ElliotS

So I had my house valued yesterday and it smashed my expected value of 450k and came in at a nice value of 600K which i was totally shocked about. I asked the estate agent what he would value it at with the upstairs addition and he said he wouldnt sell it for less than 700k with that addition in todays market. My initial thought when hearing the value was to sell up and move on but the more Im thinking, the more im returning back to getting upstairs done. When factoring the fees involved in moving house and stamp duty, im a nice little chunk of the way towards the additional floor. Im thinking the comfort ill gain outweighs what it will be worth after ive done the work. If i extend upwards then ill have no reason to move on until either the kids have grown up or an unmissable opportunity arrises to build on a plot by which point i guess the house value would of increased to cover the cost of work done. I paid 150k for the house so a nice little bit of equity in it even after the cost of work ive already done. ive started my investigation work in the meantime for someone with good knowledge of the area to see what comes up, failing that, i think i stand in a good position to apply for full planning anyway. Myself nor the architect can see any obvious reason the council would refuse. I just have to get past the comments from the houses that are nowhere near mine but feel they have to stick their nose in as if they are some kind of HO president. That caused me more stress than anything when my extension was done as they outright lied to the council about what i was doing which led to a knock on the door from an enforcement officer.

Makes sense. I guess i will be able to achieve better thermal insulation with timber frame too.

Im asked him to give me a call, ill see what the details are. Would building up in timber frame help with structural side of things? Logically its less weight on the foundations and so work required might be reduced?

I would do but my council (cheshire East) don't offer it for individual projects, only on applications for larger projects basically for developers

Yeah my worry is the year the house was built but I can’t find any official documentation to confirm it nor are the OS maps very clear. How would I make the case to the council that It falls inside of the permitted development window? I can’t even ask the neighbours because my house shows up in maps properly in the early 50’s but very few houses around it. I’ve even tried census records but that returned nothing. It looks like the whole of the neighbourhood was part of a farm with various farm buildings on the land that chop and change throughout the years of OS maps

I believe there was a new planning rule around 2020 that allowed an additional floor to a single storey building or 2 additional floors to a 2 storey building under permitted development, it still has to have prior approval from the council to prove it ticks all the correct boxes though

The more im thinking about it, following SE recommendation to not knock down, the more im favouring going on top of existing with work done to foundations as required. If I can move bedrooms upstairs and insulate properly, I can re-introduce the log burner and use that when needed for downstairs (which is what has worked since we moved in the house). I then dont need to mess with anythig downstairs as i already have staircase in the extension. I cant find the exact date my house was built even on Land Registry deeds, but its at some point around 1945-1950. I can go up a floor under PD if the house was built after 1st July 47, right? How do i know whether i qualify if i have no accurate record? I can only see that a building pops up on OS maps around said years, however does look out of position to where my current house is so maybe it was something else before being turned to a house?

Had a chat with my SE and his advice was to make foundations good and go on top of existing house. He has already surveyed them as part of the extension (well what little foundations there is)

I have imagined it a thousand different ways haha! To be honest, i dont want to change anything about the extension, it works perfectly and the space its give us is amazing. I would even keep the downstairs layout pretty much as is, if I had the same floor area upstairs to build bedrooms. My current house size relative to the garden and outbuilding size is as good as we can ask for given the plot we have

I could do that for sure, and it ticks the box for the thermal side of things but its literally a square bungalow so the layout for 3 bedrooms and a kitchen wouldn't change much at all. The reason for going up is to have all of that space dedicated to bedrooms and make use of the new one as part of the extension

Also, in your opinion, is the option of taking down the front and rebuilding feasible from a technical perspective? How would it effect the extension or would i like have to just blank it off temporarily until we built back to it?

I understand what you are saying, its just that sometimes it can get overwhelming with options and i keep looping back to different scenarios. i already have one of the most expensive houses on the street now since the work has been done. If i had a suitable plot of land to buy and build on, the for sale sign would go up tomorrow but as we all know, those opportunities come few and far between. one of my sticking points is we built a nice garden outbuilding which hosts our garage, gym, bar and wifes hair room. The hair room alone is worth alot to us as it means we arent renting anywhere for her to work. finding a property with space to have this again is difficult at the price range we are looking when buying somewhere new.

I know right! if i'd have known what I do now that is exactly what I would have done. I guess it would depend if i pulled the front end down and it was then classed as an extension or new dwelling? I'm not sure, I dont think ive seen or heard of it being done to be honest

As requested, a shorter version of my predicament ha! i have a 1940's bungalow that i renovated and added a 2 storey extension (rear) to about 2 years ago. I now dont like the layout of the original bungalow as it is small and doesnt work very well with 3 bedrooms (one used to be living room). I have a new amazing master bedroom upstairs in the extension but cant use it as i have 2 young children so i need to be downstairs. The original bungalow is always cold as there is no cavity and recently covered log burner so heating bills have gone up alot. Id like to know if it would be best to: A) knock down the original part of the house and re-build as a full 2 storey house with modern regs b) Try for permitted development to go up a floor and make upstairs bedroom better insulated, providing not too much work in footings c) do a loft conversion with a dormer possibly, would have to be a double hip to gable conversion. d) its not worth the hassle and to move on to another property. (I do love where we live though and nothing on the market at the moment that ticks the boxes we want) I got the house for 150k and its worth around 450k now. I have a team of all trades and i am the teams project manager so i have total control of the project whichever way we go. would love to get different opinions and responses. Let me know if there is any questions. 850_GA-003 PROPOSED PLAN.pdf

