Kitchen Extension

moonpenny

I am planning on extending my kichen across the back of the house to the permitted size allowed without Planning permision.

I have an outhouse attached to the side of kitchen (inner wall of semi) and would like to go the full width of the house over the entrance to this. It has a door and a small window.

I was originally going to knock kitchen wall through into this but was too expensive (conforming to building regs etc / making into an "habitable room") for what I would gain spacewise so opted for an extension.

The thing is - would I have to comply with the same rules if I put an interior door on there and made it into a large cupboard within the extension?

Any advice welcome!

Doozergirl

You'd need an external type door if you were ever going to get away with it. But thinking about it, the wall that the door is in would have to comply as being a new external wall, so you might as well upgrade the real external wall.

I'm surprised though that you've gone with trying to convert it - it would be far cheaper and very little more, in fact I suspect it would cause less hassle and therefore no less cost at all, if it came down altogether and you made the extension larger to cover where it used to be. To me, it would be a no brainer - I'm surprised that your builder hasn't suggested it. You could potentially reclaim the bricks, which would more than cover the extra space needed to be built.

If the outbuilding is three metres deep, two metres wide, you're only building two metres more of wall because you still need to build two sets of three metre footings regardless of how wide your extension is.

iamcornholio

You will need to have a thermal break (insulated walls and exterior grade door) between the new extension and the existing outhouse, or the existing outhouse will need to be insulated to current standards

moonpenny

I'm afraid I have not explained myself very well. The outhouse is part of the house exterior wall

Imagine a square box and the back of the house is a straight exterior wall with - Kitchen window then Back Door then Outhouse Door then Small Outhouse Window then next doors semi.

So, the extension would run the WHOLE WIDTH of this making the "outhouse" an interior room.

The council said the outhouse had to have the walls floor and ceiling insulated to have it knocked through to make it a living space, so thats why I opted for an extension instead.
So,would the same rules apply to make it into what would be a large cupboard?

Doozergirl

It costs less to convert a space than it does to build new. Someone isn't telling you the truth.

I think I really need pictures to give a proper recommendation, but I think I've grasped that you would still be making the outhouse internal by means of boxing it in.

Building Control will never let you do that without bringing the outhouse up to standard. Even if you can get off on some kind of technicality, I can simply see a BCO refusing to sign off any extension until the outhouse, which will be a bit of a liability, is brought up to standard, for good reason. It will be a liability for damp, especially once you've boxed it in with no ventilation.

I cannot get over that someone has told you it would be more expensive to convert than rebuild. We've been doing it all day long for years now and I know how much extensions cost and I know how much renovations cost. A very comprehensive renovation will cost about two thirds of the price of an extension, per metre. All I can think is that your builder doesn't like renovating!

I can see perhaps why someone might suggest that it's more cost effective to build on an extension, that you'd get lots more space if you ignore the outhouse and build on instead, but you won't be allowed to do that, so it's simply added expense on a conversion that you won't avoid.

I'd love to look at it.

moonpenny

My builder didn't say it was more expensive to convert.

I know it costs quite a bit more for an extension. for a start, the area is more than double the space (without the inclusion of the outhouse)

It was simply the space being converted (outhouse) was going to be costly for the actual space I would gain from it and although an extension would be more expensive, it would be more cost efective.
The extension would add value but the conversion wouldn't.

My builder is not advising that I go over the outhouse with the extension - that was my idea. Wasn't even an idea, more of a "What if" on my part.