An extension build

Soldato
Joined
21 Jan 2010
Posts
21,950
Karl, did you ever consider doing a side return extension? You have quite a bit of space there to do a wraparound/two story?

I haven't made any decisions yet but I can either do what you are doing - and the neighbors have done it so I can pinch their plans, or a full wrap around - or a full wrap around 2 story. Obviously money being a second question!
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
23 Oct 2002
Posts
3,920
Location
_
Karl, did you ever consider doing a side return extension? You have quite a bit of space there to do a wraparound/two story?

I haven't made any decisions yet but I can either do what you are doing - and the neighbors have done it so I can pinch their plans, or a full wrap around - or a full wrap around 2 story. Obviously money being a second question!

Cost was a factor for us, we hit our limit with a single story exception with reasonably nice kitchen moved to the other side of the house. We'll do a loft conversion a few years from now when my sons are a bit older which'll give us the much needed fourth bedroom, and this extension is designed to give us the right amount of living space.

We use our driveway (There is a garage behind me when I take these photos with a motorcycle in it, and the boys use it for playing) quite a lot, and a wrap-around extension would've taken our access away from that. Nobody around us has done a wrap-around either, but quite a few have done what we've done to varying degrees of scale and put a bit on the back of the house.

Another poster in here posted his wrap-around plans which looked really nice and added a lot of room to his house, so I can see the appeal for sure. Probably not for us though. :)
 
Soldato
Joined
4 May 2007
Posts
9,347
Location
West Midlands
Trying to keep them weekly so that I can summarise a little bit, but here's one of the lintel in, plus a bit of roof:


Any particular areas of interest?
Looks good! Nah just interesting to see it as it progresses and me being impatient. Are you working from home whilst they do it or just coming back each day to see it?
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
23 Oct 2002
Posts
3,920
Location
_
Looks good! Nah just interesting to see it as it progresses and me being impatient. Are you working from home whilst they do it or just coming back each day to see it?
No worries, I’ll keep it updated because it’s fun to keep a record!

I’m working from home so am seeing it going up daily, but I make a point of taking a photo at the end of each day just to see the gradual progress :)
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
23 Oct 2002
Posts
3,920
Location
_
Week 5 draws to a close, and we've made significant progress towards making it actually look like a building.

TprgYB3.jpg
Roof structure came together quite quickly

PlAtYIq.jpg
Space for the 3 velux windows

CukHH3g.jpg
OHNcdzt.jpg
Soffits and fascias fitted

WvXaxbX.jpg
Felt, batons and tiles! Hooray!

wTzRa4o.jpg
Whilst waiting for the velux windows to come in so the roof can be completed, a scratch coating of render has gone up in the mean time

qcn0ABe.jpg

Next week will be spent polishing off the roof, and then stuff's going to get real, because the partition wall between the kitchen and dining room is coming down, so we're going to lose a lot of space that we've been hanging on to for the last 5 weeks. :eek:

It'll be a bit painful losing the kitchen for a while, but on the plus side, it'll be really cool to see the whole open space and see what we have to play with :D
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
23 Oct 2002
Posts
3,920
Location
_
I've got a Weber BBQ, slow cooker, rice cooker, air fryer, toaster, microwave... I can make it work, just that it'll all happen in the lounge instead for a bit!
 
Soldato
Joined
20 May 2007
Posts
10,598
Location
Location: Location:
Ha! That's what we did - dining table in the lounge with microwave, toaster, kettle, was like living in a bed sit :D

The worst part was no sink or dishwasher to wash up !!

All worth it in the end though - should be great with the velux and bi-folds - especially in weather like this :)
 
Soldato
Joined
27 Apr 2007
Posts
3,043
I've got a Weber BBQ, slow cooker, rice cooker, air fryer, toaster, microwave... I can make it work, just that it'll all happen in the lounge instead for a bit!
Been down this road three times now, I don't envy you, we're just out the end of the latest incarnation, if I could give you any advice it'd be to make the extension floor solid stone base with concrete rather than wooden framed. Our last floor was well battoned etc but still moved enough to break every single visible tile in the extension, we used 600mm polished tiles and for some reason the small movement (and **** tiler tbh) was enough. The tiler, adhesive rep and architect all refused to take the blame. This time round, it's perfectly solid, not taking any chances given how much things have increased in price. Living with little amenities is poor at the time but really gives you a sense of what you actually need too. Anyway, great watching others go through the wringer too so good luck and we're all counting on you.
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
4 Nov 2004
Posts
14,365
Location
Beds
Coming along nicely.