I sure can

Afternoon all, I'm seeking some advise and opinions on what to do in my current situation. so we purchased a bungalow in 2019 and modernized it up to our liking and since then added a fantastic extension in 2021 to the house. We added an open plan living room from the existing kitchen and an amazing upstairs room with bathroom. Unfortunately we are in no position to use this upstairs room as we have 2 young children and we definitely cant be upstairs while they are down. We knew this when we did the extension, it was part of the bigger picture for if we came to sell the house. anyway, the original bungalow seems to have been built around mid to late 40's but has no cavity, so the front of the house is very cold. The layout isn't great for the size of the house either. We want to change the front of the house to suit our needs better and importantly, make the house warmer. - Do i knock down the front part of the house and rebuild to modern standards but keep the new extension up (i really love the extension so I don't want to change anything with it) - Do I keep the downstairs as is and add another floor and roof space to the original part? I've not got the exact date of when the house was built but I'm touch and go on the permitted development side of things circa 1947. - Do a double hip to gable conversion and possibly a dormer up to modern standard to make space for upstairs bedrooms and insulate as best as possible. - Call it quits on cost & planning and look for somewhere else. Main things i want to achieve here are warmer bedrooms & better bedroom layouts to make use of the master bedroom built as part of the extension. If id of known what i know now, i would of knocked the lot down when i first got the house. some background on the house - currently front of the house is a hipped roof which is just storage/loft space first bungalow in the row, house next door is a 'normal' two storey house. purchased house for just less than 150k, now worth around 450k (that is undervaluing if anything) so we have made plenty of money on it. i have a log burner downstairs which is currently not in use as its now one of the kids bedrooms, this winter already we are feeling the effects of not having it running as it usually heats the front of the house for us so heating costs have gone up considerably. current front of bungalow size is around 8mx8m, extension about 7mx7m to the rear. stairs already in as part of extension so no need to lose a room for that. fire over any questions, happy to discuss opinions and suggestions. Attached current layout, only difference is 'office' is where the stairs are. Living room at front is now also bedroom. 850_GA-003 PROPOSED PLAN.pdf

Hi all, I am about to begin the process of doing some major works to my house and I wanted some opinions on what you guys think of the design and if you think it is possible. I am looking to both extend my property and convert the loft. I currently live in a detached bungalow on a street with a mish mash of houses. Next door is a two storey house, the other side is a bungalow with a huge extension and then mine sits very small in the middle. My idea is below: A double hip to gable conversion, this will open the loft space up massively. Currently I have 2.6m joist to underside of the ridge beam, so I don't have too many concerns there. The space planned to use for the stairs follows the roof line up, the height restrictions would not be a problem for the 2m headroom requirement. The area that I am unsure on is the extension. although I could add a nice extension under PD, I want to take it a step further and I don't mind applying for planning if I can achieve the result. I would like to extend out roughly 6-8m and then make use of the upstairs space as a master bedroom. effectively one big loft conversion when you include the current house. The master bedroom would have a glass gable end window with a nice little balcony (the beauty of south facing garden). My garden extends out massively, I have no problems with taking up space by extending. I have attached a basic idea below (both options of roof pitch), which leads me on to the next area of uncertainty - can you build the wall height of the extension higher and decrease the pitch of the roof to allow more standing head room across the width of the new master bedroom or do it have to run from the current height of the existing brickwork? My knowledge is very small on restrictions, so I could be well out with my ideas but I value anyone's opinion highly. Don't worry about budget too much but I'm interested to hear what you would estimate. If I have missed anything, feel free to ask me any questions. I tried my best while using Sketchup to create my first 3D house model, so the details aren't quite correct lol. Thanks for taking a look! E

Hi all, I apologise if this isn't in the correct area but I need some advise on the type of roof system used at Piccolino in Alderley edge. It's a retractable system but its very modern and not just a general slide across roof (at least not how it looks). Does anyone know anything about the design or mechanics of this? I am a part of a project where the owner is keen to include a similar design as he is trying to keep part of the existing roof for character, so something like this would work perfect. It's a long shot and not an easy question to answer, but any help is valuable. I've attached a few images to show what I'm on about. However, I can't show images of our current project as requested. Many thanks, E

Thanks for the comments back. I think this is the layout we will go for, next question is how we do the roof/ceiling. Does this type of design lend itself to a vaulted ceiling or would you suggest otherwise? you can see the roof as it is now from the images i posted last year. Cheers, E

