Second Storey Additions · Cheltenham
Add bedrooms, bathrooms & living space, without moving.
Fixed price second storey additions for Cheltenham homeowners, from $274,000. Built to our Above Standard Carpentry Specification, with a solid Hebel PowerFloor included as standard on early projects.
Hebel PowerFloor included free on early Cheltenham packages. A solid, quieter floor, normally an upgrade.
Space without moving
More room, without leaving Cheltenham.
Cheltenham is one of the smallest and quietest suburbs in Sydney, barely a shopfront in it, and that is exactly why people stay. What you do not love is running out of space. Moving means stamp duty, agent fees and giving up a suburb you cannot simply buy your way back into.
On a million dollar purchase, stamp duty alone runs to roughly $40,000 before you have paid an agent, a conveyancer or a removalist. In a suburb like Cheltenham, with the station a short walk from most streets and so few homes ever listed, that maths rarely favours moving.
A second storey addition lets you stay exactly where you are and build the space you need. Extra bedrooms, a second bathroom, a private master retreat or an upstairs living zone, without giving up a metre of backyard.
Strava Group builds second storey additions across Cheltenham, Beecroft and the surrounding district. About us.
Choose your package
Three fixed price starting points.
All prices are “from”, GST inclusive, and apply to the new upper floor works only. Every package includes Hebel PowerFloor while the current offer runs.
- New upper level with 1 bedroom
- 1 bathroom or ensuite
- Retreat or study zone
- Internal staircase allowance
- Hebel PowerFloor included
- 2 to 3 bedrooms upstairs
- 1 family bathroom
- Internal staircase
- Moves bedrooms up, opens your ground floor
- Hebel PowerFloor included
- 3 bedrooms upstairs
- 1 bathroom
- Upstairs retreat or living area
- Internal staircase
- Hebel PowerFloor included
Not a package job?
Custom second storey additions.
The three packages cover the shapes we build most often. Plenty of Cheltenham homes do not fit them. Wider footprints, a second bathroom upstairs, a full ground floor reconfiguration underneath, or a split level that has to be worked with rather than against.
We build those too, priced against your plans rather than squeezed into a package. Same fixed price contract, same standards, same specification. Custom builds generally run $270,000 to $400,000 depending on size and what we find underneath.
- Any size or configuration
- Ground floor works included in scope
- Heritage and character homes
- Structural upgrades where needed
Every plan is drawn to suit your Cheltenham home. Package price covers the new upper floor works. Design, engineering and council approvals are quoted separately as preliminaries, at roughly $30,000.
The Strava difference
A solid, quieter upstairs.
Most second storey additions sit on 19mm lightweight particleboard. While it does the job, it can feel hollow and bouncy underfoot. As a result, footsteps carry straight down to the rooms below.
For early Strava Group projects in Cheltenham we include Hebel PowerFloor as standard. It is a 75mm autoclaved aerated concrete panel, almost four times thicker than standard flooring. Laid over your joists, it creates a solid, concrete style floor.
- 75mmAlmost 4 times thicker than standard 19mm particleboard, so it feels solid underfoot with no bounce or flex.
- 0Squeak free. The thick AAC panel does not creak the way timber based flooring can over time.
- ↓Helps reduce noise transfer between levels for a quieter upstairs, especially with the right ceiling system.
- ✦Non combustible AAC, with thermal insulation and moisture resistance built in.
Local knowledge
Building a second storey in Cheltenham.
Cheltenham is almost entirely residential, one of the few Sydney suburbs with essentially no commercial strip, and the planning rules are built to keep its garden character intact. Here is what shapes a project locally.
Hornsby Shire Council
Cheltenham sits within Hornsby Shire Council. The controls here lean protective, because the leafy, near fully residential character of the suburb is exactly what the planning scheme is built to keep.
Much of Cheltenham is a conservation area
Large parts of Cheltenham and neighbouring Beecroft sit within the Beecroft Cheltenham Heritage Conservation Area. For those homes the fast Complying Development pathway is off the table and a full Development Application is required. That changes the timeline, not the possibility, and some of the best additions in the district are on conservation streets.
