Garage conversion and bungalow layout change

Terminel

Terminel

Terminel

Associate
Joined
17 Aug 2010
Posts
291
Morning all,

Having been looking for quite some time we have finally found and had an offer accepted on a bungalow. The only snag being it needs some work to get it to where we would like. The main issue for us being the internal layout just does not work. I've linked a floorplan below as it quite obvious what the issue is - access to part of the house and study.

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/photos/share/ezyjqQXyJvtLXDKwareE8KNTa1oK552PIwd6xMeBVAd

For us the floorplan needs reversing with the garage being converted to a kitchen as the left hand main external wall is adjacent to the garden - bi-folding doors wouuld be great here. The next link is our johnny age 5 attempt - its not perfect but better suits us.

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/clouddrive/share/YiJj1VSdWyz6j9vKKRJMbTHqTcb2OsqikKNggRtEO5Q

I've had a couple of initial engagements with architects who are roughly quoting cira £2k for their work which is a little more than I had hoped. I have a budget of £50k to do the work with the kitchen diner being priority 1 with my intent to do as much of the basic surgery myself where possible. This would include knocking down walls, kitchen and batchroom fitting (under tutalage of my experienced father in-law) plus anything else I can do properly and safely. Looking forward, we would like to do a loft conversion at some point so this needs to be factored into the plans as much as possible. As I'm in the military we will be able to keep the property empty whilst we do the work which will help.

I would really appreciate your thoughts please.

  • Is £2k on an arcitect overkill for this project - any alternative?
  • I know building costs have shot up but will £50k be ball park enough?
  • Any other nuggets of advice?
Huge thanks in advance.
 
I think an architect will be good to get a relationship of windows, light i.e. What's North facing and garden position relative to house. Presumably your new kitchen would back into the garden and have bifold doors or similar?


Are your in laws experienced/competent in removing load bearing walls?


I would suggest that you look at breaking out/insulating the floor of the garage slab (big job) and also look at the external construction (e.g. Cavity?) and consider insulating and putting in insulated plasterboard.

As for "is 50k enough?" depends on the spec you're going for, amount of windows, standard of kitchen etc. I suspect it can be done but you will have to be fairly savvy with it.
 
The garden is east facing but does not have any buildings preventing shade as the sun transitions across the sky. The house and garden are like two rectangles placed width end on if that makes sense so bifolding doors in the garage take you straight out onto the lawn. I'm hoping the architect will do all of what you have said as well as come up wiuth a better plan that minimises hallway waste.

I don't think we would tackle load bearing walls - only what the architect recommends/identifies we can touch.

We are hoping for underfloor heating as the property has a sizable solar panal instalation so we want to exploit that as much as possible. The wall has a cavity we suspect as it is block and brick - according to the architect when he a preliminary look.
 
Terminel said:
We are hoping for underfloor heating as the property has a sizable solar panal instalation
Click to expand...

I have recently come across 2 efficient methods of heating that can be underfloor if desired. They may be worth having a look at as the energy to heat ratio is far better than a traditional boiler + underfloor piping.

Grapheme sheet heating. - A sheet of graphene lives below the surface of a floor, wall or ceiling, a small cable runs into it providing power. Benefits include you can drive a nail through it without disrupting the flow of power and therefore heat. https://smartgreensheep.co.uk/products/nexgen-graphite-heating

"Infrared heating" - If you can forgive the tautology it's a pretty cool heating system. Uses radiative heating rather than convection to provide heat to a person rather than being required to heat the entire air system and then the air heat the person.
https://www.herschel-infrared.co.uk/how-do-infrared-heaters-work/

Both have the disadvantage of being new technologies and therefore are untested over a long period of 30+ years.

Additionally do you know if you have photovoltaic solar panels or solar water heaters? As the latter can produce hot water with no electric requirement but won't work with the two technologies I've mentioned above.
 
Really intersting technology - I've saved those links for later.

Photovoltaic I think as they feed into the grid - previous occupant has had a electricity rebate for the last 12 months as they generated more than was used although it was an older person. It does have a seperate solar water heater as well feeding the hot water.
 
Terminel said:
Photovoltaic I think as they feed into the grid - previous occupant has had a electricity rebate for the last 12 months as they generated more than was used although it was an older person. It does have a seperate solar water heater as well feeding the hot water.
Click to expand...

Photovoltaic is good, and with modern tech works even in cloudy weather and under snow. It is most likely your existing ones are within this range.
A couple of small issues you should be aware of is that algae love growing on them and can interfere with solar collection and that the weight of then can cause issues for the roof. The former being solved with a good clean annually. The latter however can be a problem as initially the energy generated by them was subsidised and a solar boom occured roughly 10yrs ago, unfortunately this meant a lot of unqualified cowboys slapping them haphazardly on rooftops of unsuspecting customers.
It may be worth checking that the roof is holding their weight adequately and that they are wired into your home safely.
On a number of occasions I've heard of fires starting because they were spliced into the nearest available cable. At minimum this could mean you're not drawing as much power as you potentially could.

I apologise for adding doubts and tasks to your already large list but I consider the safety aspect worth it.

The good news is depending on the size of your array youre likely to significantly reduce your electric bill or even make money.
 
A couple of questions/comments.