Hi all, Back to my old thread here but we are a year on and the house mentioned above has been a dream for us. Now we are looking at an extension, but I wanted an opinion from some of you. I have attached a layout that I think would be nice (not exactly to scale, just a sketch up of an idea i have done.) I have put our current floorplan underneath so that you can see for reference the idea i am going for. There are are a couple of things I'd like to do/keep listed below If possible, avoid moving kitchen (back will be knocked out but will create an island type bar with the sink on with an open plan to the new lounge space) although if something really works better, I would do it. We need to keep a hair room for my partners business (doesn't need to have windows) The house has to become a 3 bed The master bedroom (currently room 2) will ideally have an en suite & room 3 which is the lounge at the moment will become a bedroom (if the idea I go with sticks) The open plan part is going to be some sort of vaulted ceiling with bi-fold doors onto the garden. My main concern is that if I go with the design attached, when it comes round to having children, they will have their bedrooms at the front while the master is at the back. Would this be a concern to you guys if you were a) building the extension yourself or b) looking to buy the house with children? It's worth pointing out that we live in a really nice village area, not busy and we have the most fantastic neighbours. Thanks for taking the time to read this E

There currently is no heating system, it’s been empty for 50 years. The insulation is that of an 1800s build but not too much can be changed because of heritage. Windows are all single glazed wood frame too. Room sizes are as below: Lounge: (middle floor) 4m 5m H 2.5m Kitchen:(middle floor) 3.2m 5m H 2.5m Bed1:(top floor) 5m 3.3m H 2.2m Bath(top floor) 2m 2.7m 2.2 h Bed2(top floor) 3.2 5m H 2.5m Ground floor (sort of entryway/laundry area) 2m 3.2m H 2.3m I have taken into account the output of the ashp being lower than gas boiler. if we were to get individual parts, what would we need to get? I know obviously the outside unit and cylinder (which we are looking at about 150l) but is there any extra cylinders or parts we will need besides the electric/plumbing gear? please let me know if I’m completely missing anything.

Hi all, I’m not sure if this has already been discussed but every persons situation is different I guess. Anyway, we are renovating a flat and we are looking to install an air source heat pump as there is no gas into the property. We have had a couple of people come out and see the building and they have said it’s possible but then nothing really has moved forward from there. This is completely new to us so we only know what we have read up online briefly. so far we have been advised an 8kw system for the flat as it’s over 3 floors, I have already used an online tool for rads and took into account a 30% increase of output as suggested by the guys who visited us. the main thing we want to know is are there any best brands or is there is package bundle anyone can recommend? We have had a quote of about £8500 +vat for full installation with a 200L water tank. The flat will only have 1 bathroom, small downstairs toilet and likely only 1 radiator per room. we have electricians and plumbers (both can turn their hand to anything) for the job as part of the company, so if we can install it ourselves then we will. please feel free to message me with any questions, I’d even be willing to speak to someone on the phone if it’s easier. Sorry if it’s brief but I’m quickly trying to get this out there so we can move forward

Thank you for taking the time to put that together, its an interesting idea. I hadn't considered moving the bathroom because of it being extra work (on a budget very tight for first time buyers). I also hadn't thought about re-arranging internal walls because I don't mind how the current plan is but its worth taking into consideration. I figured that extending back on the currently property (full width) would work out easier and cheaper. What are your thoughts on doing this in timber frame? I plan to render the entire house white (as a few have already done in the street) so the rear would match.

You are right, which is why its coming down. its literally been thrown on, not even tied into the brickwork. We don't plan to demolish the house, we plan just to extend and make the most of what we currently have. The previous owner had tractors and other machinery so I guess they found it easier to be solid instead of grass etc. Actually behind the tress you see at the back is a huge double garage with more free space behind that leading to the back gate you can see. There is plenty of parking space on the front and a private road at the rear for vehicle access too. We are aware there is a lot of work to be done, this house hasn't been updated since god knows when but it's all part of the fun and reason we took it on. it's one of them you've got to see it to understand it's potential kind of houses. Pictures really don't do it any favours unfortunately.

Hi all, Only my second thread so apologies if my knowledge is slim on things. We have pretty much secured our first house and the sale is moving through very quickly (first time buyers, no chain and a friendship with the owner). We have opted for a bungalow which was on a generous plot size in comparison to the house. a little different for a 21 year old but I see the potential to make this a very nice home. I would like some of your experienced opinions on where and how best to utilise the available space. My first thought for real change is that I feel it needs an extension. It isn't a big bungalow by any means but its adequate for me and my partner for now so we have time on our hands to search around for the best option. My thoughts are to extend out the full width of the house back as far as possible and open the current back kitchen wall to create an 'L' shaped open plan kitchen, diner and new living room (the rear of the house is south facing). This would free up the current living room as a new bedroom, making it a 3 bedroom bungalow which will add value, right? I need your help on how to best go about this. How would the roof design affect the extension, would it have to be a flat roof? My other thought is to extend out the back and leave the 'loft' space above the extension open for a possible loft conversion in the future but again, I don't know if it would be possible because of the roof without it looking out of shape. Also, the current 'sun porch is coming down ASAP. I am open to timber frame extensions etc and I have a lot of family and friends in the building trade which will hopefully bring the cost down. I don't know if its worth noting but we are the end bungalow, the house next door is a 2 storey building. Pictures attached. Thanks for taking the time to read and help.