Buying the house next door...

[MikeGrahamT21]

Originally we were thinking about adding a dormer conversion to our 2 bed bungalow (double if possible), which probably wouldn't be practical for us for a number of reasons, until I had the thought of buying the house which is attached to ours when it became available, I've known the people who live there all my life, and a couple of years ago when i was building an extension on the back of ours, the lady said she'd ask her Son to sell it us cheap so we can knock through into it, and I never thought any more of it really, until last year. Recently the lady has passed away, leaving her husband who is in his 70's, so I want to be as ready as I can be to buy as and when it becomes available, which may well not be for a very long time, but could also be soon, you just never know, we hadn't expected her passing away last year.

 

House will probably be around the 100k mark, going on the state of it (poor) and other house sale prices in area. I reckon a dormer on ours would set us back at least 40k all done, which is what made me thinking about putting that 40k to better use, and gaining far more. Am I right in thinking that we wouldn't be able to get a mortgage on the house next door due to our plans? I've also read that you just can't buy an adjoining property with a mortgage?

 

Now as I believe it, no planning is involved making 2 houses into 1, building control is required for the structural conversion as would be expected. Because of the major renovation, would we have to upgrade both houses to modern standards of insulation? This is something we want to do anyway for obvious reasons, but want to factor it into the price, as insulation prices aren't going to be going down any time soon, and to get it to modern standards would require external wall insulation. 

 

Any ideas/input from anyone who has perhaps done this themselves in the past would be brill :-)

 

Until the time comes, we'll just keep saving, we aren't big spenders anyway!

[ProDave]

A few years ago I did all the wiring n a conversion of 2 cottages into one.  Initially building control were going to insist the whole lot was brought up to modern insulation standards, which in an old stone cottage would be very hard. In the end the backed down a bit an only insisted on upgraded insulation in rooms that were  being altered.

[MikeGrahamT21]

17 minutes ago, ProDave said:

A few years ago I did all the wiring n a conversion of 2 cottages into one.  Initially building control were going to insist the whole lot was brought up to modern insulation standards, which in an old stone cottage would be very hard. In the end the backed down a bit an only insisted on upgraded insulation in rooms that were  being altered.

 

Ah right, so its not set in stone that it is required then. Its certainly possible in these houses, but it is more ££, and if we have to buy cash, there won't be a lot of ££ left to do things like expensive EWI.

[Ferdinand]

1 hour ago, MikeGrahamT21 said:

 

Ah right, so its not set in stone that it is required then. Its certainly possible in these houses, but it is more ££, and if we have to buy cash, there won't be a lot of ££ left to do things like expensive EWI.

 

DIY EWI is quite possible - you can buy kits.

 

Or plan it for later.

 

I have now looked at EWI on three different houses over the last several years, and in each case doing the basics properly (insulation, 2G, appliances) has at least halved bills, and destroyed the justification for EWI unless 50-70% reductions eg grants were available over commercial quotes.

Ferdinand

Edited January 8, 2018 by Ferdinand

[Ferdinand]

4 hours ago, MikeGrahamT21 said:

Now as I believe it, no planning is involved making 2 houses into 1, building control is required for the structural conversion as would be expected. Because of the major renovation, would we have to upgrade both houses to modern standards of insulation? This is something we want to do anyway for obvious reasons, but want to factor it into the price, as insulation prices aren't going to be going down any time soon, and to get it to modern standards would require external wall insulation. 

 

There are standards which apply (see the Building Regs docs or your council website) if you do more than a certain amount of work on a "thermal element". 

 

I trust you have looked at the possibility of renovating *both* as dormer bungalows and selling the other one on. That way you will bet savings by ordering double the amounts.

 

Ferdinand

 

Edited January 8, 2018 by Ferdinand

[ADLIan]

Changing 2 houses into one may require planning permission (material change of use) but depends upon local policy (one less house in the area is the issue). Building Reg required including Appr Doc L1B which dictates required U-values and upgrades required, though BCOs have a lot of flexibility in allowing relaxation of some of these (not being able to afford the upgrades is not an allowable relaxation I'm afraid). The new dwelling may also require an on construction EPC on completion.

