Many people find it hard to be able to afford a larger home, so they opt for adding an extension. This gives them the space they need without the stress of moving house and disrupting their current lifestyle. Adding an extension to your home allows you to create more family-friendly areas, such as open plan kitchens and living spaces and larger sociable rooms. A larger home allows for increased family quality time and more space for your family to spend time together. While house extension projects can be complicated, there are steps you can take to ensure a successful result.
Before embarking on an extension project, be sure to be up-to-date on local news that could affect the project—from materials to trades to changes in planning. It’s easy to get carried away with design ideas, but the first step is to be realistic about money. It can be costly, and we don’t want you to have trouble because of it.
One way to do this is to hire an architect to draw up plans for you. Alternatively, there are plenty of excellent books available on house extensions, which you can read yourself—searching online should turn up some useful titles. As with any project like this, it’s important to find a trusted extension builder who has successfully undertaken similar projects to yours and whose previous work you can visit. When planning an extension, you should get recommendations from friends or family. The best extension builders will provide you with a creative and innovative design that matches your style, but your close ones can also put a word or two. You should also take into account the size, style and complexity of the project when calculating its value.
In the UK, the average house adds 10/12% to its value just by having a bedroom with a private bathroom. Adding bedrooms and bathrooms generally has the biggest impact on home value.
If you want to extend your house, it is likely that you will need planning permission. This depends on several factors such as whether your extension will be higher than the highest part of the existing roof, taller than three meters and come within two meters of the boundary, extends beyond the main elevation of the house, or includes a veranda, balcony or raised platform.
*This is a collaborative post