OK, there is a great breadth of knowledge on the website, so I thought some people might have some interesting views on the idea of extending my house.
It's an end-terrace, and we have about 5-6 feet of our own land at the side, before the kerb. The idea is to entend the side by 5 feet (it's currently 17 feet wide I think), over the entire depth of the house (24 feet), and both floors.
Basically, I've only just started thinking about this at all, so I don't really know what questions to ask even, so any thoughts on the process, difficulty, viability, whether it's worthwhile, would be well appreciated.
Questions that have occurred to me so far (which may or may not be answerable) are:
Approximate likely cost?
How can I get a rough quote for the costs, and will I have to pay for that?
How can I find out how much this is likely to add to the value of the house? Would an estate agent be likely to help me with this?
Since the end wall is obviously a supporting wall, how will we go about doing this? Will the new end wall have to be built first, joists etc. extended to it, then old end wall knocked down?
How long is such a job likely to take?
Will the house be livable in during the work?
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Add, have you got/will you get planning permission.
Most reputable builders should give you a free estimate, if not a quote.
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Got tip to start with, of course I have no idea whether I'd get planning permission. I see no reason why not personally, it won't be blocking anyone's right or way / garden / windows.
What would be the normal first approach for this anyway?
Get in a builder? An architect?
Get planning permission before, or after approaching a professional?
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Should be OK as far as planning permission goes - permitted development. However if close to highway (1m, I think) you may need planning permission. Also drivers' sight lines on a corner may be afected. Demolition of main end load-bearing wall and building another wall as close as 5 feet away will be a costly exercise for little benefit. Suggest you keep the old outside wall and go out another 10+ feet to give you a room sized extension.
I guess if you want to extend the pitched roof (i.e don't want a flat one) it will all come out to around £35000 - £40000 + VAT.
I'd buy a new car instead.
Speaking of "new car", I must go out now and put on few more miles - it's only done 9.5 so far.
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Should be OK as far as planning permission goes - permitted development. However if close to highway (1m, I think) you may need planning permission. Also drivers' sight lines on a corner may be afected. Demolition of main end load-bearing wall and building another wall as close as 5 feet away will be a costly exercise for little benefit. Suggest you keep the old outside wall and go out another 10+ feet to give you a room sized extension.
Unfortunately 5 feet will take us to the edge of our property in that direction, and I would assume that buying land from the council will ramp up the cost of the extension dramatically, although the land in question is basically unused (the actual road bends round to the left in front of our house, down the side of it is a gravelled bit, not road as such, the far side of which turns into a pedestrian short-cut to another road.
There won't be any effect on drivers sight lines.
Although 5 feet doesn't sound much, the two bedrooms are currently only 9 feet wide, so an extra 5 will make a huge difference. The lounge runs the depth of the house, so it's an extra 120 square feet on that. Certainly not to be sniffed at.
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Approximate likely cost? How can I get a rough quote for the costs, and will I have to pay for that?
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some answers here:
www.architectyourhome.co.uk/cost.htm
www.architectyourhome.co.uk/cost2.htm
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Thanks Dalglish.
Architect costs look a bit scary, considering we won't even know if we plan to go ahead at that stage.
Building costs on that chart look like coming out at around £20,000 to 25,000 I think.
(120 square feet x 2 floors, something around zone 4 or 5)
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I think you're bang on at £25K.
Ours came in at almost exactly £100 per sq foot last year, though your area in the country may be important. Whatever you budget for "finishing touches", treble it.
V
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OK, I'll just go and talk to somebody else. Bye-for now.
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So DE, how is the new car?
Our new one comes tomorow, after they have finished installing all the extras the missus wanted.
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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So DE, how is the new car?
Rather splendid thank you - I've only done about 25 town miles so full report will follow later. But the grunt at low rpm is very satisfying. Engine and auto box seem very well matched. Don't know about taking it up to 3000 rpm on occasions in first 1000 miles as HJ says - seems cruel and uncaring.
It was a scary moment when a quick swipe of my debit card removed £7k from my account just like that though. Watch your debit card or keep no money in your account!
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The main thing I'm worried about is that the fact we're extending the entire width of the house will cause some sort of complication and drastically increase the price.
