Rear Extension and Extra Bedroom Extension Help!

[Laurence737]

Hi Everyone,

 

We are new to the forum, a couple living in the East Midlands.  For various reasons we would like to add an extension to our existing 3 bed detached new build (3.5 years old) house.

 

We can comfortably extend out at the back to 3.1m and our initial thoughts are to extend all the way across the back of the property, and then either add a 4th bedroom in the loft (if budget will allow) or maybe a partial second storey extension to create the new room.

 

We are however hitting a brick wall with how to arrange the space to make it work.  We would like to achive

 

- Addition of a 4th bedroom (to raise our property out of the 3 bed ceiling bracket)

- Create an open plan kitchen/diner

- Create a playroom/study

 

We are struggling to work out if this is possible with our budget (£70k), we have arranged for some builders to visit to discuss over the next few weeks but were hoping that some creative sparks on here could give us some suggestions and inspiration for how we could achieve our dream home. I have attached our current floor plan and the proposed extension outline.

 

Thanks in advance

[bassanclan]

The first thing is would check is your deeds as a lot of new builds seem to have covenants preventing certain developments, e.g. loft conversion etc.

[Laurence737]

Hi thanks for your input, we have checked with the developer and they have given us written permission for a single storey rear extension and a loft conversion, and verbal permission (although we would get written permission, as well as applying for planning permission) if we went for the 2 storey route.

[ProDave]

The ground floor extension works because both kitchen and living are double aspect, so potentially blocking their back windows is not an issue.

 

A loft conversion will probably mean a roof off conversion as I bet the trusses used for the loft are inadequate for a loft room.

 

As the landing comes up at the back, how about a smaller rear extension upstairs that basically goes between the windows of the master, and the other rear bedroom, and gives you the 4th bedroom above the extension while still keeping the other rear bedrooms windows as they are?  That would still leave the loft conversion to take it to 5 bedrooms later.

 

What constrains the rear extension to only 3 metres?

 

[Russell griffiths]

Have you considered moving, new build so should sell quickly, upgrade to a larger version on the same site, save 18months of agro. 

[the_r_sole]

What can you buy for 70k more than this is worth? A loft conversion on a new build roof and a sizeable extension for that budget I'd say is very unlikely... fitting a compliant stair into your floor plan will be difficult without comprising something...

With your design, I'd start from first principles, I.e. figure out exactly what you want from altering the house, a full width extension like you've shown rarely work, it looks like you've just said "we need an extension" without going through the reasoning for it. It might be you can achieve better quality, more useful spaces with much less new building...

[Laurence737]

16 hours ago, ProDave said:

The ground floor extension works because both kitchen and living are double aspect, so potentially blocking their back windows is not an issue.

 

A loft conversion will probably mean a roof off conversion as I bet the trusses used for the loft are inadequate for a loft room.

 

As the landing comes up at the back, how about a smaller rear extension upstairs that basically goes between the windows of the master, and the other rear bedroom, and gives you the 4th bedroom above the extension while still keeping the other rear bedrooms windows as they are?  That would still leave the loft conversion to take it to 5 bedrooms later.

 

What constrains the rear extension to only 3 metres?

 

Thanks for your reply, we are going to consult a loft specialist on Monday to see what can be done with the loft, it is W trusses, however the people we did speak to did say that the roof doesnt need to come off but structural steels will be required to take the load of the roof.  We did consider opening the landing window and having a room off the back of the house, but the distance between the two bedroom windows is only about 3m so we were worried that the internal dimension of the new room would be pretty small? (only around 2ish m x 3m?)

 

The 3m is restricted by the neighbours garage, we can go to about 3.2m before we start encroaching on that, so we are aiming to try and get a 3m internal width.

 

2 hours ago, Russell griffiths said:

Have you considered moving, new build so should sell quickly, upgrade to a larger version on the same site, save 18months of agro. 

 

We have considered moving, however the extension allows us to consolidate my partners medical education loan and gives us a bigger house, so if we can do the work that we intend we can remortgage to clear the debt and have the bigger house we desperately need (with a toddler and another on the way! plus my wife is Irish so we need a 4th room for when they are over)

 

49 minutes ago, the_r_sole said:

What can you buy for 70k more than this is worth? A loft conversion on a new build roof and a sizeable extension for that budget I'd say is very unlikely... fitting a compliant stair into your floor plan will be difficult without comprising something...

With your design, I'd start from first principles, I.e. figure out exactly what you want from altering the house, a full width extension like you've shown rarely work, it looks like you've just said "we need an extension" without going through the reasoning for it. It might be you can achieve better quality, more useful spaces with much less new building...

 

Yes our main worry is getting what we want in for our budget, we were considering moving the tank from the cupboard over the stairs up into the loft to allow us to use that space to run the stairs into the loft? 

 

Our list of priorities are

- Create 4th bedroom

- Create a play/toy room

- Open plan kitchen diner with access to the garden.

[Ferdinand]

UI think you’re approach to get some quotes is the correct one ..make sure you are equipped with a good set of questions to ask in the conversation, which is important, and a good summary of requirements / priorities on a single sheet of paper.

 

You can then dive back into round 2 of your thinking and review what you can modify or DIY and compare that to budget etc.

 

My feel is that you will not get both for 70k unless you are doing all the work yourself. A builder might be able to do that to their own house.

 

I would  be guesstimating  that the loft conversion ... subject to being doable and no hidden gotchas  ... looks like a 40-45k ballpark for a third party to do, and the big rear extension more like 55k-70k ballpark, again for a reasonably priced third party. Though you could get lucky. Though there is always a tolerance of plus or minus at least 25% on such guestimates depending how you tackle it.

 

Eg You could build bits of It yourself or decide that you are happy to live in an extension with painted breeze blocks rather than plaster, or decide that you and your partner will be happy making a lifestyle decision to sleep in one of the living areas perhaps divided off by bifold shutters.

 

At about 2.45 in this six minute interview Peter Aldington talks about sleeping in their lounge for half a century.

 

 

As proposed you will have a lot of living room area .. perhaps more than you need. Can you adjust how you use it to meet your needs?

 

One potential possibility is to turn part of one of your through rooms into a “study” which could function as a 4th bedroom, depending on what it is for. Might work for eg guests or toddlers. You would still benefit from the extra 250sqft from the rear extension so get more living space.

 

You could even do that with a single stud wall that you plan to remove in say 4-5 years.

 

In any case I would recommend thinking about one of these projects at a time.

 

Ferdinand

Edited July 31, 2020 by Ferdinand