Solihull has its own rules for dormers
Before you look at roof types, read the council's House Extension Guidelines. Solihull adopted them in 2010, and they set out what the planners expect whenever a dormer needs planning permission. They're blunter than most guidance you'll read.
The gist is modest dormers that sit inside the roof slope. Keep them below the ridge, keep the bottom edge above the eaves, and keep them clear of the roof's edges. Wrap-around dormers, or anything above the ridge, will "almost always be refused". The guide also warns against large box dormers on the back, and it calls most side dormers built to reach a loft "very clumsy". Then comes the blunt bit. If a dormer can't meet these tests, the guide says the house may not suit a loft conversion at all.
Two smaller points catch people out. The council wants matching tiles, and suggests moving tiles from the back of the house to the front so the new work blends in. And it doesn't want roof work to cost you the chimney stack.
Villas, inter-war semis and the overspill estates
Solihull grew as a commuter town for Birmingham. The railway arrived in 1852 and the late Victorians built villas for the city's industrialists. Olton followed once its station opened in 1869, and the big houses on St Bernard's Road, Grange Road and Kineton Green Road now sit in a conservation area. From 1920 the land between the Coventry, Warwick and Stratford Roads filled with housing estates.
The council's own account says the inter-war boom gave Lyndon, Olton, Elmdon and Shirley their semi-detached estates, while detached houses were more usual around Solihull itself. So a lot of Solihull lofts sit on top of a semi. After 1945 the north-west of the borough took mainly terraces and tower blocks, then Birmingham built Chelmsley Wood between 1966 and 1970. That was 15,590 homes, including 39 multi-storey blocks, and a flat in a block is no loft job.
Newer still are Monkspath, Hillfield and Dickens Heath, the planned village where the first house was occupied in 1998. Houses of that age mostly have trussed roofs. They can be converted, but the trusses come out and steel goes in, and the price moves with it.
Picking the right type for your roof
How each type tends to suit Solihull houses. Each one links to a full guide.
Hip to gable. For a Shirley or Olton semi with a sloping end roof, this is often what makes the loft big enough for a proper staircase. It's usually paired with a rear dormer. Build the new gable in matching brick and tile.
Read our full guide: Hip-to-Gable Loft Conversions: What It Involves and Which Houses It Suits →
Rear dormer. Outside a conservation area most go ahead under permitted development, within 40 cubic metres for a terrace or 50 for other houses. If yours needs an application, design it to the council's guide from the start. A full-width box won't be welcomed.
Rooflights only. The gentlest change, and usually allowed without an application. Not on White House Way, though. Its Article 4 direction brings rooflights under planning control.
L-shaped dormer. This needs a back addition with its own roof. Some older houses have one. Check yours before anyone draws it.
Mansard. Always a planning application, and a hard sell in Solihull, since the guide wants roof work to respect the pitch and ridge of the main house. Talk to the planners before you pay an architect.
Extra bedroom. The usual reason here, often for a growing family in a three-bed semi. Fire doors and interlinked smoke alarms have to pass building control, so make sure they're in the quote.
Home office. For people who work from home a few days a week and travel into Birmingham the rest, a room at the top of the house works well. Run a data cable up while the walls are open.
Read our full guide: Loft Home-Office Conversion: What Works Well Up There and What to Specify →
En-suite. Decide early. The soil pipe sets where the shower room can go, and on a hip to gable the new gable wall is often the easiest route down.
Planning. Conservation areas, listed buildings, front slopes facing a road and any Article 4 area that covers roofs all need an application. So does any house where an earlier consent removed permitted development rights. Building regulations apply either way.
Cost. We don't publish a Solihull figure. A hip to gable on a semi and a dormer on a detached house in Knowle are different jobs, and a web price would mislead you. Get three people round to measure.
Where the planners look harder
The borough has 20 conservation areas. Close to the town they include the town centre itself, Olton, Malvern Hall and Brueton Avenue, and White House Way, with Knowle and Station Approach in Dorridge further south. Brueton Avenue was laid out in 1926 across what had been parkland of Malvern Hall. Inside any of them, a dormer or hip to gable needs planning permission on the back slope as well as the front.
White House Way is the odd one out. It's a 1960s estate off Blossomfield Road, made a conservation area in 1999. The houses have shallow 35 degree roofs with little headroom, and an Article 4 direction brings even rooflights under planning control. Ask the council early.
Two thirds of the borough is Green Belt. Outside a settlement, the council caps extensions at 40% of the house's original habitable floor space, counting permitted development work too. Houses within established ribbons of development are exempt, but houses at the ends of ribbons aren't.
Building control is the council's own team (buildingcontrol@solihull.gov.uk), unless your builder uses a private inspector. Look up your street on the council's Public Access register first. What the neighbours got approved is the best guide you'll find.
Where these facts come from
- Solihull MBC: House Extension Guidelines SPD (2010)
- Solihull MBC: conservation areas
- Solihull MBC: White House Way conservation area appraisal
- Solihull MBC: Knowle conservation area appraisal
- Solihull MBC: Draft Submission Plan 2020 (borough history and Green Belt)
- Solihull MBC: Chelmsley Wood history
- Solihull MBC: Solihull town history
- Solihull MBC: Town Centre Heritage Trail
- Solihull MBC: building control application form (contact details)
How FirQuote works in Solihull: We connect you with local specialists who visit your property before giving you a price. You get up to 3 written quotes — no call centres, no estimates from photos, no obligation to accept any quote.
Questions people in Solihull ask
I live on White House Way. Can I just put in rooflights?
Not without asking. The estate's Article 4 direction means any roof alteration needs planning permission, rooflights included. Get a surveyor to check the headroom under those shallow roofs before you apply.
Will Solihull planners accept a dormer on the front of my house?
It always needs an application if it faces a road, and the council's guide says it will normally resist one. The exception is a street where front dormers are already part of the character.
My house is in the Green Belt near Meriden or Balsall Common. Does the 40% limit apply to a loft?
The limit applies to houses outside settlements and counts everything added since the house was built, or since July 1948 for older homes, including permitted development. The guide doesn't spell out how loft floor space is treated, so ask the council before you commit.
What roof tiles will the planners want in Knowle?
The Knowle conservation area appraisal names timber, brick and tile as the village's materials, and lists machine-made and concrete tiles as out of place. On an older house in the conservation area, plan for clay tiles that match.