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Well, the wall is holding the roof up, so the roof will need extending - that will be in anyway, but if you remove the existing gable end and it is a purlined roof the entire roof will probably have to come off and be rebuilt. The biggest difficulty I can see is if the end wall is supporting the floor joists then you will either have to install some steel the support the old or new joists, or rip the lot out and put new longer ones in. That will make it a) a lot more expensive, and b) render the house uninhabitable for a while. Try sketching the house and see how it will look with an extra 5' on the end with no windows in it - odd I would have thought! Also, assuming it is an old terrace, you will probably need to source some suitable reclaimed bricks or it will look terrible - again not necessarily cheap or easy.
I think your best bet would be to get a couple of builders round to advise on the feasibility of the job, and give a broad brush cost. Then approach the planners and find out if you are likely to get permission.
Then move house..... :-)))
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RichardW
Is it illogical? It must be Citroen....
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Can I give a little professional advice (see my profile).
You may not need planning if the volume of the house is increased by a certain amount, but you will to check with the planning department at the local Council. You will need Building regulation consent. I strongly recommend an architect to help you through this, as it appears to be a big job for limited reward.
An extension of 5ft is small and the costs will be high. £100psf is high. If you want to take down the entire gable wall, that is a very big job and you will not be able to live in the house during the works.
Unless you can actually increase the number of bedrooms and reception rooms, the value of the house will not increase by enough to make it worthwhile. However, it is your house, and if you intend to remain there, financial factors may not be important.
Have a look around the area - has anyone else done a similar job? Are there any houses which are bigger and cost up to £40,000 more. It may be better to buy one of these instead.
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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You would be getting about an extra 100sq feet on each floor. That's 200 sq feet.
The £100 per square feet cost rule is a general rule of thumb, but I suspect the cost would be high if you just wanted to increase the size of existing rooms.
Extensions work well financially when extra rooms are added and the existing outside wall is used as a dividing wall between the old rooms of the house and the new added on rooms, or when there is a substantial increase in the size of the house, affecting main living areas etc. Simply moving an external wall a few feet to the left is probably much more expensive than the cost of moving house, including the price increase of the property.
My first move would be to talk to your planners in person about the possibility of getting planning permission. All sorts of planning guidelines would need to be taken into account, some of which haven't even been mentioned here yet.
In addition, if it is possible to buy some land from the council, why not ask? They can only say no. If they agreed, then your extension ideas may then take on new meaning.
Otherwise, your options are probably:
Tidy the place up, sell it and move to a bigger house
Invest in a conservatory or a ground floor only extension, either to the side or poss a ground and first floor extention at the back or front. A ground floor extension would increase your living area, where you spend most of your waking hours.
For more bedroom space, have you thought about the attic? Most older terraces have excellent potential in this area. Simply use this to create an extra bedroom and then combine two rooms on the forst floor into one!
Hugo
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Thanks Hugo, it's good to hear someone elses overall thoughts on it.
There are some details about the house that I didn't mention which make a difference unfortunately.
It was built in 1975, when there was, apparently, a fad for upside-down houses. The living rooms are upstairs, and the bedrooms downstairs. This is why we wanted the extension to be both floors, since we'd like to extend the living spaces.
The attic is a no-no, the roof has a very low pitch, so there's not enough vertical space up there to use it for anything other than storage.
I don't really want to entend out the back or front, since I think it'd be a bit unfair on the neighbours, putting a large brick wall right by their windows.
I think you're spot on about asking the council about the land next to our property though. It certainly can't hurt, can it?
Since the house is currently mortgaged, the bank hold the deeds, do you think I could request a copy of the boundary plan from them, so I can get straight in my mind exactly what land we might be interested in purchasing?
As you and several others have said, it's looking like the original extension plan is not going to be financially viable, in terms of adding value to the house. If extra land were available, that straightaway opens the possibility of adding a garage, and possibly an en-suite bathroom to the main bedroom, plus having a seperate dining room and lounge.
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You can get an idea of boundary plans IIRC from your local planning authority. Just ask to see the plans that include your house.
Then I suggest you take a tape measure and measure the land available at your house and the council land to get an idea of size etc.
Hugo
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