Federation homes and garden bungalows
Cheltenham is Federation and interwar stock at its best: brick and timber homes with real rooflines on deep garden blocks, on footings built for one storey. The roof structure and the footings both get checked before anything is designed, because both usually need work to carry a new level.
The canopy is protected
Cheltenham’s tree canopy is part of the conservation character, and Hornsby Shire protects it accordingly. Significant trees near the build zone shape the design and the crane plan, and they are far cheaper to design around than to fight.
Big, established, workable
Blocks here are generous, often 700 square metres and up, with driveways and room to work. Access is rarely the problem. The established gardens are what the crane plan works around.
The street decides the roof
In a conservation area, council assesses an addition against the street. Keeping the new level sympathetic to the existing roofline, and often behind the ridge as seen from the street, is what gets a Cheltenham DA approved. We design for that from the first sketch.
Before anything is designed
Can your house actually take a second storey?
This is the first question, and it usually gets skipped in favour of talking about floor plans. It is worth answering properly, because for roughly one house in six the answer is no, or not without spending money you would rather put into the addition itself.
What is under the house
Your house was built to hold up one storey. A second floor roughly doubles what the foundations carry. Federation era Cheltenham homes commonly sit on brick piers or shallow strip footings built for one storey. Honest construction for its time, and the first thing the engineer confirms before a design is drawn. That is a real cost, and you want to know about it before you fall in love with a floor plan.
What the walls are made of
A double brick house, a brick veneer house and a timber framed house each handle a new floor differently. The question is whether the weight can travel down through the walls you already have, or whether new supports need to appear somewhere you would rather they did not.
What the timber has been through
Framing that looked fine when you bought the place can be quietly damaged in ways that only matter once you ask it to hold a floor up. We look before we quote, not after.
What your council allows
Hornsby Shire Council sets a height limit and protects your neighbours’ winter sunlight. Between them, those two rules often decide your ceiling heights and your roof shape before anyone draws anything.
Whether we can get a crane in
Established trees and gardens are the usual access questions in Cheltenham, and protected trees can shape the crane plan. We flag both at the first visit. Better to know at the start than in week three.
How we find out
An engineer checks the first three. We organise that before we give you a fixed price, because a price without it is a guess.
Clear scope
What is included, and what is not.
Being upfront about both is exactly how we keep your fixed price genuinely fixed.
Included as standard
- Hebel PowerFloor (75mm solid AAC panel), where suitable
- Structural timber framing to engineer’s details
- Wall framing and roof framing
- Roofing
- External cladding
- Aluminium windows
- Insulation
- Plasterboard and setting
- Internal doors, hardware and hinges
- Skirting and architraves
- Standard staircase allowance
- Electrical allowance, LED downlights and smoke alarms
- Bathroom allowance (where part of the package)
- Painting to new upper floor areas
- Builder supervision and construction management
Quoted separately if needed
- Structural steel beams (unless listed)
- Footing, pier or foundation upgrades
- Additional bracing to the existing house
- Ground floor renovations or layout changes
- New downstairs kitchens, bathrooms or laundries
- Existing termite, rot, water or defect repairs
- Electrical mains, switchboard or stormwater upgrades
- Air conditioning upgrades
- Design, engineering, BASIX and council approvals (preliminaries)
- Rock excavation or unforeseen ground conditions
- Premium window, cladding or staircase upgrades
- Any works outside the new upper floor package area
Want the full detail?
The complete inclusions and exclusions, right down to hardware, fixtures, fittings, finishes and specifications, are provided in detail when you enquire, and confirmed in your contract.
Our fixed price packages apply to the standard new upper floor works listed above. If your property needs structural steel, footing upgrades, extra bracing, service upgrades, defect repairs or downstairs renovation works, those items are assessed and quoted separately, clearly, before you commit. Where something genuinely cannot be priced until the roof comes off, it is listed as a provisional sum with a stated allowance rather than hidden inside the total.
The first decision
Up or out?
