Extension and renovation advice

adonis10

We are rather inexperienced in this world so I’ll keep my post short and invite questions from anyone with more knowledge and experience.

 

We have a 3 bed 1930’s semi and are looking to extend out the side and back and knock through kitchen and dining room.

 

Side extension would go out 1m and is circa 11m² in total. Back extension is circa 14m² and would require the removal of the current conservatory in order to build a brick structure  which would have full glass doors opening out onto the patio and garden.

 

We believe this job will require a number of steels as the internal wall is likely to be supporting and one of the other walls to go is the external side wall.

 

Rough drawings attached.

 

Is it possible? Considerations? Estimated cost? Any other things to think about?

Doozergirl

That will not stand up, unless you're loaded and fancy underpinning parts of the house
and putting in absolutely massive steels for the sake of gaining that metre at the side.  

Rule of thumb is that you can remove about 2/3 of a wall using steels resting on the remaining elements of wall and that you meed a metre of wall left in around the original corners of the house if upstairs remains.  The internal wall is also structural.  You might get away with a T junction of steels, but more likely it needs either some  wall left in or a more expensive steel post put in to new foundations.  

I'd suggest you omit that metre from your plans.  If you look hard enough at rightmove, you'll find many houses that have been extended successfully because these houses are so common.   We often convert the old kitchen into a loo off the hallway, and a utility accessed from the extension.  

What do you think your budget is? 

adonis10

Doozergirl said:

That will not stand up, unless you're loaded and fancy underpinning parts of the house
and putting in absolutely massive steels for the sake of gaining that metre at the side.  

Rule of thumb is that you can remove about 2/3 of a wall using steels resting on the remaining elements of wall and that you meed a metre of wall left in around the original corners of the house if upstairs remains.  The internal wall is also structural.  You might get away with a T junction of steels, but more likely it needs either some  wall left in or a more expensive steel post put in to new foundations.  

I'd suggest you omit that metre from your plans.  If you look hard enough at rightmove, you'll find many houses that have been extended successfully because these houses are so common.   We often convert the old kitchen into a loo off the hallway, and a utility accessed from the extension.  

What do you think your budget is? 

Thanks. You’ve confirmed what a couple of builders have since said. We have completely shelved the idea of a full side 1m extension abs it looks like it all will go due to the steels required. How much underpinning do you think is required?

Budget was £60k but having chatted to builders we now know that this won’t touch the sides.

No idea what to do now. 

Look at rightmove for what? Look every day and anything decent, which is bigger, in the area we live is £100k more.

Doozergirl

If you take the rear extension out further, you will gain the same practical space for a lot less money.   A 6x4 extension would cost less than what you've drawn, disregarding the major feats of engineering required for that.  

You can gain space without underpinning anything.  It's what most people
do. A lot of people think their dreams are big open plan spaces.  They don't need to be.   There are equally lovely examples of broken-plan spaces. 

If an additional £100k buys you a house of similar square footage to your plan, then you know not to spend more than that.  £60k isn't outside the realms of possibility if you design within the constraints of modest engineering and perhaps take on a bit of the internal work yourselves.  

adonis10

Doozergirl said:

If you take the rear extension out further, you will gain the same practical space for a lot less money.   A 6x4 extension would cost less than what you've drawn, disregarding the major feats of engineering required for that.  

You can gain space without underpinning anything.  It's what most people
do. A lot of people think their dreams are big open plan spaces.  They don't need to be.   There are equally lovely examples of broken-plan spaces. 

If an additional £100k buys you a house of similar square footage to your plan, then you know not to spend more than that.  £60k isn't outside the realms of possibility if you design within the constraints of modest engineering and perhaps take on a bit of the internal work yourselves.  

We can’t go out any more into the rear as we have this year renovated our patio area.

We certainly wouldn’t spend £100k as we don’t have it. £60k includes everything, kitchen etc. So we’ve got no chance. We came up with the budget as we read a lot which suggested that extending costs in the region of £1.5-2k per sqm and the original plan was max 25sqm. Even going down to the rear extension of 12sqm we were quoted £48k (included knocking through kitchen to dining and adding a utility) which frankly knocked us off our seat.


Off the shelf kitchen it is and as you were, I think.