

Rear and side house extensions for Burwood homes by a licensed extension builder. Most extensions run $70,000 to $300,000 depending on size and how much of the existing house has to change, itemised quote, honest programme, one builder from concept to handover.

Get Your Extension Assessed Call 0450 605 080

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487370C

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Burwood Council areaNSW Builder’s Licence 487370CItemised quotesClear inclusions & exclusions0450 605 080

Extending out, not up

More room at the back of a Burwood home.

Strava Group builds home extensions in Burwood: rear extensions, side returns and whole-of-back transformations that open the house to the yard. Burwood mixes grand Federation homes around the Appian Way and Burwood Park with interwar bungalows and 1960s brick closer to the station. On most of them the front half is worth keeping and the back half is where the extension earns its money: a bigger kitchen, open plan living and a proper connection to the yard.

In Burwood we regularly deliver:

Rear extensions and additions
Side extensions on wider blocks
Open plan kitchen, dining and living
Alfresco and indoor-outdoor connections
New master suites and family rooms
Laundries, mudrooms and storage done properly
Structural openings between old and new
Exterior upgrades to tie old and new together

Thinking about going up instead? That is a different build with different engineering, and we do that too: see second storey additions in Burwood.

Burwood houses were built with good rooms at the front and small service rooms at the back. An extension reverses that: the kitchen and living move to the rear where the yard and the light are, and the front rooms become the quiet ones.

Landscaped backyard with a rock garden, timber edging, lawn and gravel path

Quick Answer

Most home extensions in Burwood run $70,000 to $300,000 depending on size and how much of the existing structure has to change, at roughly $2,500 to $4,500 per square metre for ground floor work, with around $30,000 in preliminaries (design, engineering and council approvals, plus site set-up) on top. Opening double brick walls, replacing an earlier lean-to and working without side access are the things that move the figure most here.

Local knowledge

What we know about extending in Burwood.

Every suburb builds a little differently. This is what matters when you are extending a Burwood home.

Council

Burwood is its own local government area under the Burwood Local Environmental Plan 2012 and the Burwood Development Control Plan. Parts of the suburb, including the Appian Way and several streets around Burwood Park, sit inside heritage conservation areas where extensions go through a Development Application. Outside those areas many detached homes can use Complying Development through a private certifier. We confirm the pathway for your property before quoting. Current planning controls are published by Burwood Council and on the NSW Planning Portal.

Housing stock

Federation and interwar houses on the better streets, some of them substantial, with a solid stock of 1950s and 60s brick homes and semis toward the station and Croydon. Many of the older houses carry a lean-to or sunroom addition from the 1970s or 80s that was never built to last. Those earlier additions usually come off and are replaced with something engineered.

Structure

Older Burwood homes are double brick with timber floors on brick piers, hardwood roof framing and terracotta or slate tiles. Cutting new openings into a double brick rear wall needs engineered lintels and careful propping, and the new floor has to land exactly on the existing floor level. Semis share a party wall, which changes both the engineering and the neighbour approach, so those are always custom projects.

Yard and block

Blocks range widely, from 400 square metres on the tighter streets to well over 800 on the Appian Way and around the park. Side access is the first thing we check, because without it materials and spoil come through the house and the programme changes. A full width rear extension with the yard kept beyond it is the usual move.

Services and ground

Burwood sits on shale derived clay soils that move with moisture, and the footings under a 1910s house were never designed to modern standards. New footings are engineered for the site and detailed against the old ones so the extension does not settle away from the house. Sewer and stormwater lines often run along the rear boundary and need to be located before design starts.

Value

Burwood is one of the inner west suburbs where a well extended character home holds its value best: the station, Westfield and the school catchments keep demand steady. Buyers pay for the Federation front with a properly built modern rear, and an extension that delivers that is one of the safest improvements in the suburb.

Start here

Tell us about your Burwood home.

No sales pitch, no obligation. Here is exactly what happens when you enquire:

One at a time, takes about two minutes, so the first conversation is about your project rather than the basics.

Start Your Enquiry Call 0450 605 080

The Strava standard

How we build differently.

An extension lives or dies at the junction between old and new. We build for longevity, and on every Burwood extension we run:

Every new-to-existing junction properly detailed

This is where most extensions crack, leak and part company with the house. It is almost always a detailing shortcut, not settlement. Ours get a proper structural tie, flashing and movement detail.

The existing structure gets rectified, not covered

Where the extension meets the house, we screw off and re-brace the adjoining structure, tying new and old together so the whole building moves as one and future cracking is designed out, not painted over.

Footings matched to the ground, not the minimum

New footings are engineered for your soil and detailed against the existing ones, because differential movement between old and new slabs is the classic extension failure, and it matters more on a century-old house whose original footings were never engineered.

Furring channels for a dead flat finish

Where new ceilings and walls run through to existing rooms, furring channels give one level plane across both, so you cannot see where the house ends and the extension begins.

Waterproofing is a documented hold point

New wet areas are inspected and photographed before a single tile goes on, to AS 3740, and new roof-to-old-roof junctions get the same treatment.

Everything photographed before it is covered

You receive the record at handover, so in ten years you know exactly what is behind your walls and under your floor.

Before starting Strava Group, I spent seven years on the tools as a carpenter and five years running sites. The failures I kept seeing in extensions were always at the join: cracked cornices along the old wall line, roofs that leaked where new met old, floors that stepped as slabs settled differently. None of it was illegal. All of it was avoidable. None of this shows up in a finished-room photo. All of it shows up in year seven.

Honest numbers

What a house extension actually costs in Burwood.

Most builders will not put numbers on a website. We will, because the alternative is wasting your time and ours across three meetings before anyone mentions a figure.

Item	Typical range
Home extension, depending on size and scope	$70k–$300k
Ground floor extension work	$2,500–$4,500 /m²
Preliminaries, on top of build cost	approx. $30,000

Preliminaries are the costs that exist before a single wall moves: design, engineering and council approvals, plus site set-up such as site fencing, temporary services, waste removal, insurances and supervision. They are real, they are unavoidable, and a quote that does not show them separately has either buried them or forgotten them.

In Burwood the smaller blocks on the tighter streets keep projects in the lower and middle part of the band, while the larger heritage homes around the park can run to the top of it. How much of the existing structure has to change is usually the largest single factor, followed by wet areas, side access and the work involved in taking off an earlier lean-to.

Every project is quoted properly after a site inspection. These ranges are here so you can decide whether it is worth a conversation.

Good to know

Burwood extension questions.

From our clients

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Nearby

Home extensions near Burwood.

We build extensions across the inner west. Select a suburb for local council information and what extensions there typically cost.

Inner West

Home Extensions Strathfield Home Extensions Ashfield Home Extensions Five Dock Home Extensions Drummoyne Home Extensions Dulwich Hill

All Sydney extension areas

Looking for a different service in Burwood? We also build second storey additions in Burwood and home renovations in Burwood.

Extend your Burwood home properly.

Ready for more room?

Tell us about your property and what you want to add. We respond within 24 to 48 business hours with honest advice and real numbers, no cost, no obligation.

Get Your Extension Assessed Call 0450 605 080