What style is your kitchen and room going to be? E.g. industrial, boring shaker cottage etc etc.

I ask, as have you considered not boxing in the RSJ? You can reach fire regs with intumescent paint then topcoat it in any colour you want.

Then you can put LED strips on the bottom flange, firing upwards, so you get a nice wash of light highlighting the web and washing across the ceiling. It looks ace and beats having another line of boring generic silly spotlights.

What I'm now getting at is, do you have a lighting design plan, as lighting can really make a rennovation?
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
23 Oct 2002
Posts
3,920
Location
_
Coming along nicely.

What style is your kitchen and room going to be? E.g. industrial, boring shaker cottage etc etc.

I ask, as have you considered not boxing in the RSJ? You can reach fire regs with intumescent paint then topcoat it in any colour you want.

Then you can put LED strips on the bottom flange, firing upwards, so you get a nice wash of light highlighting the web and washing across the ceiling. It looks ace and beats having another line of boring generic silly spotlights.

What I'm now getting at is, do you have a lighting design plan, as lighting can really make a rennovation?
Hadn’t considered that on the steel, and have no special plans on the lighting other than spotlights. I’m all ears if you have specific examples or guides? How would such a lighting design plan come together?

Cheers!

are yu working on the extenson on monday and tuesday or are u taking the days off due to the heatwave?
Work commences internally from Monday and the back of the house is in the shade until at least 2pm so it’ll carry on as planned :)
 
Soldato
Joined
20 May 2007
Posts
10,598
Location
Location: Location:
We had our kitchen / diner extension done last year and we spent quite a bit of time thinking about what we were going to use it for.

Not just it's a kitchen and dining area, but eating, entertaining, just sat talking etc. It's a big space and we also went with a vaulted ceiling, skylights and bi-folds.

We also built a false chimney to sit the range in and the lighting of that was also considered.

Also think about the space outside, do you intend to use it of an evening ? Perhaps put some external lights in. Maybe a security light or two. Well worth doing now while the sparky is there than retrofitting or wish you had thought of something.

Also, the switching - we put a bank of switches at both ends so most the lights can be operated at both ends of the kitchen with the exception of the lighted display cabinets (one end) and the external lights (the other end). Not as important as you can swap and change once the fittings are in but when thinking about the use and what light works best also the colour of the lighting as in the tone (warm, cold white, neutral etc.

We went for spots (10 in total in the main part and another four in the snug area). They are "cool white" and exceptionally bright.

IMG-20220717-121217.jpg


The hanging fittings we sat across the area we knew we were going to have the dining table and have a much warmer / dimmer bulb and feature / shaped filament bulbs

IMG-20220717-121249.jpg


Where the vaulted ceiling meets the existing gable it's almost 5m high and a big space so got a large (1.1m wide) uplighter with a very warm hue and washes light up onto the wall. Tbh this is used 90% of the time

IMG-20220717-121229.jpg

As above the false breasts has a large very white led fitting with the extractor and quite nice to have one with no other lights in the kitchen. A very different feel to the space

IMG-20220717-121144.jpg


We also decided to put spots in the top of the glass fronted display in the snug area. Again gives a really different feel to the area and nice if you want to sit on the settee there and read / browse your phone

IMG-20220717-121617.jpg


We put three cheap bulkheads in the back either side of the bi-folds and next to the utility / back door (there's another the other side between the two windows too).

IMG-20220717-121330.jpg


Great if entertaining / sat in the back garden late or just some extra light if in the garden in the darker months (even putting the books out!)

And just a few more pics

IMG-20220717-121201.jpg



IMG-20220717-121300.jpg


The mix of lights / options gives so many feels and different ambiances to the space - definately worth taking time to think through.

Also, talk it through with your sparky, we did and some of his suggestions were great and he's done this loads more times that we will ever do!

Also, do the same with sockets - we thought we went completely OTT but again thinking through it made sense and we ended up doing things like a double socket in the island with USB ports for charging phones, power to the island for a beer fridge, socket in the tall lader unit so we can put the microwave in there and keep it off the worktops.

Bit of a waffle but hopefully give you some food for thought :D
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
23 Oct 2002
Posts
3,920
Location
_
Bit of a waffle but hopefully give you some food for thought
This is super helpful and has given us a few things to consider, thank you!

Also been having a read of this:

 
Back
Top Bottom