Bought a house with kitchen in single skin extension- will this be a problem?!

[Puzzledkitchen111]

As above completed on our house in 2023. Survey level 2 and mortgage.

A relative is purchasing a house and has been told by their surveyor the kitchen is in a single skin extension, and to notify the mortgage lender.

To our knowledge, this was not raised on our own purchase. From googling Its most likely the walls in our extension/kitchen are single skin. I have checked our survey which was only level 2 and it does not mention this at all , the sellers solicitor when we bought advised the extension was in situ for more than 20 years.

We bought it off a family friend of a deceased lady so there was limited information. (The deceased lady's family friend, not our family friend)

I'm now panicking going 90 to dozen that we will have a problem when we resell, even though realistically we have no plans to sell in the next 15-20 years , and that we may need to knock the whole back extension down or something.
To add its not a big extension, 15ft by 10ft something kitchen and then a downstairs shower room maybe 10ft by 7ft.

Has anyone been in a similar situation buying or selling and can shed some light :)

Why do you think they are single skin? Has it been a garage conversion? If it is an extension (ie completely new part) is most likely cavity walls. Single skin is freezing. If you’re not freezing cold, it’s unlikely single skin.

We live in a house where one of the downstairs rooms - our bedroom, as it is used for - is a garage conversion and I'm now thinking it might be single skin but unsure... Also had a level 2 survey when we bought 2 years ago but don't recall any mention 🙈 It isn't freezing but we have an oil radiator on in here! Why would it be a problem anyway?

Lots of older extensions or bits of property are single skin, what do you think the problem is OP?

Well it'll be absolutely freezing as unlikely to be insulated

Chill. You bought it. Your family m is buying one with it. Hell I bought a house with a manhole in the middle of the floor.

No point panicking about something like this.

But I agree with the above post it's not really the biggest worry when buying a house just that it won't be very energy efficient but nothing structurally problematic with a single skin brick wall

I’m sorry, @ManyPigeons but we need more. Much more. Why was the manhole there - who owned it, if one can own such a thing - did anyone ever go down it & what did they find - indeed did anyone ever pop up out of it?!!
Also bonus points for starting your post on the insulation of extensions with Chill.

How thick are the walls?

A brick is about 4 inches wide.

Some expanded building blocks are about double thickness so you can build a wall with a single leaf that approximates to a cavity wall. But don't perform well if damp as they are very absorbent.

P.s.

Some "extensions" were built as Conservatories, which only need to be as well-built as a garden shed. They generally have very poor insulation and roofs, and the rules require them to be isolated from the heated house with external-quality doors. Most people remove these after inspection so they can waste money by pouring heat into an uninsulated shed.

I imagine extension over a drain they couldn’t/didn’t want to re-route?

I've measured one of the walls which connects to the "garden room" and it is 6.5 inches.

I also have a house with a manhole in the middle of the floor! I imagine it was simply cheaper to build the extension over it without relocating it but access is still important.

I have two rooms with single skin walls - the original garage that was converted into a room, and a dining room extension. The rooms don't get noticeably colder than the rest of the house but we had to get the outside of the walls sealed since single skin is much less water resistant and we live in an area with a history of flooding.

So not a cavity wall. If you tap the inside plaster, does it sound hollow? Is the outside rendered?

@PigletInABlanketJohn

I don't think the walls sound hollow, can tap it tonight (at work at the moment)
We had the kitchen replastered last year .

No the outside is red brick. Would getting the outside rendered help in resale ?
Like I say we aren't bothered about reselling anytime in the near future but this has just raised a concern In my head regarding reselling and whether it is mortgagable. We got a mortgage on it, though.

Not sure if relevant, but our fridge , washing machine dishwasher and tumbledryer are still in the main part of the house, with our oven and sink being in the extended bit. We treat both rooms as kind of a kitchen.

(But to explain the kitchen isn't wholly in the extended bit)

Picture of floor plan to better explain

@Puzzledkitchen111

"No the outside is red brick. Would getting the outside rendered help in resale ?"

No, good bricks are better. I wondered if it might be rendered blocks.

If you wanted to reduce heat loss, you could have insulating boards attached to the inside, and plasterboarded. This would make the inside walls sound hollow. I wondered if the inside walls might be drylined with plasterboard, which is not as good, and also sounds hollow.

😂 Sorry just seen this! The manhole was covered by carpet so me and the survey (level 3) didn’t spot it. It’s under the office and leads to the sewer. The old owner of the house died so we don’t really know whether he was secretly solving or committing crimes, a sewer rat in human form or just cba to pay to move the manhole when he built the dodgy 1970s extension. The council owns the manhole. Nobody has popped out of it so far.

We are paying to have it moved and then blocked up… a bloody fortune too. Although I am debating keeping it as a secret escape route.

@PigletInABlanketJohn knocked on a few of the walls last night, unsure if they are hollow or not.

I'm hoping it won't be an issue on resell as (from my floorplan picture) 2 walls are walls attached to the "garden room" and downstairs shower room, and the 1 wall which is external (?) Is about 4 ft high , then maybe 2/3 foot of windows across the top.

As I said we do plan to be here for a long time (min 10 years from now) and in time we may have knocked the whole back down (as it's a collection of 3 smaller size rooms we may knock it down and have a bigger kitchen/diner) but don't want to be forced into it if it's not something we decide not to do / do not want any difficulties on resell.

I suppose if market conditions are favourable to sellers at the time we decide to sell, it would sell anyway.

6.5 inches = single skin. (cavity wall more like 10 - 11 inches)
As the inside will be plasterboard either fixed to battens (hence a convincing hollow sound) or dot and dab (unlikely to hear) there should be some form of damp proof membrane between brick and plaster. If there isn't you'd have seen evidence of penetrating damp by now.

Depending on exactly when it was built the local council should have inspected it for building regulations approval and you should check that with your council as your buyers will. If there is no evidence of damp then it appears it was built to the the standards

The existence of a manhole inside a room would have been allowed back in day although technically it should have a double lid on it. You would not be allowed to do that today, but modern regulations are never retrospective so you can't be made to undo it, but it may put some terribly innocent buyers off in the future.

@Wot23 thank you for the explanation.
Extension has been up for more than 20 years according to seller (family friend of deceased) and no evidence of damp whatsoever so that is reassuring.

Manhole cover is another posters on here

We also had a manhole in the house. We built an extension over it ( private sewer) and so we had a karndean floor and a sort of karndean insert which covered the manhole cover but would lift up if needed and then we just put a big rug over the top.

@ManyPigeons Thank you - love the option of a sewer rat in human form, I suspect I may have known him!