Bungalow Extension Upwards Ideas

[popbuxton]

Hi all,

We live in a fab bungalow but with growth in our family and the potential of a parent having to move in with us, we are looking at extending upwards (yes, I know lots of people are against putting a second floor on a bungalow)... but before I pay someone a fortune to re-layout the floorplans including adding in a staircase, does anyone have any ideas as to what we could do? Sorry, I am terrible at coming up with ideas.

The garden (which is south-facing) is at the front of the house, so ideally would love to use the light.

Thanks massively in advance

First of all, how are the foundations? Yo need to get them checked. That's crucial. Not all single-storey buildings have foundations that are strong enough to support a second storey. And not all roof joists of bungalows are strong enough to support an upper floor. Sometimes, extra joists or even steels are required.

I'd head over to the Elderly Parents board, read a few threads on there and then decide if moving an elderly parent in is a wise move!

Other than checking foundations as already suggested have a preliminary chat with local planning as o whether they would actually allow it before spending money on expensive plans.

Rather than extending up a few options:

• How big is your garden, could you extend out from the utility room and make the utility and adjacent smaller room part of a bedroom en-suite?
• Do you need the boot room? It seems a weird ‘extra ‘ room which is bigger than bed 4? If not use that plus utility for new bedroom / en-suite.
• Do you have a garage - conversion of that to either bedroom or repurpose to ( eg kitchen) leaving room for a bedroom in old kitchen space.

Thanks all... we have had initial foundations checked and have been told that we should be fine to go upwards (though obviously will do a full survey before we actually finalise plans) and have had long chats with the parent who thankfully is great to be aroubd and have lived together before successfully 🤣🤣🤣.

Our neighbour down the road has done this (on a very different floorplan) so there should be OK with regards to planning authority... just really want to get initial ideas at the moment.

Thanks in advance

Sorry, meant to say Garden isn't huge, so ideally don't want to pinch any of that, hense our idea to go upwards rather than outwards.

I'd be inclined to create a master suite upstairs, which you could escape to when you need a break from the family! The floor area doesn't have to be as big as the ground floor - you could have a chalet style roof with dormer windows to avoid having an overbearing design (and perhaps more likely to get planning approval. Then I'd get rid of the toilet by the front door as you already have two on that level. This would allow more room for the stairs.

Not related to the extension, but I'd probably move the utility room to where the boot room is (or part of it) and create a small reception room looking out into the garden. With a large family, I think you need more than one living area.