Converting 1930s bungalow

[Fennelandlovage]

Anyone got any experience? Useful hint or tips having done it. Thinking might extend at the back and side or side and up into the roof. Detached with about 37x70 foot garden to the rear and about 8 foot side return. Off street parking for 2 cars at the front. Not overlooked to the rear.

Have with a 20's bungalow i that helps?! Upload a floorplan or something and we'll all pour in our ideas. We basically doubled the floorspace and had the loft converted (except the loft hasn't been done as yet)

Plans would help and budget. After watching so much house porn the last 3 months I reckon I know more than Kevin McCloud and Sarah Beeny combined!

We are currently looking into orangeries (apparently less glass than a conservatory) which would open our kitchen/diner out more. Another option is going into the loft and adding dorma windows.

Oooh great thanks - going to try and link to floor plan in next post. The garage is detached and sits quite far forward into the garden at the rear parallel to the side return so not where it is here if you see what I mean.

Both work. Think about if you want all your bedrooms upstairs and then guest room downstairs. To do that you need double height at the back.
If you don't mind bedrooms upstairs and down a side double height can work.

If you only do a single story it is likely the most you will get upstairs with 2 dormers is two kids rooms with a shower room.

Look at the plans on your council planning portal of similar houses that have had an extension for ideas of space.

Double height 5m extension will probably be around £200k.

Here are The floor plans

Oooh amazing - on so budget is probably £180-200k but that news to include everything. Happy to project manage and quite good at sourcing fittings windows etc.

If your house is like others someone will have done similar locally so previous plans are fab.

You need to work up your must have list and let that drive your plans. Mine was 3 beds upstairs with bathroom and ensuite. Big kitchen diner livingroom onto garden. Pantry ( is ace). Seperate utility. Seperate livingroom ( where I hide ).

Thanks girlswithflowers is your project finished now? How did it go?

What do you need from the extension - more downstairs, bedrooms bathroom?
The bungalow doesn't look a bad size actually compared to many round here. If you only need bedrooms you may possibly get away with single story extension, but where would the stairs go? A side extension could locate the stairs without loosing room downstairs.
Damn - I'm getting so invested and it's not even my house

Good question. We have two kids so def at least one more bed and one more bath. But it has a fantastic outlook at the back so I really want to maximise that. Agree it’s a good size, the proportions and feeling of it are lovely.

I have heard that 30’s builds can have shallow footings which makes me worry the cost could stack up if we go up. Hmmm so much to consider.

Think there was been a couple of good Grqnd Deaigns programmes which incoorared 30s bungalows into something much fabber. Might be worth hunting them down?

Just to give an idea of cost. We had an 11m x 3m side extension 4 years ago which cost £80,000 but we did a lot of the work ourselves.
Just had a guesstimate for a single story 5m x 6m rear extension for £90,000 which sounds a lot but involves removing existing extension and a fair amount of ground works for sewerage connection to the road.

Ok brilliant thanks for those fingers and the grand designs tip off. I would love to open up the back two rooms with an extension into a vaulted to the roof line ope plan living space and then do a long side extension with a bedroom bathroom and office in they would go out as far as the garage which sits forward of the house at the back if you see what I mean.

When you say you did lots of the work yourself - what does that mean?

Our builder was a "one man band" (and absolutely brilliant). DP took 6 months off work so between us we did the labouring, moving all the materials around the site, and preparing any area the builder was about to work on. Builder showed DP how to cut the roof timbers so we did all the cutting/ fitting of the rafters and joists, and insulation. We also did the second fix (doors,skirting architrave etc) and fitted the kitchen.

Sounds amazing whiteroom. I admire you for doing that and now you have the skills to do more in the future.

@whiteroom do you mind if I ask...how much did that save you on building work compared to the cost of your partner taking 6 months (presumably unpaid) off work?

Very rough rule of thumb is £2k per new m2 plus kitchen

So 5mx10m single is £100k double height is £200k. Count existing loft space as new m2.

Hobbes8 Partner was on sabbatical so we didn't loose out financially.
On the building side we estimate we saved the builder at least 250 hours of work so between £4000 to £5000 as we were paying our builder by the hour. By fitting the kitchen ourselves we saved £2000 as that was the fitting price quoted by the supplier - which we promptly splurged on a better kitchen .

As Girlswithflowers said rule of thumb between £1500 t0 £2000 per square metre, is the usual estimate price for building but it depends where you are and the quality of the finish.
It's also easy to forget the cost of skips, scaffolding etc which can also add thousands.

The 2k per new sqm isn’t really up to date. Better to assume 2.3 - 2.7k but always get 3 quotes. If you’re getting an architect then say your budget is 150k becaus they’re always a way off!
Our 16x6 extension has been around 300k including a small amount of prep work for phase 2 which is the loft conversion.
It’s an expensive business and you need flexibility