Playroom/extension

[StockholmCalling]

We’re currently looking to buy and have seen a great house. The only thing it’s missing is a playroom space, which I’d really love.

We like everything else about the house but trying to decide if an extension/orangery/conservatory will be something we can afford.

We’d be looking at something around 12-15 square metres, don’t need any plumbing but we would need lights/electricity.

Has anyone done this recently? If so how much did you pay? We’re in Edinburgh if that makes any difference. An extension would be ideal but I’m quite concerned prices will make this out of our budget. Thanks!

Having lived in 2 houses with conservatories as playrooms I would never ever build one myself! First one was brand new just before we bought it and it was freezing in winter and roasting in summer. Toys went mouldy but also sun damaged. Second house had a 70s single skin leaking conservatory. Bloody awful! Honestly save up your money and get a decent extension not a conservatory. Especially in Scotland!

Thanks @Chesure , we’d definitely prefer an extension. Looking at recent threads it seems people are paying 3k per square metre?!

Does anyone know if this is just for literally the building or is this more for kitchen extensions with plumbing etc?

It used to be £1.5k to £2k per square metre for single storey. I'm assuming Brexit/COVID inflation is bumping up prices. It used to be plus kitchen units but electrics and heating pipes (not necessarily radiators) were included.

how old are your kids? I have never known a playroom that is actually used by kids to play in. Most are the 'dump toys here' room (kids move the toys to another room to play). Or the 'secondary living room that we actually spend all our time in'. but kids normally like being where the adults are, so having a separate room just for playing doesn't often work.

So do an extension if that works for you, but don't assume that a 'playroom' means kids will actually play in it and keep mess out of the rest of the house.

A company local to us has started supplying Hup prefabricated extensions and conservatories and prices start around £2k per sqm. I am going to look at them as would love to extend and it looks relatively affordable and much less hassle than a traditional build.

@NotLovingWFH I’ve seen these and they look great but I’ve also read they can cause issues when remortgaging/selling?

@parietal currently have 3 aged 7 and under. More than anything it’d be a place to store bigger toys that are shared between them, but yes I’m not so naive as to think they’ll keep everything in one room 😂

I honestly wouldn't bother for a playroom.

Kids don't play in a playroom - they like to be where you are. Their toys just end up taking over the entire downstairs and you just end up using the playroom to dump it all in and ignore it. Like a previous poster says - if you do a conservatory then stuff goes mouldy in winter and sun fades in summer. It gets huge spiders which hide in the toys and you find millions of dead wasps when you finally force yourself to clear it out in your "spring clean".

Yes, I speak from experience.

We've still got the conservatory, although kids are older teens - it now has a sideboard, nice sofa, electric piano and a record player. Oh, and a load of absolute shite because it is the ETERNAL DUMPING GROUND.

Sorry OP but I say save your money! Maybe get a loft extension or a garden designer instead!

Just for a contrast to PP. Mine are all 3 and under but we moved to somewhere with a playroom a few months ago and it's amazing. They do play in there, often me and DH will be in with them but then it means we can have a grown up living room for evenings which is massively more relaxing. So far it's been easy to keep to a rule of things going back there and at most it takes a couple of mins at night putting a few things back. I hope you can work out the costs as it's made such a difference, and DCs really love it too. It's so nice to have a play kitchen/circus tent etc up constantly without having to look at it all the time!

Ours is played in! The Gravitrax, Lego, and Playmobil in particular lives (and stays!) in there, so the space gets plenty of use. It probably helps it is open plan into the kitchen though, so DCs don't feel shut away. We often chatter whilst I cook and they play, or we have music playing and we all sing along instead (if it is a track they particular like, they come flying out of the playroom to dance in the kitchen).

Thanks for the input, I appreciate play rooms don’t get used in some houses but we have some big climb on toys, tents, play kitchens etc that just don’t get used because there’s no space, so it’s something we’ll definitely be going for, I’m mostly hoping to get some experiences of recent costs of extensions and it’d be great if someone had any advice on the modular extensions and any issues it caused with remortgaging! Thank you!

My 2 under 10 have definitely played in every playroom we've had. It's been a godsend over Christmas!

