Where to start with extensions?

SadieO

We're in the process of buying a house and we already know we'd like to extend it in one way or another as it's a bit smaller than we wanted, but has lots of potential. We are thinking we might as well crack on with it as soon as possible, at least with some prelimary enquiries since it seems like there could be quite a wait for builders etc. We're FTB and don't really have any idea where to start though. We've got a few ideas and looking up and down the street they all seem potentially do-able. Most of the neighbours have extended into the side return (it's about 3 metres wide) either with a garage or a house extension, some of 2 storeys. There's dormer windows and skylights in some rooves suggesting some folks have had loft conversions done. Thirdly the back garden is pretty big (a bit more than we want/need to be honest) so we'd be happy to sacrifice some of that for a rear extension. So there's a few possibilities. 

What I'd really like is if we could get someone (builder? chartered surveyor? architect? draftsman?) to have a look at the house and give us some cursory thoughts along the lines of "option A would be straightforward and probably cost in the range of... and take X months to do", "option B would be more complicated due to electrics. plumbing etc " "there isn't enough room for option C." etc. We'd then have an idea of which to go with and start getting proper plans drawn up etc. I've been doing some reading around planning permission, permitted development etc but I'd love someone who knows what they are talking about to give us a steer on what would be the best option in terms of feasability and getting the most out of the space and our budget. Does such a service/person exist? 

MikeJXE

Go and have a word with your local council building control, they know all the good and bad builders and architects, 

maurice28

We're just coming to the end of a rear, single storey extension project. We were fortunate that my wife's uncle is a trained architect so our first step was speaking to him and him producing a few different plans for us to choose from. Appreciate you probably don't have someone to do this for free like we did but an architect should be able to start to help you picture what's possible.

Once we had plans finalised, my wife's uncle then submitted these to the council building control department for us (again, we were lucky!) and these were amended slightly and then approved through permitted development. 

When we had those approved plans, I emailed them over to a number of builders (recommended by friends but mainly through the local Facebook group!) to ask if they could give a very rough estimate on cost ahead of coming for a site visit. 

Of the 10 or so I emailed, only about 6 said they would come visit, only a few of those actually did and then only a couple ended up giving full quotes, so be prepared to do some chasing and being stood up!

Obviously geography and so many other factors feed in but if it helps, in the north west of England for a single storey, flat roof extension measuring about 4.8m x 3.6m has cost around £39,500. 

Hope that helps a little, let me know of any questions about the process etc and I'll try and help based on our experience!

SadieO

Thanks so much @maurice28 that's super helpful! I'm finding the price guidance online to be so generic as to be useless, I've seen from £1.5k to £5k per square metre suggested which is quite a range! We're in Yorkshire so probably fairly comparable to you price-wise, we're not London prices at least! 

Section62

SadieO said:

We're in the process of buying a house and we already know we'd like to extend it in one way or another as it's a bit smaller than we wanted, but has lots of potential. We are thinking we might as well crack on with it as soon as possible, at least with some prelimary enquiries since it seems like there could be quite a wait for builders etc. We're FTB and don't really have any idea where to start though. We've got a few ideas and looking up and down the street they all seem potentially do-able. Most of the neighbours have extended into the side return (it's about 3 metres wide) either with a garage or a house extension, some of 2 storeys. There's dormer windows and skylights in some rooves suggesting some folks have had loft conversions done. Thirdly the back garden is pretty big (a bit more than we want/need to be honest) so we'd be happy to sacrifice some of that for a rear extension. So there's a few possibilities. 

As you are still in the buying process the first thing to do is to be confident you'll be able to get planning consent for whatever idea you settle on.

The fact neighbours have made changes doesn't mean you'll automatically get planing consent to do the same.  The rules change over time, and some people don't necessarily get consent for what they build.

If planning is likely to be an obstacle then you need to know soon enough so you can back out of the purchase.

The next step would be to speak to a few architects to get an idea what they could do for you.  Don't plump for one without being sure they understand what you want.

diystarter7

MikeJXE said:

Go and have a word with your local council building control, they know all the good and bad builders and architects, 

All day long, thanks.
Often coucil have a 'recommended builders' list of but won't be held responsible if things go wrong but do remove I guess from their list that they feel are not right.

Never take anything for granted and couslt a coucil planner even before you buy to get a good idea of what is what. Thanks

maurice28

SadieO said:

Thanks so much @maurice28 that's super helpful! I'm finding the price guidance online to be so generic as to be useless, I've seen from £1.5k to £5k per square metre suggested which is quite a range! We're in Yorkshire so probably fairly comparable to you price-wise, we're not London prices at least! 

Yes, the price estimates are so wide ranging as to not be very useful really. We've been incredibly lucky to only come in £170 over budget for ours - whatever quote you get, assume that things will come up that you didn't expect or that become unearthed after work starts.

Timings are something else which are hard to predict - we waited about 4 months for our chosen builder to be able to start work. Initial estimate was for the whole thing to take about 3 months - it has ended up taking 6, largely because of errors made by Electricity North West when moving our electricity meter! 

grumbler

SadieO said:

We're FTB

IMHO, it's worth building an extension only if you plan to live there for a very long time. Otherwise, you probably won't be able to recover the cost when selling it. If you have money, buy something bigger. If you don't have it, a cheap poorly done extension can put future buyers off. E.g. flat roof, drains buried under the extension, single storey where it can be two (= wasted potential), etc.

casper_gutman

I'd agree with Grumbler. Don't plan an extension because you think it'll make money. I really don't think this is possible at the moment with property price uncertainty, inflation in material costs and labour shortages.

I suppose there could be circumstances in which it makes sense - e.g. if you can do a good chunk of the work yourself or have family and friends who can do it at a heavily discounted price. Another situation where this could possibly make sense would be if it means you can afford a "forever home" (or at least one which will meet your needs for many years) where otherwise you'd be looking at a "starter home" with a lot of limitations.

SadieO

Thanks all. @grumbler I'm nearly 45 (positively ancient to be a FTB!) and this is planned to be, if not a forever home, then at least the next 10 years or so. It's not a "starter home" that we'll be wanting to move on from in a couple of years.

We could have bought a house with the things we're looking for already done but we fell in love with this one for the location and other reasons. It's priced accordingly - similar houses with the loft conversions etc already done were significantly more expensive, so we thought we'd go for the cheaper house and just gradually add those things ourselves. Just working out how and where to start! 

Chickereeeee

I would suggest you don't do anything  - for at least a year.

Live in the house (assuming it IS liveable) get to know what works, what doesn't, how the light falls at different times of the day, how the house 'flows'. Also, what doesn't work, what's irritating, what would be nice to have. THEN start to think about what would ADD to house - what would reduce the negatives and enhance/make use of the positives. 

An extension should not be about 'just adding space'.