Adding upstairs to a bungalow

[philthefluter]

Hoping for some ballpark figures on this one....We have just gone sale agreed on a 70s bungalow, bit on the small size. We have some cash for renovations and are thinking adding a Storey to give us a dormer bungalow would give us the extra space we need. The pitch on the current roof is too shallow so a new roof would be needed. The house is currently 1300 sq ft and we'd only add a floor on top of part of the current structure to add a further c. 700 sq ft dormer with a 2 bedrooms inc a master bedroom with ensuite.

I'm aware of he issues regarding ensuring foundation can support additional floor and roof, (and that it would be cheaper to do a single Storey extension) I'm hoping if anyone has done something similar that you can give me ballpark estimates of prices involved. Thanks in advance!

Why did you buy a bungalow?

Not being sarcastic, it's a genuine question.

I just don't understand a bungalow when you want a house.

In my area (NW London) bungalows are more expensive and rarer.

A few people have done this near where I live, and the results can be a bit weird, depending on the shape of the house. Does the house as it stands at the moment look like a ‘downstairs’, IYSWIM?

No idea about the structural aspect but it seems to take a long time if you’re living in it while the work is being done (our neighbours did this).

I should say, our neighbours put on an entire storey plus roof, rather than the partial change you’re talking about.

I understand buying a bungalow for relative plot size, but as a prospective future buyer of your doer upper I would much rather you did the single storey extension. We need downstairs master bedroom with en suite and almost every conversion we look at suffers from "honey we ruined the house" because people have cut into the downstairs space to put in the stairwell and moved the master bedroom upstairs.

I also don't have much faith in roof alterations being waterproof etc. (but I am overly cynical).

In SW London, 120k shell only, 66sq meter, adding upstairs.

Have a look at companies such as www.moduloft.co.uk - they build the whole thing including bathrooms, tiled, decorated and floored in their factory and then just crane it on - takes 2 days - watch the videos fascinating. I went to their factory and walked around some else’s upstairs being built. Quote was v reasonable compared to contractor working on site. I do think through that you need to consider the whole house plan and flow as well as eaves living etc. We decided on sticking with single storey in the end as the house would be too big.

What is nice is to open parts of the existing roof space and add maybe add velux to the rooms below - eg kitchen, lounge, hallway - so you get a stunning vaulted ceiling and lots of light.

Hi we did exactly what you are talking about. We created 3 bedrooms plus ensuite upstairs and have kept a large bedroom and family bathroom downstairs so single storey living is still possible if needed in the future.

The only reason it was financially viable was that the bungalow we bought had a very odd layout with a poor garage conversion and bedrooms accessed through other rooms. Had it been well layed out with good workmanship then it would have cost far too much to buy as others have pointed out bungalows are expensive.

Cost was about £150k (not London) inc new roof, kitchen and converting garage room back to garage. Also full rewire and altering downstairs layout.

We originally approached our architect with a 80k budget

You probably want to check with your local planning department that there would be no issues with increasing the height of the building.

Thanks @mum2015 we're in a cheaper area so that's a useful figure to have. I have thought about using skylights in parts to give a sense of space also and we may consider that also. The ready-made approach sounds interesting also!

Sorry @another20 , that last comment was in response to your comments. Thanks for those.

We haven't yet built it. Just at quote stage. We like bungalow living, and if we had bigger garden would have preferred to extend downstairs itself.

Have similar properties nearby done the same?

We have, downstairs was about 100m2 including garage, we added two large bedrooms and bathroom upstairs, put the staircase where the second downstairs bedroom used to be. 11m long dormer at the back and most of the roof needed replacing, cost about 100k, Surrey.
Most of the bungalows in our street have done this so we already knew how it would look.

@mydogisshot, we bought for the location, size of plots, privacy etc. Were relocating to a small town and there's a total dearth of good properties houses or otherwise. Were coming from a house that's much bigger. I'm not adverse to doing a single Storey extension and funds might only permit that, but going up would give us a bedroom(s) with a great view. Also, the site is quite sloped so a single storey extension could involve significant ground works / split level anyway.
@LIZS The nearby houses are various styles but yes there are some dormer bungalows so I don't think gong up would be an issue with planners
@ploeb and @wouldanyonelikeanytoast your projects sounds similiar. We would likely put the stairs where a bedroom currently is, converting a further bedroom into a study /playroom with two new bedrooms upstairs. If we could get the shell up we would be happy to finish it at our own pace; husband is a civil engineer and also quite handy.

We did it last year and the cost of the dormer loft (we had a new roof done as well) with two bedrooms, shower room and eaves storage was about £45000 plus VAT. This was in Surrey.

No sorry just looked back and it was £50,900 plus VAT. I think the cost of scaffolding was on top at about £2500. New also had a new boiler and all the plumbing was included in that extra cost at a couple of thousand.

@another20 have you had work done by moduloft? What kind of price are we talking?

Oh I like those numbers @Titsywoo. I'm thinking our max budget for renovations is 100k and we also need a kitchen extension to include a utility room and wc /whb. As I say!i would love to get all the structural work done and maybe put in stud walls and finish rooms upstairs when we have funds to. I know how momentum / energy levels and the will to do a big project can flag over time!

No I didn’t go that route in the end - we are 2000 sq ft on the ground level and it was to add a dormer on top of this footprint - 4 bedrooms and 2 baths - £130 was the quote all in.

We also had a kitchen extension (and lounge extension) and that was more expensive. The foundations cost an awful lot so depending on how big that extension is you may or may not be ok with your budget. We did a very big (40m sq) extension for about £50k but that was just the shell and the inside took us another 8 months to finish (weekends and evenings).

Sounds like you substantially changed your house @Titsywoo! A new kitchen /utility is an absolute must for us as well as a master bedroom but we can achieve this in a few ways. Just have to wait and see how much cash we have after agents and solicitors have their cut!

Yes we have changed it a lot. I doubt the old owners would recognise it and we only bought it 5 years ago!