Cheapest extra bedroom? Basement, Loft or Shed

sundin13

Hi - we're househunting at the moment and to get the five bedroomed house in the location we want is proving difficult/prohibitively expensive. We have seen four bed houses with various options for conversion - but I wanted to try and get an idea from you guys about which of the options would be the cheapest - and how much I should allow into my calculations to fund such a plan:

Options (unless anyone can think of anything else to add) are:

Basement conversion
Garage/Brick Shed conversion
Loft Conversion.
One of these! http://www.ecohab.co.uk/ (Although it looks a bit like something from Teletubby land.

The extra room would be for our 18 year old, so I wouldn't worry if it weren't attached to the house :cool:


Thanks in advance for your input.

S13

ormus

the garage/brick shed is probably the best and cheapest option.
all the others can have major problems. lofts = stair, height and fire reg problems.
basements = damp and tanking problems.
and that always equals expensive problems.

bryanb

Perhaps a caravan, could be useful in other ways.

dander

I'd vote garage conversion every time. I'm not a fan of loft conversions because you lose existing space on the first floor to make the access and unless you've got a very spacious existing layout you can end up with quite a compromised 1st floor -as well as losing the storage space you would have had in the loft. Unless you've got the money to put a bathroom up there as well, you also end up with a bedroom where the occupant has to find their way down -often steep or spiral - stairs just to have a wee.

If you can find a house with an integral garage, I would have thought that would be ideal, because it's a relatively quick and easy conversion job - and if your 18-year-old moves out in only a year or two, then you've got a ground floor room that you could use for extra reception space and integrate more flexibly into the house than an attic bedroom.

I'd think something detached from the house is a bit of a last resort as well. You either have to face the expense of getting bathroom facilities out there, or the occupant has to cross the garden to get into the house every time they need a wee. And when they move out, it's not so flexible as part of your home.

Plasterer

One of these! http://www.ecohab.co.uk/ (Although it looks a bit like something from Teletubby land.

:eek: Them things look horrible

sundin13

dander wrote: »

I'd think something detached from the house is a bit of a last resort as well.

You haven't met my eldest son!!!!!

Owain_Moneysaver

I think many 18 year olds would think of an ecohab as a 'kewl pad'.

And if you can get drains to the location then it's not hard to fit one out with a caravan-style shower and loo.

sillygoose

How about looking for a 4 bed with a large master bedroom that a builder could add a partion wall and make into 2 singles? would of course need to be able to add a door way to the landing for the partioned half.

My house is a 4 bed and the 2nd bedroom is quite large too so wouldn't have been a hardship to use as our room instead (currently its a guest room & office)

Later on if you got rid of some kids and your needs went down, perhaps one of the small rooms made by splitting the large bedroom could be reconfigured into an nice onsuite room for the master bedroom.

A good builder can add doorways, put up stud walls, get them plastered, perhaps move some electrics, bit of plumbing all quite easily and costs can be hundreds to low thousands so economical. Just a thought, as it would be feasible in my house so they are around.