Home Extensions · Lane Cove NSW 2066
Home extensions in Lane Cove, done properly.
Rear and side house extensions for Lane Cove 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 Lane Cove 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 Lane Cove.
- 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
Opening a Lane Cove home to the bush and the light.
Strava Group builds home extensions in Lane Cove: rear additions, side extensions and whole-of-back transformations that open the house to the garden. Lane Cove is a suburb of ridges and gullies, with Federation and interwar homes on the older streets near the village, mid-century brick on the slopes, and bush reserves running through the valleys. The blocks are decent, the land is valuable, and the brief is nearly always the rear: living that opens to the garden, the trees and the north light the original plan ignored.
In Lane Cove 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 Lane Cove.
Every suburb builds a little differently. This is what matters when you are extending a Lane Cove home.
Council
Lane Cove is its own local government area under the Lane Cove Local Environmental Plan 2009 and the Lane Cove Development Control Plan. Several residential precincts carry heritage conservation controls where extensions go through a Development Application, and bushfire and riparian controls apply on the blocks backing the reserves. Elsewhere 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 Lane Cove Council and on the NSW Planning Portal.
Housing stock
Federation and interwar homes near the village and Longueville Road, a broad stock of 1950s and 60s full brick and brick veneer houses on the slopes, and later architect designed homes on the bush blocks. Many carry a sunroom or family room added decades ago that was never built to last. Those earlier additions usually come off and are replaced with something engineered.
Structure
Mid-century brick homes extend well once the load path is engineered, and the older full brick and Federation houses need more care at the junction: we cut the openings cleanly, install engineered steel and tie the new frame into the existing brickwork properly. On the sloping blocks the new floor often sits on a suspended slab or steel subfloor stepping down the site, which is a detail that has to be engineered and built right.
Yard and block
Blocks are typically 550 to 850 square metres, many of them sloping toward the Lane Cove River valley and the gullies, and most of them treed. The trees are protected under council controls and usually shape where the extension can go. On the steeper blocks the extension steps down the site, and the outlook into the trees becomes the best feature of the new rooms.
Services and ground
Lane Cove sits on Hawkesbury sandstone, often close to the surface, with shale clay on the higher ground. That makes footings predictable on some blocks and awkward on others where rock has to be cut, so the engineering is done for your site. New footings are detailed against the existing ones so the extension does not settle away from the house. Bushfire construction requirements apply on the blocks backing the reserves.
Value
Lane Cove is a high value lower North Shore suburb where the village, the schools and the bush setting keep demand strong. A properly built extension that turns a dated rear into open plan living reaching into the garden is worth a great deal here, and it is almost always cheaper than buying the bigger house down the street.
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 Lane Cove 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 on Lane Cove sandstone the challenge is usually matching new rock-founded footings to old ones that 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 Lane Cove.
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 Lane Cove the value of the land tends to justify extensions in the middle and upper part of the band, with sloping sites, sandstone excavation and bushfire requirements on some blocks adding engineering work. How much of the existing structure has to change is usually the largest single factor, followed by wet areas, access and rock.
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 Lower North Shore and the surrounding suburbs. Select a suburb for local council information and what extensions there typically cost. Looking for a different service in Lane Cove? We also build second storey additions and home renovations.
Home extensions near Lane Cove.
Lower North Shore
Good to know
Lane Cove extension questions.
How much does a home extension cost in Lane Cove?
Do I need council approval for an extension in Lane Cove?
How long does a home extension take to build in Lane Cove?
Can I live at home during the extension?
Should I extend out or add a second storey in Lane Cove?
Will the extension match my existing house?
How will I know what is happening during my extension?
Are you licensed and insured?
Extend your Lane Cove 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.
