Best way to extend a typical 3 bed semi? Advice?

Who knows about building then?
Thinking about extending the house. Realistically we have 2 options.
Loft conversion (not sure if the loft is big enough, but it's a typical 3 bed semi, so maybe with a dormer window we'd be ok). This would be my preferred choice as it adds a room.
Or
Extend 3rd bedroom out into front, creating a porch by existing front door, and lengthening the bedroom upstairs.
Does anyone know rough costs of either, and any good websites for advice?

Cheers

 

Got a drive and/or garage ? Extend sidewards into the drive maybe building onto top of garage if it's integral. That's what mate of mine did, nearly doubled his house size. But he turned his garage into additional rooms for the house.

Did it 7 years ago and it cost him about £20k as I seem to remember. He lives in Chesterfield though so dunno who his builder was.

 

It could be difficult to do a loft conversion unless the dwelling has traditional purlin roof. Most roofs from the mid 60s were trussed rafter, and modifying would cost a small fortune. We have recently quoted for one such conversion with a bedroom + en-suite in lthe loft, and it worked out at a shade over 49K.

 

What about extending to the rear?

You could go backwards if you have an ample garden. Cost obviously depends on size of extension per square metre etc. If you've got a few dimensions ny all means PM me and i'll try and work out a quick figure for you.

 

RE: What about extending to the rear?

Garden is small, probably too small.There wouldn't be much garden left! Problem with going sideways is that our house is on a hill, and we are around 6 feet higher than our next door neighbours. To extend sideways would mean next door coming out of their house & be greeted by an enourmous face of bricks. I think they would object.

 

RE: What about extending to the rear?

How small? What's the measurements?
Alternatively, how far are you thinking of going forwards with the porch etc? Your neighbour may onject to that too if it affects his light.

 

Just another thought??

How far would you be building out sideways and how far would it be from your neighbour's house? You could always have a word with him and see how the lay of the land is, so to speak. At the end of the day he looks at your gable end (oo matron - no pun intended) every morning i daresay.

 

RE: Just another thought??

Sorry to sound rubbish & girlie, but no idea on measurements. Not got that far.
Don't envisage objections with front extension - it would be alot less disruptive to all concerned.Alot of folks have done this. It extends the "box" room by say 8 ft.
There is a drive to the side which is 6ft higher than the drive of next door. Our drive is supported by a brick wall. I can imagine alot of "foundation work" would be required. The drive is not wide enough to open the car door on the side parked next to house, so if we had a garage there we wouldn't be able to get out of the car! You're right we could speak to the neighbours - I just thought that the side extension might be the most expensive, most disruptive - but it would give alot more room.

 

RE: Just another thought??

Personally, i'd go for the side extension (neighbour willing) as you would gain so much more on the house for the upheaval of having building works.
With regards the front, and based on what you are saying, i would reckon it would amount to approximately £15 - 18,000. The side extension would possibly be anything in the region of £25 - £30,000. Mind you, i couldn't put a definite figure on it as i haven't seen it, run around with a tape, and priced materials etc.
Whatever you choose, i hope it all goes well mi owld mucker

 

harrass the neighbours to leave and then knock through!

 

We had dormas put on front and back...

...to give us four bedrooms and then had a single-storey extension on the back to give us a large kitchen-diner.

What is it you are wanting to get from the extension ? Is it an extra bedroom, or a bigger bedroom, or another living room ?

We took away the box room on the corner of the house and got two double bedrooms upstairs, with the stairs going up through the old little bedroom. Originally, the house had a hipped roof, which we replaced with a full gable end and there is next to nothing left of the old roof. If you only had a dorma on one side, you might have problems depending on how the roof was originally constructed.

We were lucky enough to find a builder who didn't charge VAT (I know - rocking horse **** !), I imagine to do this now would probably cost around £40K, so you need to be sure its what you need !


Best of luck !

 

underground have you a cellar 

 

Buy the house next door.

 

RE: We had dormas put on front and back...

We need extra room in 3rd bedroom for our 2 year old. Even better would be extra bedroom. 3 rd bedroom is box room, and no room, plus half of space lost to the slope of the stairs. Just no room in box room for a bed & wardrobe - older sister has 2nd bedroom and that's packed to the rafters!

 

No cellar.

 

Loft conversions are not the best idea

unless you have no alternative,
they tend to be hot in summer and cold in winter, also by going to a third level you come into fire regs, as a previous poster mentioned you also have to assess the current roof timbers etc, also, in creating the stairway up you lose valuable floor space,
all just my opinions but I am an estate agent so come across this situation frequently, we are also in the process of getting architects drawings for an extension, the whole thing is a bit of a nightmare isnt it, the architect failed to turn up on tues for our last meeting

 

Cannot extend on the front as far as I am aware.

Something in the planning regs about building closer to the road than the existing building.</p>

Sideways sounds the only realistic option.</p>

Dont think the neighbour could block you in terms of planning but could make life difficult in terms of access during the build.</p>

I had a similar problem but decided that a move was the least problematic option!</p>