Extending an extension - feasible or not?

JuzaMum

After deciding to move, finding a house and getting a buyer for our house, the seller we want to buy from has changed their mind! We've not found anything else suitable so are looking at other options. We have a single story extension and wondered how feasible it would be to add another floor to it. I believe the foundations are suitable (at least a meter deep which is a good 70cm more than the rest of the house!). I have attached a rough picture which I hope makes sense. The hatched area is where we were thinking of adding the extra room. The reason we are not building fully on top is because it would block light to the neighbours window, which I believe would not be acceptable.

Doozergirl

The short answer is that everything is possible if you throw enough money at it.  There are more details that need to be looked but it's not going to be the hardest job in the world. 

If the foundations are good enough then that makes life a lot easier.  You will almost certainly need another steel to hold up the separate first floor wall.  The next question will be what that rests on downstairs.  

Time to get designing and bring in a structural engineer.  

JuzaMum

Doozergirl said:

The short answer is that everything is possible if you throw enough money at it.  There are more details that need to be looked but it's not going to be the hardest job in the world. 

If the foundations are good enough then that makes life a lot easier.  You will almost certainly need another steel to hold up the separate first floor wall.  The next question will be what that rests on downstairs.  

Time to get designing and bring in a structural engineer.  

Thank you. Moving costs aren't cheap so if we don't move, hopefully we can afford to spend on our current house. The new steel would be resting on the current steel (based on where I want the wall to be and my complete lack of knowledge!), so I'm not sure if that is possible. I do still have the original plans and calculations. 

Slinky

Moving costs are high, but building costs seem to be rocketing. Two neighbours have both scaled back their intended extensions/renovations recently, as building quotes came back way higher than they were expecting. I don't know if we'd be able to afford now what we had done 3 years ago.

It might be worth getting a builder to give you an idea of what your plans might cost before you get too far into the process.

Albermarle

Slinky said:

Moving costs are high, but building costs seem to be rocketing. Two neighbours have both scaled back their intended extensions/renovations recently, as building quotes came back way higher than they were expecting. I don't know if we'd be able to afford now what we had done 3 years ago.

It might be worth getting a builder to give you an idea of what your plans might cost before you get too far into the process.

I think most of the ‘rocketing’ happened in 2021/22/23. All kinds of building materials had severe supply chain issues after Covid, and then energy costs shot up due to the invasion of Ukraine.
Brexit deal also caused labour shortages in the building sector.
I thought it had actually calmed down recently , although not reversed at all.

Slinky

Albermarle said:

Slinky said:

Moving costs are high, but building costs seem to be rocketing. Two neighbours have both scaled back their intended extensions/renovations recently, as building quotes came back way higher than they were expecting. I don't know if we'd be able to afford now what we had done 3 years ago.

It might be worth getting a builder to give you an idea of what your plans might cost before you get too far into the process.

I think most of the ‘rocketing’ happened in 2021/22/23. All kinds of building materials had severe supply chain issues after Covid, and then energy costs shot up due to the invasion of Ukraine.
Brexit deal also caused labour shortages in the building sector.
I thought it had actually calmed down recently , although not reversed at all.

A lady down the road wanted to convert the attic in her fairly recently purchased bungalow. It's not the biggest property in the world, but the quote came in at £225K. Admittedly she seems to be having expensive materials, roof has been stripped off completely replacing concrete with slate, and she's got flush aluminium windows going in, but she said she couldn't justify paying for the conversion of the loft.

Section62

JuzaMum said:

...The new steel would be resting on the current steel (based on where I want the wall to be and my complete lack of knowledge!), so I'm not sure if that is possible. I do still have the original plans and calculations. 

Resting on top of, or joined to?

Unless the SE overspecified the original beam you may have to find a solution which avoids adding excess load to it.  This could be more of a problem if the new beam needs to meets the old one end-to-side, as making a connection between them could mean the loadbearing capacity of the old beam has to be reduced to allow for the connection.

Wes121708

Hi, we're doing exactly the same decided to stay and looking at an extension over part of our existing extension again due to not good out further due to neighbours light.
We've had a couple of quotes without checking foundations and looking at around £40k but that's again without looking at the foundations/plans. We're in south west. We're waiting on architects to come in and have a discussion and do some drawings to get a better idea of what we can achieve.
Cost of moving fees and stamp duty might as well stay and put that money in to the house!

Albermarle

Wes121708 said:

Hi, we're doing exactly the same decided to stay and looking at an extension over part of our existing extension again due to not good out further due to neighbours light.
We've had a couple of quotes without checking foundations and looking at around £40k but that's again without looking at the foundations/plans. We're in south west. We're waiting on architects to come in and have a discussion and do some drawings to get a better idea of what we can achieve.
Cost of moving fees and stamp duty might as well stay and put that money in to the house!

I think that must be quite a small extension at that price ?

Wes121708

@Albermarle depends what you call a small extension! It's to go on our floor plan of part of the downstairs extension. 

FreeBear

Albermarle said:

Slinky said:

Moving costs are high, but building costs seem to be rocketing. Two neighbours have both scaled back their intended extensions/renovations recently, as building quotes came back way higher than they were expecting. I don't know if we'd be able to afford now what we had done 3 years ago.

It might be worth getting a builder to give you an idea of what your plans might cost before you get too far into the process.

I think most of the ‘rocketing’ happened in 2021/22/23. All kinds of building materials had severe supply chain issues after Covid, and then energy costs shot up due to the invasion of Ukraine.
Brexit deal also caused labour shortages in the building sector.
I thought it had actually calmed down recently , although not reversed at all.

Trades have got used to charging the higher rates, so they have no reason to cut back. Some materials have come down a little in price (mainly timber). It is possible that the cost of steel will drop a little as major exporters seeks alternative markets in response the the great orange idiot's tariffs. But labour will still be the biggest part of any building project.