Do you need a study? - I would have thought you'd have had more use for an En-Suite - especially if you're planning for a loft conversion for a 4th bedroom. That's a bad ratio of 4 bedrooms to 1 bathroom. You could also add a study upstairs.

That hallway is wasting lots of space. I'm assuming the front of the house is at the bottom of the drawing? If so, why do you need two rear exits? I would do away with essentially where you've stuck a utility room and move the rooms up, and get rid of the door.

Personally I would swap bedroom 2 and the living room around. If you want it more open plan then you could have that room as part of a kitchen diner.

Also if you are planning on a loft conversion, your plans from what I can tell haven't accounted for where you'd put a set of stairs.
 
Only other thing I would say is that if you can wait then do, there's currently a building rush which means both high prices and low quality work. £50k may buy you more in the future if you're willing to wait.
 
An architect will give you lots of 'options' but that is what they are charging you for. If you know what you want from a layout, then use an architectural technician (who actually do most of an architects work anyway) and will be around 50% cheaper. They will provide you with a set of Planning / Building regs compliant plans. We have built 3 houses and extended 1 and never needed an architect for any of them.
 
Morning all and thanks fopr the replies so far.

@Sharkhouse - I have it on my list to have checked and cleaned. I suspect that noting the previous occupants ages the panels may need a good clean and their age would bring them into the boom era. I wish we could wait but do we think anything else is going to change in the short to medium term?

@Semple - The loft, due to affordability, would be something for the future. As the wife and I work from home more than we are in the office a study would be preferred. I agree - the hallway is a waste of space and I'm hoping the architect will come up with a better use of the space. I'll have a fiddle with the floor plan as you suggest - thanks.

@SimonR - I'll see if a technician works for us.
 
Flipping everything around like you have planned is going to add extra cost, you will have to get all your amenities moved.

Dropping an en suite really doesn't feel like a sensible move, they add more value then you think, especially when you have more then just a couple living in a house.

Converting the garage so that it is insulated usable space alone could easily be £15k (and i feel this is an extremely optimistic low), and that's just to a shell. 50k including a kitchen and a bathroom and a complete remodel seems really pretty optimistic, unless you are doing all the work yourself and just getting trades in for the skilled elements, that still feels on the low end. Adding the toilet in what looks like the current boiler cylinder cupboard is also plenty of added cost, as it implies a boiler change or move or system change/move.

Why do you need to move the kitchen in to the garage? Is it a double garage because if not that's going to end up feeling pretty cramped once you get the space habitable.

You're also spreading the bedrooms further out in the house, meaning there's less distinction between active areas and sleeping areas. Bedroom 2 connecting right on to the kitchen/dining/living area. Study and master bedroom very near to the utility room. Bedroom 3 connected to the living room.

Things to consider:
  • leave the kitchen where it is and knock through and have an open kitchen diner
  • convert the garage to a bedroom with extra ensuite or even separate WC and have the bedroom at the back of the garage wc at the front for easy connection to the existing ensuite
  • trim down current large bedroom and create a hall way that connects to the garage and makes the study a separate room
  • change study and what you call bedroom 2 layouts to give you 2 bedrooms
  • Leave existing bathroom where it is
  • leave living room where it is
  • Bedroom next to existing entrance becomes your Study/bedroom 4
This is just my musings on it.
 
@soldato - sound reasoning so thank you and I've drawn your plan out.

We'd love a kitchen that spills out onto the garden hence aiming at the garage. Your kitchen diner was our original idea as there is easy access to garden from the back door - its just less swanky I guess.
 
compromising the rest of the layout of the house, because it feels "less swanky" is quite a compromise. Also quite limited information doesnt make it clear where the garden is/rest of plot lay out etc.
 
If you knock through for an open kitchen/dining in it's current form, in the small room that edges out into the garden - thoughts on extending that so it's a little wider, maybe even deeper further into the garden, dependent on cost and space available? Then chuck bifold doors on for your garden access? (for the swanky effect :D)
 
@Syla5 - fair point so this is a photo looking through the garden towards the garage and a sat photo. We like the thought of summer evening relaxing with kitchen diner doors opened onto the garden :)

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/photos/share/qqc89eZrE5LKvoMHMkuFit9odbdn0hAlPOW2Lh2H291

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/photos/share/Wbtq54SX6kotuOl0KP6lq9tq9YvmroGUOlYKWkdZh2O

qqc89eZrE5LKvoMHMkuFit9odbdn0hAlPOW2Lh2H291

@Sparx - There is not much space moving out from the rear of the property unfortunately.

(not sure why I cannot remove the IMG link)
 
Ok, it makes sense that you would want to do what you are suggesting but from the looks of it thats a single garage you are looking to convert to your kitchen. Thats going to be a quite narrow kitchen, and overall the ability to open up on to the garden will be traded off with a kitchen thats less ergonomic and for want of a better word, homely!

Your very first move should be to ask how much internal measurements once you insulate your garage for use.
 
Ah ha, a little more information that makes a difference :D 3.5 is still (personally I will add) narrow for a kitchen, I can measure mine when I get home but I think ours is similar and feels narrow!

I would still look at the internal lay out you are planning, moving the downstairs toilet from where it is and removing the ensuite seem counter intuitive personally. I would also look to zone the house as much as you can and have all the bedrooms in the same zone so to speak so that you can have that separation from living / active space and resting / sleeping space.
 
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