Can I extend my house for this amount? 31 January 2008 at 3:34PM in In My Home (includes DIY) MoneySaving 10 replies 1.2K views

Bean_Counter

Hi,

We are currently looking to move house to something bigger, but for the £30K ish that we would look to add to what we got for our current house, we are not seeing anything significantly bigger than what we have.

That is even before we spend several thousand pounds on marketing costs, solicitors fees, stamp duty etc.

So, we are thinking about extending our current house. We have a bungalow and would want to raise the roof a few feet and do a large loft conversion with velux windows etc to add a few extra rooms. The area in question is approx. 7m by 12m.

I have read on other threads that £1,000 per square metre is a rough rule of thumb for extensions, but this would make the project a non-starter.

Would it be feasible to do the loft extension for the £30K that we are looking to spend on the house move?

We live in central Scotland.

In summary, my question is can a loft extension be done for £30K including raising the roof?

Thanks in advance.

ormus

suppose its possible but unlikely given the size.
cant you build a ground floor extension (double size). you should be able to do that at least, for the money. (bare PB shell with roof).

Bean_Counter

ormus wrote: »

suppose its possible but unlikely given the size.
cant you build a ground floor extension (double size). you should be able to do that at least, for the money. (bare PB shell with roof).

Thanks for the response.

I could move the garage and add a single room, although seems a lot of hassle (and undoubtedly cost) for one room. Not enough space for a significant ground floor expansion.

I guess it is back to the drawing board.

shelovestobuystuff

Raising the roof is too expensive to do within your £30k.Get a free visit from an architect or three,they may see opportunities for extending the property which you have not thought of.

Bean_Counter

shelovestobuystuff wrote: »

Raising the roof is too expensive to do within your £30k.Get a free visit from an architect or three,they may see opportunities for extending the property which you have not thought of.

Good idea. I hadn't thought of that as I did not realise that they would do a 'free' visit.

shelovestobuystuff

I have had architects out in the past when we were thinking of building an extension and they all came out for free.Make sure you check first that the visit is free otherwise you may get a bill for their time.They should though only start charging once you ask them to draw something up for you.

jblack_2

We are in the process of getting a builder to carry out work on our house. It sounds similar to what you are planning.

We also have to have the roof taken off and a new one put on to allow the pitch to be raised. We're getting a 7mtr x 4mtr single storey timber framed extension at the same time.

We are getting very varied quotes but they seem to be £40k ish. This is for all the structural work (roof with dormers & veluxes, foundations, brick and block work) basically we will be doing all the work from insulation onwards (electrics, flooring, plasterboarding, plumbing & heating, stud walls, all carpentry etc).

We're in central Scotland too.

J

Bean_Counter

jblack wrote: »

We are in the process of getting a builder to carry out work on our house. It sounds similar to what you are planning.

We also have to have the roof taken off and a new one put on to allow the pitch to be raised. We're getting a 7mtr x 4mtr single storey timber framed extension at the same time.

We are getting very varied quotes but they seem to be £40k ish. This is for all the structural work (roof with dormers & veluxes, foundations, brick and block work) basically we will be doing all the work from insulation onwards (electrics, flooring, plasterboarding, plumbing & heating, stud walls, all carpentry etc).

We're in central Scotland too.

J

Hi J,

Thanks for the information - very informative.

It seems that our initial plans were way too optimistic as we would not be able to do most the actions you are doing yourself.

It's back to the drawing board for something more modest.

adandem

The previous owners of our house had the pitch roof from the garage and kitchen raised to make 2 further bedrooms and extend the current ones. Our estate agent agent told us at the time that it would probably cost around £40 -£45k to have the same works done now.

poet123

May be a stupid question but can you raise the roof on a semi without affecting next door? The reason I ask is that although ours is a large 30's semi,the pitch of the loft was deemed unsuitable for a conversion,and no one mentioned raising the roof to us.(and we never thought of it)....We had both a builder and a loft conversion company round...should we have persevered or would it be a non starter?

jblack_2

It should be possible. You would need your neighbour's approval as their will be work on the party wall, shared chimney etc. If you're altering the roof you'll also need planning approval. In effect you would be building a new gable end wall between you both.

J