Theoretical question - has anyone demolished an extension?!

[RosaWaiting]

this might seem utterly bonkers but...

my dream has always been small house, large garden. I am boring about property and keep an eye on it for the eventual lottery win. I see a lot of places are losing big gardens by building extensions, now there's a garden room fashion...

I'm just wondering if anyone ever knocks these things down to reclaim garden!

Our house shrunk a bit when we got it. It wasn’t with the view to enlarge the garden but to make sure all the rooms are filled with light. So we got rid of the bit that was 3 rooms deep and store and loo built onto the back. We’ve got full height glazing across all of the back now.

My neighbours have, but the extension was a shitty lean-to type thing that was practically falling down anyway.

You'd probably want to have your eye on the impact on the property's value, but I certainly don't think it's always a bad idea. As a PP said, it can add a lot of light.

Jo oh I never even thought of that! So you actually had to remove a chunk of the house?

Yes, we actually demolished some of our house. However, it’s a big house anyway so losing one room + a store + a loo (we have a downstairs loo elsewhere now) didn’t matter too much. Being able to have all the glazing onto the SW facing garden made an amazing difference to the space.

Jo that's interesting.

I have a feeling it might work out more sensible to do that in some cases. So many people seem to be building over garden, either via extension, garden hut etc etc

when I do get my modest lottery win, I might be better off demolishing an extension somewhere

1930s area here, lots of awful 70s extensions that would be best demolished, blocking light and filling gardens with no real benefit. We knocked down a garage, lean-to shed, and a brick-based conservatory. Never looked back!

Ah
So I’m not alone
Good to know!

I also like the idea of more garden for wildlife to play in!

One day I want a garden with hedgehogs etc.

Yes. It was hideous, badly built, ruined the (tiny) garden. We now have a small patio area where we can sit and it is lovely.

Not quite but we demolished a long extension and replaced with a shorter one to get a better garden.

I reckon concentrate on plot size, aspect and whether or not the extension is adding to the price (as you presumably don't want to spend too much on something you're going to remove). I was advised that conservatories don't add much, especially if like ours was they're built over a lovely bay window (why)