Our children use our playroom. I wouldn’t be without one and hate seeing toys in living rooms & bedrooms.
OP, like PPs I would avoid a conservatory; They’re either too hot or too.

Our playroom was used to store toys but also to play in. It's true that the kids often wanted to be near me but when they had friends over they loved having a room to go in.

Now they're teens it is used even more - sofa, music and PC all in there and friends come round to hang out.

I would definitely go for an extension. Get 3 local builders round to talk about it and give an estimate.

Hey @StockholmCalling - we are currently in the process of having a modular extension built. We were originally going down the traditional build but the spiralling prices plus the length of time the build would take were causing problems.

There are loads of companies offering modular builds, some are better than others. We got planning permission ourselves but the company is handling all the building regs etc. The price is fixed from the outset so there's no worries about costs suddenly increasing. And our build will take about three weeks to go up in total (it's single storey but quite big and in two parts, plus there is plumbing for two bathrooms).

The insulation on a modular build is better than on traditional, and it's a greener form of construction. We are late adopters here in the UK as in Europe and in the US, it's a common way to build houses. Some mortgage companies are still wary but this isn't like the old non-standard construction that crumbles and falls down. Lots of mortgage companies are now willing to accept modular builds, especially as it will not even be the full house, just a small add-on.

I don't plan to move, this might be our forever home so I'm less concerned about remortgaging. But I did check just in case and it doesn't seem to be the problem that it was. Happy to answer any questions if you want to know any more!

@ExhaustedFlamingo ah this is exactly what I’m looking for!

Thank you so much for your reply. If you’re happy to say do you mind sharing what company you used? And also, if you’re happy to share, what you paid for the extension?

I hope it all goes smoothly!

@StockholmCalling I'm so sorry, I've only just seen this!

The company we ended up using have been absolutely fantastic but they are very busy - www.off-pod.co.uk.

What I liked about OffPOD is that one of the directors is an engineer, they're not just sales guys. Our build is a bit complicated and weird in parts and they came out and offered advice about various elements.

The traditional build quoted £145k - that's without first fix electrics or pipework etc for the two bathrooms.

OffPOD have quoted us £96k - this includes first fix electrics and pipework for bathrooms, but not the final flooring or decoration. They can do the full lot but they're doing us a favour by squeezing us in due to DM's poor health. They can do the build but not the full decorating in the time they have available, but we said that was fine. If we were willing to wait until April, they would have done the whole lot (this was October/November when I contacted them to ask).

The build is around 56 sqm, we're extending the side of the house to create an annexe for DM, plus extending the main house for us. They have been really flexible and creative in solving some of the historic issues surrounding the old extension/build.

Another company we looked at that seemed pretty decent was Vita Modular, but I picked OffPOD in the end.

Happy to answer any more questions on here or via DM 😊

@StockholmCalling NC fail there - ah well, never mind 😂😂🤦🏻‍♀️

We moved into a house where a lovely extension had been built on the side giving a good size extra room, utility room and downstairs loo. Our kids were 2/7/12 and we used it as a playroom/tv rom for the kids with a comfy sofa, bookshelves and lots of toy storage. The eldest didn’t use it much but the two younger ones loved it and it meant toys like a large train track could be permanently up and they could draw and paint (laminate floor easy to clean) when they wanted. It also meant that when their friends came round I could keep everyone downstairs so no more finding kids’ bedrooms trashed after their friends had gone and the downstairs loo was a godsend. If you can afford to do the extension properly I would highly recommend it. As kids grow it can change use.

Hi OP we are south London based but did what I think you're looking for

Bought a house with a conservatory attached to it that was leaking. Decided to knock down the conservatory, extend by a metre to match next door and use as a playroom area

The total square footage of what was added onto our house was single storey c15 square metres (combination of existing conservatory and additional extended)

Not much needed doing to foundations but we had bifolds full length, sloped roof with 3 large windows, no plumbing etc

Did get architect drawing who also did planning permission and builders regs etc

Total cost was £40k incl cost of architect etc

But it has transformed our house and how we use it and we aren't planning on moving so we aren't worried about adding to the value of the house

Good luck!

@NotLovingWFH did you ever do this? I'm googling hups and not getting much!