Extend to make bedrooms bigger-would this add value?

Kate489130

Hi, just looking for some thoughts. Currently in 4 bed detached house in Scotland. 2 good size bedrooms, 2 smaller bedrooms. Youngest child could do with more space (currently in one of the smaller rooms). Garden isn’t huge so I’m reluctant to extend. Have looked into loft conversion but it would be massively disruptive and costly due to trussed roof. We can extend over garage to the side of our house which would be less costly and disruptive - it wouldn't increase the number of bedrooms but would increase the size of both the small rooms (they would double floor area). We’ve been told it would cost roughly £40k. Would just making the rooms larger add value to the house? 

We’ve looked into moving but to get something similar size would involve going for a 5 bedroom (even though we don’t really need an extra bedroom) and add an extra £35-75k to mortgage and around £15k in stamp duty.

Sistergold

Firstly it’s a home and so enlarging the bedrooms would be priceless if the other two bedrooms are small enough to make you consider the expense and hustle of moving. Even if the value did not increase after increase in size selling will be quicker I should expect. 

Mojisola

Kate489130 said:

Currently in 4 bed detached house in Scotland. 2 good size bedrooms, 2 smaller bedrooms. 

We can extend over garage to the side of our house which would be less costly and disruptive - it wouldn't increase the number of bedrooms but would increase the size of both the small rooms (they would double floor area).

We’ve been told it would cost roughly £40k. Would just making the rooms larger add value to the house?

I would say that a 4-double beds house will definitely make more than a 2-double and 2-small beds property.
Whether it increases the price by £40k would be debatable but factor in the years of improved living for your family and it will probably be worth the spend.

Kate489130

Thanks for the replies. It’s a bit of a head/heart thing. My heart says that it would be a great way to future proof our current house and our son would be very happy about it. I suppose when it’s that amount of money, I feel like my head needs to agree that financially it will be worthwhile! We probably would need to take out £20k from the equity in the house and add to the mortgage as we’ve made some big overpayments over the years.

Trynsave2

Kate489130 said:

Hi, just looking for some thoughts. Currently in 4 bed detached house in Scotland. 2 good size bedrooms, 2 smaller bedrooms. Youngest child could do with more space (currently in one of the smaller rooms). Garden isn’t huge so I’m reluctant to extend. Have looked into loft conversion but it would be massively disruptive and costly due to trussed roof. We can extend over garage to the side of our house which would be less costly and disruptive - it wouldn't increase the number of bedrooms but would increase the size of both the small rooms (they would double floor area). We’ve been told it would cost roughly £40k. Would just making the rooms larger add value to the house? 

We’ve looked into moving but to get something similar size would involve going for a 5 bedroom (even though we don’t really need an extra bedroom) and add an extra £35-75k to mortgage and around £15k in stamp duty.

Agree with others. It's your family home, and investing in happiness and wellbeing is never a 'waste' of money in my opinion. Great if the house repays you financially when the time comes, but in a similar way to making memories on a holiday which invariably costs money, the spending is not really the important bit.

If your home is the right one, albeit with adjustments, for right now and you can afford to buy the space, I say go for it. If the house doesn't work in commuting time to work, school catchment etc, call it a day and move on.

Doozergirl

The thing with making rooms bigger with extensions, is that you are likely to still
end up with significant structure of the external walls left in the rooms - piers at the corners of the house being the main issue. 

You end up with two sections of room.   That's okay if you have enough space to put the bed in one and wardrobe in another, but it may not feel like a very cohesive room and that will affect value.  

Have a look at Telebeam for your loft.  If you have the room up there already and it's just the trusses in the way, it's an ingenious solution.  

dimbo61

Could you add another bathroom above the garage !
Either a separate shower room or even a Jack and Jill shower room !
You talk about the youngest child so more than one child in your household.
If they had there own shower room Mum and Dad can reclaim the main bathroom with a bath ?
The cost of extending over the garage depends on the foundations and walls of the existing garage.

sheramber

Would it be possible to knock the two small rooms into one and extend over the garage with one bedroom. if you only have one bathroom could you include an ensuite in one of the rooms?  

Does the cost you have been given include underpinning the garage as the foundations would not be done to support  building on top.

Kate489130

We’re not really needing an extra bathroom-en-suite and family bathroom already on 1st floor. We’d need to double check foundations I know but word from others with similar house type is that they are fine to build up from. 

Thanks @Doozergirl that’s a good point about ending up with two sections of room-I’d definitely need to ask about that as it would need to ‘flow’ and not look too weird! I had a look at telebeams. Look interesting but costly! Do you have any experience with them? 

Doozergirl

Kate489130 said:

We’re not really needing an extra bathroom-en-suite and family bathroom already on 1st floor. We’d need to double check foundations I know but word from others with similar house type is that they are fine to build up from. 

Thanks @Doozergirl that’s a good point about ending up with two sections of room-I’d definitely need to ask about that as it would need to ‘flow’ and not look too weird! I had a look at telebeams. Look interesting but costly! Do you have any experience with them? 

Yes, they're brilliant.  Expensive but, very simple to install and they make other things a bit easier.  

Kate489130

That might be a bit of a game changer @Doozergirl as I suppose our ideal would be to go up into the loft and make 2 new rooms, rather than extend the rooms we have. It was the disruption to the whole house and the length of time for the work to be done that really put us off doing that but I think I’ll get in touch with telebeam and explore that option before giving up on that plan! Thank you :-)