Has anybody here got a Vict mid-terrace with an enclosed side return? If so....

[WendyWeber]

...

a) did you get it done yourselves?
b) did you use an architect?
c) is it a conservatory or does it have a solid roof with rooflights?
d) how much did it cost?
e) do you have any pics you could send me?

and (the $64,000 Q)

does it slot in between your rear extension and next door's, or does it just go up to a garden wall? (We have a bit of a problem with floor levels, ceiling heights and next-door's kitchen roof gutters)

TIA

bump for any terrace-dwellers here this evening...

sorry cant help but bumping for you

There's someone on the next street who has done this. He's a very good builder. It looks very smart, but they are an end terrace. We've wondered about having it done ourselves. Their floor has been raised so it's all one big room and the side return part has very solid beams with glazing for the roof. Their side wall is probably higher than ours is.

Not a lot of use to you, I know, sorry. Just consider it a bump. x

if you enter side return in uk google there is a very good co who do nothing else and they have lovely pictures too.

Ooooh, thank you all very much

Thanks for the suggestion, noddy, that never occurred to me (and I thought I was an ace googler ) - some of those are stunning.

I think JamesSW6 looks most like ours in terms of roof height where it joins next door (once the floors were levelled), so it obviously is doable - I wonder how much though...with London house prices you can justify quite a large amount but ours would only worth about £220K after it was done, if we were lucky...

We did ours about 5 years ago in our last house, but used an architect (slightly more complicated than a straightforward side return, but slightly bigger too). We had the adjoining wall issue too, but don't remember it being a problem.

I have loads of photos, if you want to CAT me I'm happy to talk it through with you. I think we paid about £30K all told, but I suspect it would be more now.

This is James SW6 btw! (our space would be wider though - our kitchen is about 10' wide and the side return about 6')

Thanks frogs, that would be a great help, I'll CAT you now

a) did you get it done yourselves?
yes, in process now..using a local builder who did our loft extension too

b) did you use an architect? no..fairly straightfwd
c) is it a conservatory or does it have a solid roof with rooflights?solid roof, 2 velux windows

d) how much did it cost?
building work only..£18,700 (exc VAT)..plumbing and elctrics for ext and added laundry..probs about £5k

e) do you have any pics you could send me?
could take some..but it's not finished. They've levelled the floor; knocked down the galley kitchen wall, put the roofing felt on; are currently building up exterior wall which is to house french doors.

f) it butts up against next door's wall...they've put a frame, lined it with DPM and insulation.
Any other questions, feel free to ask

£18,700 exc VAT etc?????

Blimey.

Thank you, spud counter

When you say fairly straightforward, did you have (for instance) any bathroom drainage on the outside wall? Our bathroom is above the kitchen and the soil pipe runs down fairly close to the main part of the house but I'm thinking it might be possible to leave that bit of wall as a support and box in the soil pipe. Or maybe move it...

More Qs

How long has it taken so far?

Have you been left with your original kitchen to work with?

Are you just incorporating the side return or are you doing anything to the end wall too?

ours is a pitched roof and the soil pipe from the upstairs bathrm intefered with the gradient of the pitch, so the plumber brought it inside the bathrm (to be boxed in) and ran it out of the back wall instead of the side wall. It looks fine..better I think.. but I guess it depends where your toilet is.

It's so far taken about 3 and a half weeks but it's been fine. They've not yet knocked down our existing dining room wall so dust and mess are minimal.

They moved our sink, a couple of base units, cooker and fridge into our existing dining room so that was good. Our washing machine they plumbed in our shed which was already set up with hot/cold water and waste pipe. This is going to be a laundry anyway.
Our garden end wall is further away. We're not going as far as that. Basically a new exterior kitchen wall is being built across where the old galley kitchen ended and the neighbours wall (does this make sense?).

I thought 18k was quite cheap. Our other quotes came in at 24k and 33k!! Were u expecting it cheaper?

oh and they said 12 weeks..though they've cracked on and I think, all being well, it'll be finished much sooner

Oh I have literally no idea how much it might be, and I know frogs said hers was £30K, but seeing an actual current figure makes me suck in my breath a bit!

We need the roof redoing (120 years old, random slipping slates now and damp patches on attic walls), the guttering is a horrible mess, the rear rendering is also a horrible mess so I was wanting to get all that hacked off and replaced (the other houses in our row are mostly stone at the back but render was posher when they were built apparently) and I was planning also to excavate all the concretey rubbish in the back yard - and it was at that point I started thinking about doing the side return. So we could be looking at a very large figure in the end.

