Extending the extension

[Gambisk]

I'm looking at buying a house that is in need of a refurb. The previous owner has extended the kitchen into the back garden, this takes up approximately half the width of the house. As part of the refurb work I was thinking of extending the extension to the full width of the house and knocking the back rooms into each other. Is this possible or is it more likely to be a case of flattening the existing extension and building a new bigger one? I'll attach a rough sketch in a minute or two to make things clearer.

Edit: images

This is the house as it currently stands, the red is the current extension on the kitchen, the blue is the neighbours house.

This is what I would like to do, red is the existing extension, green is the new walls I would like to add and brown is the current walls that I would like to remove. The result would hopefully be a large live in kitchen, so could the new extension join the old one?

 

[Bickaxe]

You would have to look into planning permission in your area. I think you can only have a certain percentage of your back garden and it has to be a certain distance from your neighbours boundary.

 

[Gambisk]

OK useful to know, I estimate the new bit to be around 2.6x3.8 m so I would hope it wasn't a problem.

 

[R.O.S.S.I]

Should be perfectly doable but without seeing some pics of the outside space etc it'd be difficult to know for sure. Will probably need a couple of steels to hold up the walls you want to take down. One going across the back of the house if you wanted to open it up and potentially one coming off that back into the house.

Marked them in yellow on here

 

[Russinating]

You'll need a party wall agreement from your neighbour too. There may be something here as to why the previous extension never went across the full width; troublesome neighbour that wasn't worth the hassle or a genuine reason. Do you have a neighbour on the right as well?

 

[LeeUK]

If you keep it built fully within your property you won't need any party wall agreement. Personally I'd do this as I find it selfish when people decide to try and build right on the party wall as it means the neighbour won't even have the choice if they wanted to build in the future.

 

[Gambisk]

The house is a semi so there are two drive ways between it and the neighbor. Don't know the joining neighbor yet as we are still bidding on the house, but I suspect that the reason the orignal extension wasn't the full width was cost rather than a dispute over planning.

The hedges are so tall and thick between this house and the joining, that I cant see them complaining about blocking the view or similar. I'm not against keeping it entirely on the property if needs be either, my main concern was the joining the two bits of extension up in a reasonably tidy fashion.

 

[Russinating]

If you keep it built fully within your property you won't need any party wall agreement. Personally I'd do this as I find it selfish when people decide to try and build right on the party wall as it means the neighbour won't even have the choice if they wanted to build in the future.

How did you figure that out?

If you plan to:
excavate, or excavate for and construct foundations for a new building or structure, within 3 metres of any part of a neighbouring owner's building or structure, where any part of that work will go deeper than the neighbour's foundations (see diagram 6);
or excavate for and construct foundations for a new building or structure, within 6 metres of any part of a neighbouring owner's building or structure, where any part of that work will meet a line drawn downwards at 45° in the direction of the excavation from the bottom of the neighbour's foundations (see diagram 7) you must inform the Adjoining Owner or owners by serving a notice - see paragraphs 7 and 8.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploa..._Wall_etc__Act_1996_-_Explanatory_Booklet.pdf

Obviously there's no scale to the drawing but if the existing distance between the extension and the boundary line is 3m or more than the existing extension wouldn't have required a party wall agreement, which may give reason its size.

 

[DB_SamX]

Russinating is indeed right on the party wall.

The other thing is that losing your back wall means you'll lose lateral stability. So, not only would you need steel beams above the new opening, but you would need columns at either end to form a rigid "goalpost" frame. Columns will need footings in the ground.

 

[kefkef]

Party wall stuff is b*****s. Planning and building regs don't give a toss. Only at it impacts is if they launch a civil case against you. I went through this when my 'link' detached neighbour extended into our adjoining garage. Complete waste of time and effort arguing against it.

Looking at your plans, if yo go back by 3m you should just have to step back from the property join line by about .5m, if younaAnt to go back further then you have to increase the step back from the neighbour in proportion with the extra length you want.

 

[kefkef]

Plus the beams thing. It's not a big job. A few hundred pound in steel , some
Padstones and a few supporting steels. We did mine in a week for less than a thousand quid in the grand plan.

 

[Gambisk]

Thanks for the advice guys. I've actually just agreed on a new build, so this plan won't be happening anymore. But good information for the future.

 

[DB_SamX]

Party wall stuff is b*****s. Planning and building regs don't give a toss. Only at it impacts is if they launch a civil case against you. I went through this when my 'link' detached neighbour extended into our adjoining garage. Complete waste of time and effort arguing against it.

Looking at your plans, if yo go back by 3m you should just have to step back from the property join line by about .5m, if younaAnt to go back further then you have to increase the step back from the neighbour in proportion with the extra length you want.

Your post doesn't make sense, and at best, is terrible advice.