Home Extensions · Haberfield NSW 2045
Home extensions in Haberfield, done properly.
Rear and side house extensions for Haberfield 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.
Start here
Tell us about your Haberfield home.
No sales pitch, no obligation. Here is exactly what happens when you enquire:
- 1Answer a few quick questions. One at a time, takes about two minutes, so the first conversation is about your project rather than the basics.
- 2We call you within 24 to 48 business hours. A builder, not a salesperson. Then we walk your home and yard with you on site in Haberfield.
- 3You receive a written, itemised estimate. Real numbers for your home. If the project does not stack up, we tell you that too.
From our clients
Rated 5.0 on Google.
“We had Strava Group complete major renovation works on our property and were blown away with the quality. The attention to detail and overall finish were amazing.”
“Great communication, honest work, easy to work with, highly recommend to work with for any new build/renovations. If you are looking to get work done without worrying about shortcuts Strava Group is builder to use.”
“I highly recommend Strava Group to everyone great workmanship, reliable service, and I couldn’t be happier with the result.”
Extending out, not up
Extending a Haberfield home without getting it wrong.
Strava Group builds home extensions in Haberfield: rear extensions and whole-of-back transformations that open the house to the garden. Haberfield is the Garden Suburb: virtually the entire suburb is a heritage conservation area, the Federation houses were built as a set piece, and the streetscape is protected because it is genuinely worth protecting. An extension here answers to council, to the street and to the house itself, so it has to be designed and built with more care than almost anywhere else in the inner west. The good news: the controls support a well designed rear extension, and the blocks have the depth for one.
In Haberfield 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.
Local knowledge
What we know about extending in Haberfield.
Every suburb builds a little differently. This is what matters when you are extending a Haberfield home.
Council
Haberfield is in the Inner West Council area under the Inner West Local Environmental Plan 2022, and effectively the whole suburb sits inside the Haberfield Heritage Conservation Area, one of the most significant in Sydney. That removes the Complying Development pathway, so extensions go through a Development Application with heritage assessment. Rear extensions that sit behind the main roofline, are not visible from the street and respect the single storey character are well supported. We confirm the pathway for your property before quoting. Current planning controls are published by Inner West Council and on the NSW Planning Portal.
Housing stock
Federation houses almost throughout, built as the original Garden Suburb from the early 1900s: face brick, timber fretwork, terracotta roofs, gardens to the street and no front fences on many blocks. Many carry a lean-to kitchen or sunroom added decades ago that was never built to last. Those earlier additions usually come off, and the replacement has to earn its place behind a house this good.
Structure
Haberfield homes are typically double brick on timber floors with hardwood framing and terracotta roofs, and the original workmanship is often excellent. Cutting a new opening into a double brick rear wall needs an engineered lintel and careful propping, and the new floor has to meet the existing suspended timber floor exactly. The detailing standard of the original house sets the bar for everything we add to it.
Yard and block
Blocks are typically 450 to 700 square metres and often deeper than they look, which is what makes a proper rear extension possible while keeping a real garden. Side access varies, and where it is tight materials come through the house and the programme changes. Street trees and garden character are part of the conservation area, so the design keeps the landscape in mind, not just the building.
Services and ground
Haberfield sits on shale derived clay soils that move with moisture, with lower ground toward Iron Cove and Hawthorne Canal where flood controls can apply. The footings under a 1910s house were never engineered, so new footings are designed for the site and detailed against the old ones so the extension does not settle away from the house. Old sewer and stormwater lines are located before design starts.
Value
Haberfield is one of the most tightly held suburbs in the inner west, and the conservation area is exactly why: the streetscapes cannot be rebuilt, so the houses hold their value. Buyers pay a premium for an intact Federation front with a properly built modern rear, and the worst thing you can do here is a cheap addition that fights the original. A considered rear extension is the safest improvement in the suburb.
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 Haberfield 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 Haberfield.
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.
Preliminaries are the costs that exist before a single wall moves: site fencing, temporary services, waste removal, insurances, engineering 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 Haberfield the heritage process and the standard the original houses set tend to put projects in the middle and upper part of the band, with double brick structure and tight access adding to it. How much of the existing structure has to change is usually the largest single factor, followed by the heritage design work and wet areas. We give you a realistic figure early rather than a low one that grows.
Every project is quoted properly after a site inspection. These ranges are here so you can decide whether it is worth a conversation.
Nearby We build extensions across Inner West and the surrounding suburbs. Select a suburb for local council information and what extensions there typically cost. Looking for a different service in Haberfield? We also build second storey additions and home renovations.
Home extensions near Haberfield.
Inner West
Good to know
Haberfield extension questions.
How much does a home extension cost in Haberfield?
Do I need council approval for an extension in Haberfield?
How long does a home extension take to build in Haberfield?
Can I live at home during the extension?
Should I extend out or add a second storey in Haberfield?
Will the extension have to match my Federation house?
How will I know what is happening during my extension?
Are you licensed and insured?
Extend your Haberfield 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.