(But the good news is that our mortgage is paid off at the end of this month, put out the flags )

Basic kitchen facilities in dining room is a good idea of course; will it revert to being a dining room or are you having one huge kitchen/dining/side return space? (Have you looked at the pics on the London Kitchen extensions site? Are any of those like yours?)

I don't suppose you're in the NW, are you? I'd love to see one done/being done...there are a couple of houses on the market locally which have been done - although one is a semi so not really the same - maybe I should go and view...

sorry, NE England..if you give me your email, I'll upload some pics.

It'll be one big kitchen, eating, living space, though L-shaped. The ceiling heights will all be different (high original dining rm, lower galley kitchen which was a later add-on; pitched roof height)..but I think this makes it more interesting.
Lucky you re-mortgage, am insanely jealous. We can't afford to get our yard concrete excavated cause the kitchen took priority..never mind, can't have everything.
Yes, I did look at the London Kitchen ext co website...none were exactly like ours but similar. They tended to have their veluxes facing into the party wall rather than out to the yard/garden (like us)I seem to recall.

email is holden_jan at hotmail.com, thanks sc

Mortgage payoff has been a long time coming - nearly 25 years, we started off with a 20 but then kept borrowing at different times and extended it a bit. We'll put the mortgage payments into a savings account from now on anyway.

Our ceiling heights will all be different too, and building up the outside floor to the level of the inside bit would mean a very low ceiling at next-door's-kitchen side...it is all still v v hypothetical. I think our Veluxes would be towards next door's kitchen roof (they have a mostly single-storey rear extension with just a shallow bathroom bit above - which makes the joining on part even more complicated in fact).

We have a favourite builder but no idea yet whether/when he'll be free. Or if he will want to do it - if it's doable at all...

Hi Wendy

We had a side-return extension done last year - quite similar to lots of those on that website. Ours is a semi though and the extension was on the unattached side iyswim, so didn't have to worry about tying up with the neighbours house.

I think ours cost under £17k for the building works - that included building a shower room in part of the original room, but not the kitchen units/fitting them or the bathroom stuff.
I'm in the SE too...

I was a bit shocked at how much it cost when the quotes came in - the architect had thought it would be about £10k!

Although we more or less knew what we wanted I got an architect/engineer to draw up the plans and sort out the Building Regs approval - but some builders might be able to do that for you as well.

Forgot to say, we also have the bathroom above the kitchen and svp was on the original outside wall (which was removed).

the builder did some clever boxing in, etc - just hope it never blocks! The only effect it had on the design was that originally we were hoping to have a fully glazed roof but had to settle for 4 Veluxs as otherwise the boxing in would have been too noticable...

Oh, hi GM! Have you sorted Tchibo out yet?

I think doing it on a semi with no adjoining property involved probably is cheaper for that reason - I know rebuilding costs in house insurance, per sq ft, for terraces are more expensive than semis and detached, presumably for the same reason.

oops - have to go - back in a bit!

Can I just ask - if you have this done, does it mean that you have no outside access from the front of house to the back?

It sounds like an interesting idea (we have similar house & another dc on the way so are looking speculatively at loft / side return, etc!) but we'd still need to be able to get to the back garden from the front of the house (log deliveries, etc).

Aniyan, with a side return the house is L-shaped on plan - the front is usually wider than the back so it's just filling in the space. So usually you don't have a side access anyway, or if you do it is not affected by the extension as it is the same width as the front of the house...

Wendy, yes Tchibo was sorted out in the end - I did post an update but the thread had probably dropped off your active convs by then...

I was about to chase them up again when I got an automated type of email to say another set was being dispatched.. it eventually arrived and I also separately received a cheque for the delivery cost - don't know why as I hadn't paid for delivery in the first place - had a code for free delivery - but at least it covered my phone calls/wasted time!

thanks GrapefruitMoon - i think our house is the wrong shape as filling in the space at the back would take away the access due to the positioning of the passage between our house and next door.

Back to the loft conversion plans then!

I am semi detatched but have just had side return extension and have lots of different ceiling heights which I like...I have a domed skylight in the end part of the extension which lets in loads of light and a pitched roof on the side return.

Ours cost the best part of £40k....but we did have a new kitchen included and a utility room put in.