should I buy this house with a two storey sinlge brick wall extension?

hotcake3

Hi Jonbvn
Thanks for the reply- if i carry out the work as suggested can the room be better insulated- i.e. wont be very costy to keep it warm?


do I need apply for building regs for the work?

Do you know how much it would cost and how long does it take to carry out a work like this?

thanks!!:D

Jonbvn wrote: »

Civil/Structural engineer here! marcg did not say an additional layer of brick. He recommended timber stud walls with a suitable insulation and a vapour barrier and gap. This is very lightweight, and should not be a problem for the foundations.

marcg

Hello again. Building regs, yes. Technician should be able to do work for about £150. Builder will charge about £1000 per room and take no more than 2 weeks to do it. Bear in mind you will be left with bare plaster walls and ruined carpets. The stud walls in the kitchen will need a 20mm layer of plywood under the plasterboard to carry the weight of wall cupboards.

hotcake3

Thanks Marg
You raised a very good piont- i do need to think about cupborad as it is in the Kitchen!

Do i need to do all four side of the walls? Or i could leave the conjoint wall ( as it is a terraced house) alone?

If I end up with a very small kitchen and a room upstairs should I be looking to build the whole extension instead?

thanks:rolleyes:

marcg

The "party" wall will be fine - I assume your neighbours have heating! You could rebuild the extension but this will cost you at least £15k and won't make the house much bigger. £4-5k on insulation and a new kitchen will be much better spent.

Or just look at somewhere else. The mortgage company isn't going to give you the money to do these works, they'll be coming out of your pocket. You might be able to remortgage in a few years but in the meantime it might be more sensible to buy a place costing £10k more which will really only be an extra tenner a month (or something) on the mortgage.

I generally tell people not to bother with extensions unless the rest of the house is perfect and it sorts out a big problem. I'm guessing that wouldn't be the case on this house.

hotcake3

Thanks for your reply.

The trouble is I quite like the rest of the house except for the extension.

If i buy it and could get the second layer of brick done as suggested, would I have any troible selling it in the futrue?

thanks

Patr100

hotcake3 wrote: »

Thanks for your reply.

The trouble is I quite like the rest of the house except for the extension.

If i buy it and could get the second layer of brick done as suggested, would I have any troible selling it in the futrue?

thanks

You keep going on about a second layer of brick . NO ONE has suggested that except you. Read the very helpful replies you have had carefully.

hotcake3

I might not get all the terms right.. but i might the same thing.. just a second layer to the wall really..

My question is - if i got it done porperly, could I sell the house in the future?

hotcake3

Any suggestions will be appreciated:)

Called my local council just now- the building control department said I need building regs but before any work can be done i need to make sure if there is any planning premission in place- is this true? As far as I know, old houses like this rarely comes with a planning premission for the extension( often done post war!!) :rolleyes:

lincroft1710

Given the construction it is unlikely that planning permission was applied for, it is highly unlikely it would have been granted. I am certain your mortgage surveyor will not be happy with current construction of extn. Future sale would depend on attitude of potential buyer's mortgage surveyor, although the improved insulation may be adequate, the extn would still not have double skin wall which ms may object to.

hotcake3

So even I took the method 2 as suggested by Marcg, the finished wall does not equal to double skin wall??

I am confused:rolleyes:

I thought if method 2 is taken, I will end up with the right wall??

marcg wrote: »

Architect here. Single skin brick walling is basically garden walling - it has practically no insulation value. That said, Victorian houses are only made from two layers of brick walls - these have "next" to no insulation value. Touch an outside wall in a Victorian house and you'll feel the cold.

Modern houses are generally built in one of three ways:
1. concrete blocks, insulation board, gap, external skin.
2. Insulated timber stud walls, gap, external skin.
3. Insulated metal stud walls, rendered board.

You can see that you can convert your single skin wall into type 2 by building an internal stud wall which you put polystyrene-type insulation (celotex or kingspan) between and then plasterboard to face. Figure on about £1000 per room finished. You'll also need some vapour barrier membrane in there to stop condensation forming in the wall. A technician will do you a drawing/spec for about £150. Best to have this before you do things yourself.

However, bear in mind that this new wall will come out of your living space. Assuming all the walls are external, your 2m wide room will become, at most, 1.8m wide. Yes, you could put thinner insulation and get a wider room, but then you won't feel the benefit.

You could also look at insulating the outside of the wall (envirowall or alsecco) but this is not really done on old buildings, not many people will do that size of job and the waterproofing detailing is complicated.