House Extension Project

GSXRMovistar · 30 Mar 2014 at 10:35

For the past couple of years my wife and I wanted to increase space at home and after some major complications with the local council (originally applied for a loft conversation following their advise which they then rejected) they agreed to sell us a small strip of land next to our house and let us build a two storey extension.

The work finally started a few weeks back and I thought I'd share the progress here is anyone is interested. The plan is to extend two of the bedroom upstairs and create a second living space downstairs.

Foundations dug & poured

Brickwork started

Suspended concrete/block floor

Taking shape

Ground floor brick work complete and 1st floor joists in

1st floor brick work underway and beginning to look like the plan

Rear

Ground floor

1st floor

Still so much to do with next step being the roof going on this week but really pleased with progress so far.

Lopéz · 30 Mar 2014 at 23:03

How do you get in

GSXRMovistar · 30 Mar 2014 at 23:18

Hatch at the back in the floor.

Upstairs the whole length of the house is coming out, downstairs the outer brickwork will be stripped and a single doorway added.

Semple · 30 Mar 2014 at 23:27

I'm assuming you'll be doing something with the rear wall that was the original boundary of your garden?

GSXRMovistar · 30 Mar 2014 at 23:32

Yep that is coming down, currently quoting a replacement but doubt I'll be able to budget for a new brick wall so possibly a nice wooden alternative.

jas72 · 1 Apr 2014 at 15:42

looks good I'm embarking on a project soon what thickness/type insulation are you going with?

We are going with ytong blocks and then using ISOKLINKER for the outside walls.

It will be above the legal energy requirements but hopefully save on energy bills.

Derek W · 1 Apr 2014 at 18:50

How deep are those foundations?! :eek:

GSXRMovistar · 1 Apr 2014 at 19:53

jas72 said:
looks good I'm embarking on a project soon what thickness/type insulation are you going with?

We are going with ytong blocks and then using ISOKLINKER for the outside walls.

It will be above the legal energy requirements but hopefully save on energy bills.

To be honest I couldn't tell you, left all that to the building firm. Outer bricks have been dictated by having to match existing.

Derek W said:
How deep are those foundations?!

1.5m iirc and the building inspector was questioning whether we needed to go to 1.8m, which made us smile seeing as the house itself is only sat on 0.4m.

Derek W · 1 Apr 2014 at 20:01

That must be some crap ground the buildings on! Most buildings I've dealt with either have 150mm or 200mm strip rounds with a layer of mesh, two in extreme cases. Only real time we need more is for large industrial buildings or pad foundations under columns.

DB_SamX · 1 Apr 2014 at 22:37

If you are on clay (and Greater London mostly is) and you have trees nearby (as far as 20-25m away even), you are suceptible to the clay swelling/shrinking due to the trees' water demand. So regardless of ground quality, you have to found at very deep levels so that your foundations are unaffected.

I am putting 2.5m deep ones at the moment on some projects, despite the originals being around 0.7m. The alternative are mini piles. The building Inspector is right to suggest it if it hadn't been considered because they tend to learn the soil profile of their geographical area well.

If your property is partly sat on 0.4m footings, and 1.8m elsewhere, expect some cracking in the finishes at the joint, so make sure the detailing ais good. Soil is stronger further down you go, so the the deeper you found, the less settlement there will be.
(limited to 25mm usually).

Some estates are notorious for shallow underdesigned foundations, and then homeowners wonder why cracks appear around doors and windows.

tigerstyle · 2 Apr 2014 at 09:10

I've seen enough Homes under Hammer and Someone Someone house rescue on tv to know that you don't scrimp on extensions foundations!

GSXRMovistar · 8 Apr 2014 at 21:45

After a small issue and delay last week the build is back on track with roof delivered and installed today.

SpeedFreak · 8 Apr 2014 at 22:22

Looking good.

Out of curiousity how did you approach the council to buy the land?

GSXRMovistar · 8 Apr 2014 at 22:41

SpeedFreak said:
Looking good.

Out of curiousity how did you approach the council to buy the land?

Long story short:-

Visited the preplanning department and asked about purchasing land (if possible/what is the process).
Put in contact with the lands department who own/mange the records of who owns each bit of land.
They confirmed council owned the land (opposed to development company) and what the admin costs were to apply for purchase.
Formally ask to purchase a piece of this land.
Get ignored for over a year despite repeated follow ups.
Give up and apply for planning permission for loft conversion.
Get rejected despite taking advice from pre planning department on loft application.
Raise formal complaint.
Revisit land purchase.
Things move very swiftly, price agreed and extension application submitted/approved.

Nightglow · 8 Apr 2014 at 22:52

Well planned, great when thought goes in to an extension, balances the house nicely at the front.
Some extensions are like a carbuncle, oversize for the plot, & badly designed.

Good to see your using attic trusses, so much space usually goes to waste, shame more people don't use them when building extensions if practical, & also when building houses.

GSXRMovistar · 8 Apr 2014 at 23:11

Nightglow said:
Well planned, great when thought goes in to an extension, balances the house nicely at the front.
Some extensions are like a carbuncle, oversize for the plot, & badly designed.

Good to see your using attic trusses, so much space usually goes to waste, shame more people don't use them when building extensions if practical, & also when building houses.

That was part of the delay last week, A frames were being cut with standard V trusses so had to cancel and re-order with attic trusses.

Intention is the loft will be used as a storage room (via pull down ladder access) for home tech equipment and non-seasonal clothes. Also allows us to consider converting at a later date to an inhabitable room without major structural work.

GSXRMovistar · 27 Apr 2014 at 21:39

Busy couple of weeks, I won't post loads of pics but updates to date:-

Gable wall block and brick work completed.
Roof tiled and cemented.
Fascia board and guttering up.
All original outer brick work from side wall removed.
Block work removed between old and new loft.
1st floor in.
1st floor partition wall installed.
1st floor partially plastered (walls/ceiling).

This gets us to here:-

Next week should see the windows and doors installed, 1 fix plumbing and electrical, whole load of stuff in the garden (clearing shrubbery and existing permitter brick wall, preping for new drive way) then the real fun starts the following week when we knock through. :eek:

wonder_lander · 27 Apr 2014 at 21:53

That's looking good and something we are considering as we're running out of space. We currently have an attached garage so the idea would be to flatten that and do a full length 2 story extension, can I be cheeky and ask the cost?

The_Abyss · 27 Apr 2014 at 22:18

Looking good - nicely matched.

GSXRMovistar · 28 Apr 2014 at 10:22

wonder_lander said:
That's looking good and something we are considering as we're running out of space. We currently have an attached garage so the idea would be to flatten that and do a full length 2 story extension, can I be cheeky and ask the cost?

Extension costs can vary so much depending on what is in scope (how deep are the foundations, type of brick that needs to be match, how many internal walls/rooms and level of decoration/finish, and actual location in the country).

All quotes we had were £40k-£70k however since then we are also having a drive way done and work in the garden so hard to compare.