Hello from Lincolnshire. Extend or start again?

[Nickit]

Hi. We have bought a small farm house in Lincolnshire, about an acre with a tiny 1910 farmhouse. 

We have plans to extend the original building, demolishing a portacabin like single storey and create a new two storey extension. 

At a preliminary meeting with the planner, they were happy with the plans in principle but asked why we didn’t want to knock down and rebuild. 

We hadn’t considered this and loads of advice says rebuild, better energy options, claim vat back etc. But we’re not too sure? Do people really get back their vat (or as much as they expect?) 

is it worth knocking down a small but serviceable 3 bed house to start again? 

We’ve got a sensible fund for the extension, but demolish and rebuild sounds a lot more expensive? Is it worth it in the long run ? 

Current property 160sqm. Extension would add 140sqm. 

[Gone West]

Welcome to the forum. If it is a nice looking, well built farmhouse I would not demolish it. I would improve and extend. I have done renovations and a new build and I found the renovations much easier. Others will disagree. Good luck with the project whatever you decide.

[newhome]

Welcome to BuildHub. Prices vary a lot and are dependent on how much work you want to do yourselves, what finish you want etc but as a very rough guide you should think along the lines of circa £1200 per m2 for a new build. But it could be 1000 or 1500 or more based on various factors. Presumably you would need to bring the existing part of the house up to decent standard too so that will add to your extension / renovation costs and heating costs may always be an issue in a poorly insulated house so there is a lot to consider. It’s positive that the planner raised the new build option however so hopefully planning would not be an issue. 

 

You can reclaim the vat on a new build but there are strict and often confusing rules about it. In summary:

 

Anything you buy that is incorporated into the fabric of the building is vat reclaimable  (but there are some ‘finishing off’ things that aren’t eligible like most integrated appliances) 

 

Labour costs and anything a vat registered builder supplies to fit should be zero rated at source. You can’t reclaim vat on these, they must be zero rated. 

 

Design costs, hire of equipment, planning fees etc are not reclaimable. 

 

[recoveringbuilder]

In a new build you’ll get vat back on goods and any work done will be zero rated, ie.builders,roofers etc any supply and fit such as kitchen etc will also be zero rated.you won’t get it back on hire equipment,architects fees etc 

Its a tough call, personally I’d rather new build as I have a better vision of the end result but if it’s a decent house it would be a shame to flatten it and the cost of that and removing the rubble would be expensive 

[Dreadnaught]

Welcome. For new builds, there is an optional standard for energy efficient homes called the Passive House standard. I wonder if you are familiar with it. There is also a related standard specifically for renovations called EnerPhit.

 

Either route has the potential to provide a supremely comfortable home with very low annual energy builds. 

[Tennentslager]

A picture would help to see what the current one looks like.

Tiny and 160sq/m don't compute to me though...

[Cpd]

19 minutes ago, Tennentslager said:

Tiny and 160sq/m don't compute to me though...

? nor to me......  living in a 64m2  farm house ! 

[newhome]

Have to admit 160 m2 sounds like a decent size to begin with. 

 

 

[Gone West]

2 hours ago, newhome said:

Have to admit 160 m2 sounds like a decent size to begin with. 

 

 

It depends whether the 160m2 is the external footprint and it has thick walls.