Most people arrive having already decided. In Cheltenham the block gives you a real choice, and the garden usually casts the deciding vote.
Go up
Go up if the garden matters to you. Cheltenham gardens are often generations old, and a second storey keeps every tree and every metre of them while adding the bedrooms upstairs.
It costs more per square metre than extending out, but it leaves the garden and the side access intact, and well designed two storey homes sit comfortably in Cheltenham streets, and the conservation controls are there to make sure of it.
Extend out
Extending out works on Cheltenham blocks too. They are deep enough to give up yard and keep plenty, though the tree protection often makes the garden more expensive to build over than it looks.
Ground floor work is cheaper per square metre, you can often stay living there, and it avoids the structural question entirely. A rear home extension in Cheltenham can be the better value answer.
If the existing house needs work regardless, a full renovation staged alongside the addition costs less than doing them five years apart, because you pay the preliminaries once and open the walls once.
Plan · Manage · Build
Your Cheltenham second storey, step by step.
Our proven building process is designed to customise your project, avoid cost traps and deliver your vision with minimum disruption.
Your Initial Assessment
First, we review your enquiry, site, timeframe and budget. Then we contact you within 24 to 48 business hours to arrange a consultation.
Consultation & Build Cost Estimate
An experienced builder discusses your project and site, then prepares a detailed build cost estimate.
Preliminary Agreement
This formalises your engagement, secures your spot in our schedule and starts coordination with consultants and authorities.
Plans & Design
Next, we coordinate design and documentation. As a result, you get plans that suit your brief, site and budget, with optional 3D modelling.
Submission to Council
After that, we prepare and lodge your DA and CC, or a CDC with Hornsby Shire Council. Approval typically takes around 4 to 8 weeks.
Final Cost & Contract
Once approved, we confirm the final build cost and issue your HIA Fixed Price Building Contract. Importantly, you review it in full before signing.
Pre-Start Selections
Together, we finalise your fixtures, fittings and finishes with suppliers, so everything is confirmed before work begins.
Start of Construction
Your project manager meets you on site to confirm documentation, expectations and communication before works commence.
Construction
Your project manager oversees the build, coordinates trades and manages quality, keeping disruption to a minimum.
Practical Completion
A final inspection, then warranties and compliance documents are provided. We stay available after handover.
Why Strava Group
A licensed builder who knows what is behind the wall.
A stronger standard inclusion
Hebel PowerFloor comes standard on early packages, giving a solid, quieter upstairs that standard lightweight flooring cannot match.
Structure first, always
Over a decade across site and project management on residential and commercial builds, backed by a trade background. Your addition is framed and supported to our internal Above Standard Carpentry Specification, so the new level feels solid, aligned and original.
Clear scope and fixed pricing
Transparent inclusions and exclusions from day one, so you know exactly what your Cheltenham project covers before you commit. NSW Builder’s Licence 487370C.
Also exploring other options? Strava Group builds home renovations and home extensions in Cheltenham. See our recent work in the gallery.
Nearby
Also building across the district.
Second storey additions nearby
Other services in Cheltenham
See all Sydney service areas.
Get in touch
Talk to a builder about your Cheltenham home.
Tell us about your home and what you would like upstairs. We will let you know whether your property suits a second storey and which package fits. No cost, no obligation.
Good to know
Frequently asked questions.
How much does a second storey addition cost in Cheltenham?
Do I need council approval for a second storey addition in Cheltenham?
Can you add a second storey to a Federation home in Cheltenham?
Can my Cheltenham house support a second storey?
What is Hebel PowerFloor and why is it included?
Will I have to move out during construction?
How long does a second storey addition take?
Does a second storey addition add value to a Cheltenham home?
What is not included in the package price?
Are you licensed and insured?
Get your free quote today.
Ready to build up in Cheltenham?
Contact Strava Group for a free consultation and a quote for your second storey addition, with Hebel PowerFloor included while the offer runs and a fixed price scope you can rely on. Building up is one of the most cost effective ways to add space and value under current NSW housing and construction settings.
