We are planning a rear single storey extension to our house, to accommodate a new kitchen, with some reconfiguring of the existing downstairs to incorporate a loo and utility. Sounds simple, no? Except our architect, who seemed great at the start, is now becoming rather difficult.
Basically, it's a 30s semi with hip roof. We are keen that whatever we do be vaguely complementary in relation to the original structure. We do not want to simply whack a box on the back - not dissing that style of extension, it's just not what we want.
The one thing we have been adamant about is that we didn't want a flat roof. Architect has now sent through various roof options to look at and most are either fully flat or partially flat roofs. Architect says we can't have a standard simple pitched roof because the extension is too big (c 4 X 5.5 metres). But our neighbours have a similarly sized extension which has a pitched roof...
I am at the stage where I am finding it very difficult to work out whether something is not an option, eg for technical/building regs reasons, or whether it is simply that the architect prefers a different kind of design. This is not the first issue we've had in terms of planning the extension and the architect has been rather evasive, to my mind, as to whether something is feasible.
Has anyone here built a simple single storey with a pitched roof (any design) of similar dimension? Does anyone have a partial flat roof which they are happy with? Are there technical reasons for needing a flat roof on some extensions?, eg gradient of pitch?