Nine miles up the A229 from Chatham, and a town where the ground changes street by street. Post-war Shepway, Grove Green and Vinters Park, Penenden Heath and the older streets by the river: each asks something different of a builder.
Maidstone
Maidstone is built on Kentish ragstone, the Hythe Formation that still supplies the county's building stone. It runs under Allington, Barming, Fant, Ringlestone, Shepway, Park Wood, Loose and Tovil, and generally gives firm ground for a strip foundation. Penenden Heath, Grove Green and Bearsted sit on Folkestone Formation sandstone instead.
The exceptions are the river valleys. The town centre and the Medway and Len valleys have clays and soft alluvium under them, and the British Geological Survey lists the Weald clays among the ground that shrinks and swells around tree roots. Near a big tree or on alluvium, building control will want deeper footings than the usual metre, so it pays to know the ground at your address before a builder prices the job.
The housing is just as mixed: Shepway, begun in the 1930s and largely built as a post-war council estate, Park Wood, Grove Green and Vinters Park on the old Vinters estate sold in 1956, and the older terraces and villas in and around the centre. Each extends differently, and each has its own brick and tile to match.
Permissions
Maidstone Borough Council
Maidstone is not in Medway: it has its own borough council, which handles both planning and building control from Maidstone House. There are 41 conservation areas in the borough, including the Town Centre, Holy Trinity, Ashford Road and Rocky Hill, and Article 4 directions at Holy Trinity and part of Loose take away some permitted development rights. Riverside streets such as St Peter's Street, Lockmeadow and the Len valley are in Flood Zone 3, where an extension needs a flood risk assessment. All of this is worth checking against your address before you ask for quotes.
Services in Maidstone
Rear extensions on the Shepway and Park Wood houses, where a kitchen-diner across the back transforms the ground floor.
→Footings sized for the clay and alluvium in the river valleys, with building control agreeing the depth in the open trench.
→Dormer lofts on the larger roofs around Penenden Heath and Grove Green.
→Re-roofs on post-war estates where the original covering is reaching the end of its life.
→Brick matching for extensions next to ragstone walls and older brickwork near the centre.
→Staircases, built-in storage and kitchens for period houses in the conservation areas.
→Common projects
Maidstone is about twenty minutes from Medway on the A229 outside the rush hour. If one of these is on your list, tell us about it and we'll pass it to local builders who cover Maidstone.
Questions
Get quotes
A rough idea and a postcode is enough. We'll pass it to local builders who cover Maidstone, and they'll contact you directly.