Two storey side extension

[roccles]

Hi all, We have been looking into extending the side of our house for a while now instead of moving, the main reason for this is that we would love for the kids to have bigger bedrooms for when they are older.

I recently walked past a house that was the same as mine with a two storey extension very similar to what I had been thinking of. It is still very much in the planning stage at the moment and don't really want to waste any builders time at moment getting quotes etc. as it could be a couple of years away. What would be the best way to go about estimating the cost of such a project? Any tips would be greatly appeciated.

 

[roccles]

Excellent, thank for all the replies guy. As @eviled mentioned the flow to the living room is a bit odd in the existing plan from the other house. I am quite happy with the downstairs of my house at the moment except I would like a utility room. The extensions main purpose is to add additional room upstairs. So based on this and the same plans as before I have changed the layout which I think flows a bit better.



A quick calculation based @DB_SamX figures of £1500 per Sq metre, plus 50% for second story and 10% Professional fees puts it at approx £120k. I think this is around what I was expecting. I would obviously need to budget in a new Kitchen and Ensuite.

 

[roccles]

Knock on their door and ask them.

This application was from 2007 but I will check if the house has sold since and maybe pop round, might be nice to have a nose as well if they will let me.

 

[roccles]

We had a similar extension done last year but the ground floor was a garage conversion. Around £1300 per square meter with myself doing all the painting.

Did you build a second storey on top of the garage? How did it all go?

In some ways I don't really need the ground floor expanding but I don't really fancy having an odd master bedroom on the ground floor next to the kitchen if I went with a single storey.

 

[roccles]

I'm doing pretty much exactly the same right now, 75sqm extension. I'm a quantity surveyor and I budgeted it at £85k plus VAT excluding kitchen.

Such a lot of cost variance is in the foundations and quality of build, location plays a huge cost variance as well.

I'm hoping it'll cost for me £75k all in inc VAT and kitchen but that's with me project managing it, buying my own materials and spending my weekends and evenings labouring and doing a lot of the donkey work and as many jobs as I can myself.

Thats very interesting thank you, 85k+vat sounds very reasonable, I am based in North Hampshire not far from Basingstoke.

I would be very interested in seeing some more details of extension/plans if you are able to share.

 

[roccles]

Hi all, I think you are all correct about the ground floor layout.

This image shows my current layout next to the proposed idea, as I said in OP this is very early stages so I have plenty of time to plan the layout and as @Russinating suggested I think I would get an architect to give me there ideas.

Any of your ideas welcome

 

[roccles]

Ha, I live in Basingstoke, well when you come to get some quotes give "Imperial building and landscapes ltd" a call. Let me know if you want any more info on the extension they did for us.

Excellent thank you. Always good to get some personal recommendations I will definitely keep them in mind.

 

[roccles]

One of my only requirements for the new downstairs is a utility room which is a completely separate room housing all white goods, shoes and coats. Which can be shut off when washing machine, tumble dryer are running etc.

 

[roccles]

That's a great idea and pretty much what I went with on our recent extension, but with that layout you'll end up with a utility room much larger than the kitchen with a lot of dead floor space.

Is it possible to move the dividing wall? Maybe in line with the one dividing the hall and living room on your second plan (as much as the window will allow). That would still give you your separate utility but give a roomier kitchen and a better ratio between their sizes.

That is a good idea. I was sort of hoping that I wouldnt need to start knocking walls down in the existing building.

Here is an idea of what that looks like. I think I would need to look at switching the door accessing the utility from the hall way

Although I have no idea if moving this wall is something i could do.

 

[roccles]

This is what we are doing. Downstairs was a cruddy garage with a cruddy kitchen extension on the back which has now all been ripped out and skipped. It's a traditional pitched and hipped roof with a gable end and a glass juliette balcony.

I've tweaked the downstairs on sketchup and will do the same upstairs.

Thank you

That looks great, i like the idea of the dressing room between the ensuite and bedroom that will be very handy

 

[roccles]

I think on the pic the Utility room looks bigger than it is because there are no units or anything down the right hand wall; If you compare with the original layout the room (current kitchen) isn't actually much bigger than the new kitchen (current playroom). Personally with the proposed layout I would consider retaining storage down that side. Our house has a decent number of kitchen/utility cupboards (a dozen?) and they are all full to the brim.

You are right the rooms are not that different in size but the proposed utility room will be bigger, the post above shows my idea at reducing the size of the utility and increasing te kitchen space.

 

[roccles]

Work with what you have. You can spend fortunes moving walls just because your adamant you want a certain layout. Ditto bathrooms etc, work with where easy access to drains are. It'll all cost considerably less.

Thank you this makes a lot of sense. I do think your right, If i start moving walls in the kitchen I am going to have to potentially move the boiler as that is very close to the wall in question and potentially add supporting beams and I can see already how this could start eating into the budget and adding to the cost before I even get started on the new extension.

With the proposed new extension I can even leave the house as it is if needed as its just a big box on the side with a access door on each floor, so I am thinking if costs do over run on the extension I still have my house exactly as it is now. The kicthen and utility can be done later if needed.

 

[roccles]

Not always true, you can spend a fortune and without enough planning into how you’ll live in a space you’ll end up with an expensive awkward box on the side of your house

This is a tough one, if I start knocking loads of walls down and extending I would probably be better off looking to move. I am very happy with what the upstairs will offer for the family the downstairs is just a bit of a bonus. Maybe I should just make a massive man cave with a secret entrance!

 

[roccles]

another option would be a single garage with a playroom and utility at the back and keep you current downstairs lay out

My wife suggested this and it definitely needs some consideration. I do have a separate detacted double garage but an internal single also be useful.

 

[roccles]

Not sure if already address but why are the roofs not the same height?

From what I have read it is because
"Planners prefer house extensions that are visible from the road to be ‘subsidiary’ to the existing house. In effect, the ridge height of the new part of the building is expected to be lower than the main ridge height."

Whether this is true or not I do not know.

 

[roccles]

I am now considering doing the extension in two stages. Stage 1 add a small single storey extension to the side of the existing kitchen, this is the most practical position for this room anyway. Then Stage 2 add the two storey extension to increase the size of the kids bedrooms upstairs, they are still young so no massive hurry with this. The addition of a utility room now would be far more useful.

This way I get to keep my current kitchen so no need to budget in installing a new one. When I get to phase 2 I would consider knocking through and creating a kitchen diner.

 

[roccles]

To continue on this thread we put our house up for sale at the end January hoping that something suitable would become available, nothing has and we have also come to the conclusion that we are happy in our current location and plot so have removed it from the market. We have also decided that we probably don't need to expand as much as I initially mocked up.

In the image below you can see we currently have an en-suite which has a macerating toilet, this toilet is garbage and I don't even dare use it, I am assuming this was installed due to the distance from the soil pipe? Anyway I would love to rip this room out and convert to additional storage for Bedrooms 1 and 3.



So my main question is really how far away is too far for a proper toilet!?

For instance would something like this be possible( toilet positions rather than bathroom size and layouts)?



Thanks