[MikeGrahamT21]

37 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

 

DIY EWI is quite possible - you can buy kits.

 

Or plan it for later.

 

I have now looked at EWI on three different houses over the last several years, and in each case doing the basics properly (insulation, 2G, appliances) has at least halved bills, and destroyed the justification for EWI unless 50-70% reductions eg grants were available over commercial quotes.

Ferdinand

 

Yeah I totally get it, i've looked into EWI for the whole house as it stands now, and the amount it costs is crazy compared to what we would save. I did the EWI myself on an extension i built, it was straight forward enough, but really hard work, and still cost a lot of money, but less than what it would have done.

 

34 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

 

There are standards which apply (see the Building Regs docs or your council website) if you do more than a certain amount of work on a "thermal element". 

 

I trust you have looked at the possibility of renovating *both* as dormer bungalows and selling the other one on. That way you will bet savings by ordering double the amounts.

 

Ferdinand

 

 

Yeah I thought about it, but I don't think the savings would be enough to justify it, plus it would be nice to have extra garden! :-)

 

3 minutes ago, ADLIan said:

Changing 2 houses into one may require planning permission (material change of use) but depends upon local policy (one less house in the area is the issue). Building Reg required including Appr Doc L1B which dictates required U-values and upgrades required, though BCOs have a lot of flexibility in allowing relaxation of some of these (not being able to afford the upgrades is not an allowable relaxation I'm afraid). The new dwelling may also require an on construction EPC on completion.

 

I read that planning wasn't required for 2 in to 1, but was for 1 into 2, but i have no firm answer on that. OK, EPC is quite cheap i guess so thats no problems.

 

Another thing i've just thought about, we have solar panels with FiT, would any of this affect that?

[Simplysimon]

9 hours ago, MikeGrahamT21 said:

set us back at least 40k all done,

 

bloody 'ell, for a window, some regularised timber, insulation and cladding, the insurance rebuild cost for our house is only 160k. i'm presuming you live in london?

[MikeGrahamT21]

no no, it was just a wild guess, based upon odd things i've read in Magazines.

 

I know the materials aren't that much, its the labour. House is a 2bed semi bungalow, what do you reckon rough price?

 

This would be for a full dormer conversion, double preferably, GRP roof, with 8x mounting for solar panels (if allowed by LA), probably 4x triple glazed windows, and cedar cladding to the outside.

Edited January 9, 2018 by MikeGrahamT21

[Ferdinand]

28 minutes ago, MikeGrahamT21 said:

no no, it was just a wild guess, based upon odd things i've read in Magazines.

 

I know the materials aren't that much, its the labour. House is a 2bed semi bungalow, what do you reckon rough price?

 

This would be for a full dormer conversion, double preferably, GRP roof, with 8x mounting for solar panels (if allowed by LA), probably 4x triple glazed windows, and cedar cladding to the outside.

 

Isn't it @DeeJunFan who knows about Dormers? Or were hers too different.

Edited January 9, 2018 by Ferdinand

[MikeGrahamT21]

it would be good to know a realistic ball park figure without having to get a company out to do a full quote.

 

Our main issue with a dormer though is lack of space to put stairs, we could make it work but it would be hard work, we don't have a massive amount of square meterage, though lots of houses on the estate have dormers, its often in the slightly larger version of our house, not always, but most of the time.

 

We would have to lose the 2nd bedroom for the staircase, so would need at least 2 bedrooms upstairs, gaining us 1 extra overall, ideally we'd get 2 bedrooms and 1 shower room upstairs if we went that way.

 

I'm up for considering anything, my main concern with dormer is whether the planning department would allow flat roof mounted solar panels, if they won't, then we are limited to a single dormer, and would have to move 8 solar panels on to the utility roof (i designed it to take these anyway, plus its south facing)