Home Extension Design

Julian Owen

• Publisher: RIBA Publishing
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781000705300
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Architecture General

If you are thinking of improving your home but want the real story of how to be successful, this richly illustrated and completely up-to-date book is for you. It distils various practical information needed to run a project from dream to reality, highlighting the pitfalls along the way and suggesting ways to avoid them. Peppered with inspirational case studies and giving indications of costs and timescales, Home Extension Design demystifies both the building process and all the surrounding issues to do with design, sustainability, budgeting, planning, regulations and the use of building contracts.The comprehensive guidance includes chapters on making the best of what you've got, designing the changes to your home, types of house alteration projects (including extensions, loft conversions and basements), submitting applications to the local authority, and getting the building work done.

1
Getting Started

1.1 Ferncroft Avenue, Belsize Architects, ground floor extension, Hampstead, London, 2016.

How can this Book Help You?

Your home is usually your biggest asset and your most important investment. Apart from the money paid there is an emotional involvement because many of your hopes and dreams are woven into its fabric. Quality of life, family development, personal comfort, lifestyle, image and status are all intimately wrapped up within its walls. After moving two or three times, most families prefer to stay put, so altering and improving houses is a favourite pastime in the UK. If you consider the effects of school catchment areas, the increase in stamp duty as you move up the property ladder and high moving costs it is easy to understand why. The price of adding a new bedroom to an existing house, for example, can be significantly less than buying a new property with an extra bedroom. Meanwhile we are bombarded by TV programmes and magazine articles telling wonderful stories, of how dull houses have been changed into beautiful homes, implying that a similar transformation has been made to the lives of the occupants. If you are thinking of taking the plunge and starting your own home improvement project, but want the real story about how to be successful, this book is for you. It distils all the practical information needed to get a project up and running, with a few warnings about the pitfalls you might encounter, along with some creative ideas to inspire you.

1.2 alma-nac, refurbishment of a mews house, Chelsea, London, 2014.

Feasibility Study

Somehow you have to kick-start your project and move on from vague discussions about improving your home to making a realistic assessment of your options. This process is often referred to by architects as a ‘feasibility study’ and it involves looking at why, when and how the improvements could be made. Many families make the mistake of skipping this process, and hastily commission building work, only to find at the end of this generally stressful and costly process that they have not achieved a satisfactory result. Such failures are due to a lack of thought, right at the very start, before ideas become fixed beyond question. If the building has some problems with its basic construction, these must also be identified as early as possible. There is no point in spending money on new work if the existing fabric is not brought up to a comparable standard. The conclusion of a feasibility study may be that you should not do anything to the house at all – either because your objectives are impractical or, more likely, too expensive. So it is vital to confront difficult questions early and consider them as rationally as possible.

Should You Move House Instead?

The very first question to ask is whether or not it is better to avoid getting involved in building work at all and just move to another house that fulfils all your requirements. To answer this you will need to consider why you are thinking of making changes, their likely cost and the benefits that you need them to deliver. If your motivation is simply to make a nice profit, prepare yourself for some bad news, that is not often mentioned by property professionals (especially those who want you to buy their books): most home renovation projects do not add more than their cost to the total value of the building. In other words, if the property is sold once the work is finished, the increased value will not cover the amount paid for the improvements. If you also allow for house price inflation – a factor often missed out in the seductive articles and TV programmes – it may be a lot less risky to put your money towards saving for a new house, on the next rung of the property ladder.

There are ways of making a profit of course, provided you treat the home improvement as a dispassionate exercise and only make a change if it is cost-effective. In my experience, the ruthlessness required to do this is rare. The ability to make a profit by improving the house that you are living in depends heavily on the design, location and condition of the existing house – all factors out of your control. If your earnings are below those of builders, or you have plenty of free time and the prerequisite DIY skills, you can reduce the building cost by doing a lot of the work yourself. Identifying changes that improve the desirability (and therefore sale price) of the building, for a modest outlay, needs skill and ingenuity.

Watch Point

In some cases, an extension might add no more than half its cost to the value of the house.

1.3 Belsize Architects, ground floor extension, Hampstead, London, 2016.

1.4 nimtim architects, extension to a terraced house, Forest Hill, London, 2015.

A good example of how these factors all combine is to look at loft conversions, a firm favourite of many home improvers. At average 2019 prices, a modest loft conversion could easily cost £30,000 to £40,000 plus VAT. This is more expensive than most people anticipate (to find out why, refer to the section on loft conversions in Chapter 4). But, depending on the local house prices, this new room-in-the-roof might only add a further £20,000 onto the value of a £140,000 house: this would mean a loss of at least £10,000 if the house is to be sold after the work is completed.

Hot Tip

To work out how much a house alteration will add to the value of your home, check out the windows of the local estate agents, or websites such as www.Zoopla.co.uk or www.RightMove.co.uk, to get a feel for the values of different properties in your area.

An exception to this general rule is found in desirable built-up urban areas where space comes at a very high premium, such as central London. It is a similar story for conservatories and extensions – these often result in a loss or simply break even.

Property speculators can cast their net wide, and pick and choose properties with the right potential, but your options are limited to the house that you already own. So, if you plan to move in a few years’ time, find out what the likely cost of the work will be and what the house will sell for afterwards before you instruct any building work. Having done this you can decide whether the financial implications justify the pleasure that you expect to get from the improvements. Many people happily complete their projects without worrying too much how it has affected their assets because they intend to enjoy the benefits for many years to come and getting a good return on the investment is not an overriding concern.

If you decide it is worthwhile to go ahead, start by concentrating on how the finished project may improve your lifestyle rather than on the exact nature of the alteration. For example, ‘more space for the kids to play and to give the parents a bit of peace’ might best be solved by larger bedrooms, a family room, a playroom separated from the main house, or even a room for the parents at the bottom of the garden. The right answer will depend on your family set-up, budget and the limitations of the house, so these factors should all be examined carefully before proceeding with the next stage.

The most cost-effective home improvements

• Maintenance and redecoration, where they have been neglected.
• Adding a garage, where there isn’t one already.
• Splitting a very large bedroom into two.
• Combining two very small reception rooms into one.
• Improving access between rooms e.g. accessing a main bathroom off the landing rather than t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Dedication
• CONTENTS
• ABOUT THE AUTHOR
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• 1 Getting started
• 2 Appraising the property
• 3 Designing the changes to your home
• 4 Types of house alteration projects
• 5 Dealing with local authorities
• 6 Getting the building work done
• 7 Case studies
• GLOSSARY
• FURTHER READING
• USEFUL CONTACTS
• INDEX
• IMAGE CREDITS