A Bespoke Rear Extension & Open-Plan Kitchen Diner in Walthamstow, E17

The project started with the demolition and removal of an existing lean-to conservatory — including its concrete base slab — before the new modular extension could be built in its place. The replacement was designed to sit quietly against the existing Walthamstow home while opening the back of the house up to the garden. Built on an engineered structural steel frame with ground-screw foundations, the single-storey extension replaces a dated lean-to and its old concrete base with a clean, contemporary addition finished in low-maintenance Hardieplank cladding rather than render.

A flat roof keeps the profile low and neighbourly, while a 1m x 2m flush rooflight floods the new kitchen diner with daylight. The star of the elevation is a set of aluminium bifold doors that fold right back to dissolve the line between the extension and a new composite deck — exactly the indoor-outdoor connection the homeowners wanted for an East London family home.

The whole point of this Walthamstow extension was to create a single, generous open-plan kitchen diner instead of a cramped, cut-off rear kitchen. To achieve that, Vita Modular removed the internal partition between the old kitchen and the new extension and formed a wide 4.5m structural opening between the two spaces.

The homeowners didn't want any nibs interrupting that opening, so the design uses new steel columns at either end sitting on new pad foundations, giving a clean, uninterrupted span. The result is one continuous living space that flows from the existing house straight out through the bifolds to the garden — a brand-new kitchen at its heart, with the diner and living area opening onto the deck.

Like every Vita Modular extension, this Walthamstow build is fixed-price and built to a high, warranted standard around an engineered steel frame — combining the speed of modular construction with the durability of traditional build. The specification for this project included:

• Structural steel frame on ground-screw foundations
• Low-maintenance Hardieplank external cladding
• Aluminium bifold doors and a new window
• Flat roof with a 1m x 2m flush rooflight
• Painted walls and ceilings throughout
• LVT flooring to the new extension
• A fully fitted new kitchen with gas hob
• Full electrics, lighting, plumbing and drainage connections

Because Vita Modular's extensions are engineered and largely built off-site, the on-site programme is far shorter than a traditional brick-and-block extension — which matters enormously when the work is happening at the back of an occupied family home in a tight East London street.

Vita Modular handled the whole process end to end: survey, design consultation, technical building-control drawings and management of the building-control process through to completion. The build also included the safe removal of asbestos from the existing structure (with engineer's calculations) and budgeted drainage diversions — the kind of real-world groundwork that keeps a Walthamstow extension on track rather than stalling halfway through.