Do I need council approval for an extension in Five Dock?

Yes. Inside the Five Dock heritage conservation areas it is a Development Application through the City of Canada Bay Council, and a rear extension that sits behind the main roofline is well supported. Outside those 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 Five Dock?

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 Five Dock 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 Five Dock?

On most Five Dock blocks a rear extension is the first option because it keeps the original front intact and the heritage controls favour work behind the existing roofline. Where the block is small and the yard has to be kept, going up can be the right call. 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 interwar brick house?

That is a design decision, and both answers can work. Matching interwar face brick exactly is often impossible because the brick is no longer made, so we either source the closest match and blend it, render the junction, or design a deliberately contemporary addition that lets the original house be itself. In the conservation areas council generally prefers the rear to read as clearly new. 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 · Five Dock NSW 2046

Home extensions in Five Dock, done properly.

Rear and side house extensions for Five Dock 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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City of Canada Bay Council areaNSW Builder’s Licence 487370CItemised quotesClear inclusions & exclusions0450 605 080

Extending out, not up

More room at the back of a Five Dock home.

Strava Group builds home extensions in Five Dock: rear extensions, side returns and whole-of-back transformations that open the house to the yard. Five Dock is a suburb of interwar brick bungalows and Federation cottages on modest blocks, with a strong stock of 1950s and 60s brick homes built by the families who settled here after the war. Most of them have a good front half and a cramped back half, which is exactly what a rear extension fixes.

In Five Dock 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 Five Dock.

The classic Five Dock brief is a solid interwar brick home with a small kitchen and a sunroom tacked on the back. The front stays. The back comes off and becomes the open plan living the house never had.

Open-plan kitchen and dining area with a white island, bar stools and timber-look floors

Quick Answer

Most home extensions in Five Dock 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 sunroom and working without side access are the things that move the figure most here.

Local knowledge

What we know about extending in Five Dock.

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

Council

Five Dock sits in the City of Canada Bay Council area under the Canada Bay Local Environmental Plan 2013 and the Canada Bay Development Control Plan. A number of Five Dock streets 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 City of Canada Bay Council and on the NSW Planning Portal.

Housing stock

Interwar brick bungalows and Federation cottages on the older streets, a large stock of 1950s and 60s full brick and brick veneer homes, and some semis closer to Great North Road. Many carry a lean-to, sunroom or enclosed verandah from decades ago that was never built to last. Those earlier additions usually come off and are replaced with something engineered.

Structure

Older Five Dock homes are double brick on timber floors with hardwood framing and terracotta roofs, and the post-war stock is often full brick on a slab or brick veneer on a frame. Cutting a new opening into a double brick rear wall needs an engineered lintel and careful propping, and the new floor has to land exactly on the existing level. Semis share a party wall and are always custom projects.

Yard and block

Blocks are mostly 400 to 600 square metres, often narrow and deep, so side access is the first thing we check on site. Where there is none, materials and spoil come through the house and the programme changes. A full width rear extension with a usable yard kept beyond it is the usual move, and on the streets toward the bay the extension often steps down the block.

Services and ground

Five Dock sits on shale derived clay over Hawkesbury sandstone, with the rock closer to the surface toward the foreshore. Footing design varies across the suburb, so the engineering is done for your site, and new footings are detailed against the existing ones so the extension does not settle away from a house whose original footings were never engineered. Services along the rear boundary are located before design starts.

Value

Five Dock is a tightly held inner west suburb where the Metro, the Great North Road village and the bay parks keep demand strong. Buyers pay for a character house with a properly built modern rear that opens to the yard, and an extension that delivers that is one of the safest improvements you can make here, and far cheaper than buying the bigger house down the street.

Start here

Tell us about your Five Dock 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 Five Dock 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 an older house whose original footings were never engineered to modern standards.

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 Five Dock.

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 Five Dock the modest blocks keep the footprint sensible, but heritage controls on some streets, narrow access and older double brick structure tend to put projects in the middle of the band. How much of the existing structure has to change is usually the largest single factor, followed by wet areas and access.

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

Five Dock extension questions.

From our clients

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Nearby

Home extensions near Five Dock.

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

Canada Bay and the inner west

Home Extensions Drummoyne Home Extensions Burwood Home Extensions Leichhardt Home Extensions Ashfield Home Extensions Strathfield

All Sydney extension areas

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

Extend your Five Dock 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