Extending to side of house

[NauseousNancy]

We are in the process of buying a house and planning a side extension. Looking for experiences from others who have done this as have a few questions!!

We are looking to do a two story extension, adding rooms rather than making rooms bigger. Possibly a stupid question, but there are windows on the side of the house...what happens to them if you extend out the side?

We would ideally be looking to add two rooms downstairs and one up...has anyone done anything like this? What worked for you? What didn’t?

Thanks!

I know it’s not a very exciting topic!!!

Anyone this morning?

I haven't done this, but interested to see any responses. It's the only way we could extend our current house (drains at rear & a brand new patio) and I've always wondered what people do, what they would do different etc.

Our biggest thing is the the stairs are on the other side to which we would extend so would need to create corridors through existing rooms to get to the extension and always wondered the best way to do it.

Fingers crossed someone comes along with some ideas soon.

You'd put up a wall, but would you loose all natural light from that room?

If you look up your local planning authority you can see all historical planning applications including the floor plans. If you find a house of a similar style to yours you could look at what they've done, including the windows.

We are just completing a two storey side extension. Downstairs we knocked through 6 of the 8 metres on the side so the space was completely open plan.

Upstairs we put a door to our new bedroom where the existing side window was. We lost space off the existing bedroom at the side to create a walk through. This bedroom also had a window to the rear so still has light.

I bought a house with a double extension, they just added to the side next to the stairs, which were on an outside wall. I'll add a picture now. The windows just went at the front and back. So the orange bit is the extension.

We luckily have two cupboards on the side we want to extend so can create doorways in easily enough, it’s on the side where the stairs are.

We don’t want to just extend the rooms that are there, I would like to add a utility room to our kitchen and another family room. There’s two windows in the kitchen we would lose...I’m just not sure what happens to them...do they get blocked up? Is it possible?

Yes it is a really easy job to block up windows.

That’s really useful to know, thank you!

Super cheeky question....don’t answer if you don’t want to...how much did you pay for yours and what size was it?

I've just done exactly this. Family room/ diner and utility downstairs, with attached garage, and new bedroom and en-suite upstairs. During the build we decided to keep one of the windows as an interior window , to keep the light. I can now see into the utility from the kitchen. It's really nice actually. They replaced the old window with a new one.

@NauseousNancy

That’s really useful to know, thank you!

Super cheeky question....don’t answer if you don’t want to...how much did you pay for yours and what size was it?

No problem. I have posted before on the extension 2020 thread. It is 56m2 (28m2 up and down). Basic build cost was £120k with flooring, decoration and kitchen on top. Fairly high spec, aluminium windows and lots of glass. Needed lots of steels for vaulted roof which added to cost.

It’s a bedroom and en suite we will be doing upstairs too.

That’s a really good idea about keeping one of the windows into the utility room, thank you! Did you block the others up - did it cause a lot of hassle in the rooms that were already there?

Thank you! What part of the country are you in? Seems a bit more than I had thought!

You might find this thread of interest
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/property/3980672-extension-2020-part-2-pandemics-plaster-plumbing

We are in the SE. Generally £2k per m2 is quoted.

We were lucky because most of the work took place outside- 10 weeks to build, then they knocked through, came in and did the interior work over about 6 weeks. It was hassle but not massive disruption, but unavoidable if you want the extension done. Windows are a quick and easy job.

We extended four years ago (side extension that doubled size of house) and are in Kent so for what it’s worth here are my tips:

1. Go with a small building firm, ie a builder who uses other tradesmen too such as electricians and plumbers. Our two quotes from those types (£120k plus vat) were far cheaper than the two others (£250k plus vat one from a large, posh renovation firm, the other from a guy who I think was just chancing his luck).
2. Don’t have chipboard floors - have wooden floorboards. In our, albeit limited, experience builders’ quotes will include chipboard as it’s cheaper and, let’s face it, under carpet you’re not going to notice it, right? Wrong! Ours squeaks in quite a few places when you walk on it and is bloody annoying. It is on our to-do list to pull up the carpets on the first and second floors (our extension also extended the room in the loft area, so three floors altogether) and replace the chipboard with floorboards. It is by far the part of the build that most aggravates me, but a fairly easy fix so I guess we didn’t do too badly.

Good luck OP.