Buying with potential to extend

DD265

Apologies for the very generic questions We're hoping to buy a house that we can potentially extend in the future and quite a few that I've looked at are already extended downstairs, but the bedroom/bathroom space upstairs is still limited!

I've been perusing houses in the area/budget we're looking at and a lot of them already have single storey extensions. Is that typically because it's so much more costly to go out and up at the same time? I appreciate sometimes there are probably planning related limitations too.

Apart from size, I assume the foundations etc for a single storey extension are the same as if it were a double so in theory (with relevant permissions obtained) you could retrospectively go up if you wanted to?

So few seem to have loft or basement/cellar conversions - in fact most don't even mention the loft or basement space at all. The first house I remember living in had a loft conversion (office), and the second had a large basement used as a utility. I suspect a lot of the properties I'm looking at don't have basements but are loft conversions not really a 'thing'?

Does it almost make more sense to buy something that hasn't been touched at all to do the extension/conversion from scratch yourself?

rachael88

I'm not an expert but have looked into this myself as the house I'm selling is too small but is in a great location. To do a double storey extension you would need the foundations for a double storey extension (different to a single storey extension). A loft conversion is good if there's enough space in the loft and you have to consider head space and a staircase if it's going to be used regularly. Basements are also great but very costly to convert if you don't have the head room (which it seems most don't).
I've had an offer accepted on a house with a loft which has partially been converted, it has a window on the gable end, a proper floor, plastered walls and a pull down set of wooden steps. I'm looking to sacrifice the 'box room' to put a staircase in and get it up to building regulations so it is classed as a bedroom and it's going to cost around £10k with family doing a lot of the work.

Cakeguts

I think you may want to think about the shape of the rooms upstairs?


If you do a single storey extension on the back of the house you increase the size of the kitchen and sometimes the living room.



If you then do an extension upstairs you increase the size of the bedrooms but you don't add any and depending on the house you could finish up with long thin rooms like corridors. It isn't everyone who wants a house with long thin bedrooms when they could buy a house with more bedrooms.

DD265

rachael88 wrote: »

To do a double storey extension you would need the foundations for a double storey extension (different to a single storey extension). A loft conversion is good if there's enough space in the loft and you have to consider head space and a staircase if it's going to be used regularly. Basements are also great but very costly to convert if you don't have the head room (which it seems most don't).

Good to know, thank you! Head room hadn't occurred to me.

Cakeguts wrote: »

I think you may want to think about the shape of the rooms upstairs?

If you do a single storey extension on the back of the house you increase the size of the kitchen and sometimes the living room.

If you then do an extension upstairs you increase the size of the bedrooms but you don't add any and depending on the house you could finish up with long thin rooms like corridors. It isn't everyone who wants a house with long thin bedrooms when they could buy a house with more bedrooms.

Good points. A lot of the 'issues' I'm seeing with bedrooms seems to be around placement of doors and an extension probably wouldn't help that. If you were extending an already reasonable sized bedroom (to make it longer and thinner) to add an en suite that could work, but I guess often kitchens are at the back of the house and the master bedroom (where I imagine most would want the en suite) probably at the front.

Doozergirl

The required foundation depths are the same for single and double storey extensions, but depending on the age of the building, an existing single storey could be built on anything between nothing and the required depth.

Previous building control records could be handy, otherwise you have to dig a trial pit to see how deep the present ones are.

It's really hard to give generic advice on potential extensions.

Dohble storey might not be there because of planning restrictions, budgetary constrictions, lack of light to downstairs rooms or just the current trend of building an extra open plan family kitchen room. Two storey extensions do cost less than the same floor area in a single storey. Huge cost is in getting out of the ground.

Loft conversions will always depend on available head height - we don't all have it.

Basements are rarely worth it outside London. The quality of light isn't as good, they are expensive to build, can be unreliable and aren't particularly desirable outside of places where space comes at a real premium.

It would definitely be easier to answer questions on a specific house.

Bass_9

Rather than splitting a garage extension into 2 more bedrooms (to make 5 in total), or just having a long bedroom over the garage, sometimes it pays to explore knocking the 3rd bedroom into a longer bedroom over the garage with another at the back, so you get 2 decent sized rooms and 4 in total. The front would be a bit of an L shape with 2 windows to let in lots of light. Sound weird but can work well.