Home improvement/extension - which option would you go for?

SadieO

We've recently bought a 1930s semi and are exploring options to add more space. To cut a long story short, we are deciding between a side-return extension and a loft conversion. 

The slightly longer story! The house lends itself well to both options - nice tall roof with tons of loft space, plus a wide drive down the unattached side of the house. Most houses in the street have done one or both options. Our house was much cheaper than others we looked at with these things already done, so we decided to buy it and add some of the options ourselves over time, rather than buying a more expensive house where they were already done, and done to someone else's taste. So now we're starting to think about which to go for. Very prelimary research suggests they might both cost around £50k so for the sake of the thought experiment let's assume there is no cost difference. 

Side return would give me the dream kitchen I've always wanted. Could also add a useful downstairs loo and some sort of cloakroom/mudroom that would be great for coat and shoe storage. I suppose the cons are that kitchen is okay as it is (but lacks worksurface space and is no-one's dream!) and we've never had a downstairs loo so don't currently miss it (but it would be nice to have, and I think is becoming expected these days, as is a decent sized kitchen/kitchen-diner). 

A loft conversion would give us a useable extra bedroom. At the moment we have a decent sized master and spare, plus a tiny boxroom that doesn't fit a bed in it. So really we can only have one person/couple staying at once without putting someone on the couch. We don't have guests that often but would like the opportunity for that to change if we had decent space to put people up. (Our families are all 100 miles away). Plus depending on how we set up the conversion we could potentially have it as an amazing master bedroom with an en-suite (which I would like, and this is the only way we could have one really) or something fun like a cinema room.

Either option would be utilising what is currently pretty wasted space. It's just me and OH, if that matters, no kids. I don't care too much about what this would do to the future price/saleability of the house but I suppose it is worth thinking about, if one would be significantly better than the other in that regard. 

Which would you choose?

ThisIsWeird

As always, some photos and plans can really help. Perhaps just taken from the sales partics, with location details removed?

SadieO

This is the floor plan. The drive is about 3m wide and goes down the right hand side. If we did the side extension we'd use the front bit (alongside the hall/stairs) as a cloakroom and the back bit to more or less double the width of the kitchen. The remaining portion of the drive, alongside the front garden, would still give us enough room to park our car. 

FreeBear

With a loft conversion, a protected escape route will be required in the event of a fire - This will invariably mean that most of your internal doors will have to be replaced with fire doors. If you have original 1930s doors, this could be a shame...

I have my doubts that you would get a side return of any decent size for £50K, so you might want to rethink your budget there. Done right, an extension could provide much more valuable space. But don't block off side access to the rear garden.

SadieO

FreeBear said:

With a loft conversion, a protected escape route will be required in the event of a fire - This will invariably mean that most of your internal doors will have to be replaced with fire doors. If you have original 1930s doors, this could be a shame...

I have my doubts that you would get a side return of any decent size for £50K, so you might want to rethink your budget there. Done right, an extension could provide much more valuable space. But don't block off side access to the rear garden.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts! For the price, I was just going off a very rough estimate of £3k per metre which I found through internet searching which of course might be useless. I agree it's nice to keep a little path through to the back garden so I was thinking of approx 2m wide and 8m deep (mirroring the depth of the lounge/dining room and leaving the utility room sticking out the back!)

I don't think our doors are anything special to be honest, I'm not sure if they're original or how to tell. 

FreeBear

SadieO said: I don't think our doors are anything special to be honest, I'm not sure if they're original or how to tell. 

Post a photo - We will soon let you know if they look right.

MikeJXE

I would definitely go for side extension, for me it's a no brainier. 

Firstly you have a large gable uninsulated that will be with new an add on.

Down stairs loo priceless as is the kitchen extension and utility

My granddaughter bought a brand new semi last year,  she says she wishes it wasn't 3 story freezing in the wider and like an oven in the summer

SadieO

FreeBear said:

SadieO said: I don't think our doors are anything special to be honest, I'm not sure if they're original or how to tell. 

Post a photo - We will soon let you know if they look right.

What do you reckon? 

casper_gutman

I would go for the side extension. NB, I wouldn't call your proposal a side return extension, as I would understand that as being an extension into the side return, i.e., the reentrant space in the angle between the utility and dining rooms, whereas you seem to be thinking of building onto the driveway to the side.

We had a side extension on our 1930s semi recently. We had considered extending to the boundary, but ended up leaving a passage wide enough for a wheelbarrow/wheelie bin, and haven't regretted that. It was surprising how much of a difference adding ~2m internal space made, providing a compact but usable downstairs loo/shower, utility room and allowing the existing kitchen and dining room to be opened up into a lovely space.

Like others, I suspect the side extension, once fitted out, would end up costing more than the £50k. Ours ended up just the wrong side of £100k by the time the kitchen, utility and shower room were fitted out, but there were a couple of complicating factors that may not apply in your case - e.g., the original foundations needed some beefing up where the load from a new beam would be supported, the existing kitchen needed a new floor slab and we had a large landing window on the side of the house moved upwards (well, replaced with a new one higher up) to allow the new extension roof to join the house.

The loft conversion might well be cheaper, but in my opinion you wouldn't get as much out of it. When you have visitors, you are very likely to want to eat and drink with them in the kitchen and much less likely to take them upstairs to show off a cinema room!

If one of your "nice-to-haves" is an additional sleeping space for occasional overnight guests, then seriously consider tweaking the downstairs layout so the front room can be closed off and put a really good sofa bed in there. We have one from Willow and Hall and we happily slept on it for a week when our bedroom was being redecorated.

FreeBear

SadieO said:

FreeBear said:

SadieO said: I don't think our doors are anything special to be honest, I'm not sure if they're original or how to tell. 

Post a photo - We will soon let you know if they look right.

What do you reckon?

Looks to be an appropriate style of door for a 1930s property. However, the door handles don't look the part - I would have expected a round bakalite or brass knob on the mid-rail with a rim latch on the inside.

SadieO

Thanks so much for sharing your experience @casper_gutman (and sorry if i used the wrong term!) I'm definitely leaning towards the side extension now rather than loft conversion and will look at getting some proper quotes. 

Cheers all!