From bungalow to house

yeah it wasn’t the builder tbf it was the bloody house - Victorian terrace previously owned by Jack (as in the house that Jack built or bastard as he was sometimes referred to when we uncovered more of his ‘experimental’ building techniques)

We got a fixed price quote and the builder stuck to it, and did it in the timescale he said. I think we were really lucky with the builder although he was a bit of an odd character!

How long is a piece of string? You’re looking at 4k+ just for building control and planning.

depends on the height of the roof, if you just want to go into that or add another storey. A whole new roof is expensive on its own without the extra storey.

honestly you’d be better off moving if the latter.

If you look on your Council planning portal, you should be able to find the planning documents for the converted bungalows in the road near you. In the application documents there will be plans that you could look at for inspiration, or to show to a builder to give them an idea of what you want. Then a builder could give an estimate.

To get a full building quote of costs you'd need your own plans drawn up. Going to speak to people who have done this locally is a good idea as a previous poster suggested. You'd also need to find out if the Council would allow the roof line on your road to be raised (if there aren't any two storey houses already).

That is not a small bungalow if that’s your current layout- 3 bed plus huge lounge

A lot depends on the roof space, our attic space was too low so we built a two storey extension at the back (knocked through into the original structure, not just tagged on the back) with a slight rise in ridge height to increase the ceiling height upstairs and a flat roof on the extension. I don't think we were allowed to change the front roof of the bungalow or put windows in there. A structural engineer had to design the roof alterations to make sure it was safe. If it's a newish bungalow the foundations should be fine for two storeys, ours is a twenties bungalow so the builder had to do a trial pit to look at the foundations, which the building inspector had to approve. We got drawings done by an architect and then asked a few builders to quote based on the design. This was a few years ago so the costs would not be comparable, but it wasn't cheap!

Like you our location was perfect, but the bungalow was very small, the extension cost less than buying an equivalent house in the area, but they are very seldom for sale anyway.

As per previous poster - it will depend on your foundations

It might be easier/less complicated/potentially cheaper to knock down the bungalow and rebuild a house.

Not sure what you've got against chalet/dormer bungalows - I grew up in the former and it had proper stairs/ windows etc. just had o ly two rooms ( massive loft space).

You sound a bit petulant to be honest.

Are you generally never satisfied?

Sell up and buy a house

My parents had a chalet bungalow on retiring - it had been built that way.
Had an upstairs, but the bedrooms were like the bedrooms of an attic conversion, with sloping ceilings and narrow storage in the eaves.

It's not something anyone can give you an accurate quote on here, not knowing the building, local rates etc - why not just ask a local builder to give you a quote and discuss options?

I would honestly just move that sounds an expensive nightmare

I had a quote in 2008. It was over £100,000.
Cheaper to Move even back then

Aw...poor sweetie

We had two upstairs bedrooms added to our bungalow for me and my sister in about 1962. Cost £999.

I know it isn’t what you want to do, OP, but for an indication of costs we replaced our bungalow roof with a new higher roof including a loft conversion in 2019. It cost £140k + cost of two bathrooms, although we had slate tiles and other features that bumped the price up a bit.

Building a whole second floor would, I expect, be north of that given the rise in cost of materials and added complexity/time.

Why? Do you want more bedrooms, or more living space? It would be much cheaper to juggle the rooms around and adapt the garage into an extension, the footprint of your bungalow is quite generous, and it would just mean improving the wall thickness and putting windows and insulation rather than a massive build. Room sizes are better than in a new build, and most new places just have parkjng space rather than a garage.

Completely off topic but I moved into a bungalow temporarily while my house purchase was dragging on forever and my very elderly cat went bananas looking for the stairs. She kept looking up at the ceiling and miaowing. It was tragic 😂

I looked at doing this to a bungalow and I was quoted £3500 per square metre, plus electrics, plumbing etc. It’s easier to just buy a house as no one can anticipate issues.

I live in a rented bungalow with an amazing loft, I really wish it could be turned into a bedroom

What extra accommodation do you really need?
A really well modern nice bungalow super contemporary can be a really lovely home to live in much cheaper than sticking on another story and doing some chalet bungalow thing and much cooler if the plot is big enough,
they sell really well if done right

You probably won’t make back the money it will cost. Bungalows are desirable and in demand, once you add stairs they lose that appeal to people downsizing. Depends on the roof and if you’ve got a hip to gable or whether you can just go into the loft space. If you need to build out the roof then you’re looking to add loads to the build. If you’re just going to put a skylight up then that’s obviously much less work but also much less space.

We were quoted 55k to add two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs (we didn’t really need and en-suite but thought initially why not) Decided it would never actually add that to the house, would be way too much hassle and instead built out the back, added a garden studio and rejigged the interior. We’ve ended up with more room than we would have had upstairs, just more thought out with the help of a savvy architect for basically 1/3 of the cost.

Basically what space do you actually need and why, and then seek advice on how best to achieve that.

The cost of building materials and labour now it would prob be cheaper and easier to just move

What you need to consider is how you use the space and what bothers you about it now. The beauty of bungalows if that very few walls are load bearing and if they are it’s only the roof so changing the internal layout is relatively easy

Having done a loft conversion in a bungalow before I would say whatever your quote is add 50% because it’s a bloody nightmare

It would all hinge on the foundation. The foundation for a bungalow is very different to that required for a house as it needs to be able to cope with the weight and spread of pressure if the weight on the earth around it. If it’s a reasonably modern bungalow 60’s on wards it won’t have the foundation. Bungalows hold value so much better than houses as they are always in a shortage. Also planning for that would be a nightmare. You could do a loft conversion for much less cost - I’d be tempted to move the hall to bedroom 3 and incorporate a dog leg stair case and convert the loft into 2 rooms or one good room and en-suite with some big dorms windows. But again you need proper advice and someone to come in and look at the joists and the roof structure and what not