How do I bathroom / kitchen / extension? etc.

Has anyone here had an extension built that is basically a timber box on top of an existing single-storey brick/block section of their house? I'm interested in it as an alternative to a full matched-block extension on top of a garage (access will be through knocking a door through the 1st-floor gable-end wall of the house). Relative to blockwork, is it cheaper, easier, faster, lighter (and so less demanding of foundations)?

Cube lofts do metal framed loft extensions - may be worth contacting them

Thanks. I'm not London based any more. I'm really just interested in the practicalities of it and what factors made any decide to go/not go for it.

Many loft extensions are built that way.

100% this. Through friends' experiences and also every renovation show ever, I would want to know that this is actually achievable within my budget.

Sure, but if you're spending all that money on a new extension, I would expect to want to spend a significant amount of time in there, including evenings watching shit telly. Especially if the living room fronts onto a busy road.

Sure, but I'm thinking about a timber-clad cuboid, rather than just a timber-framed mansard or dormer.

100% this. Through friends' experiences and also every renovation show ever, I would want to know that this is actually achievable within my budget.

cosigned - we were v advanced on our design/planning by time it became apparent that this could be a v real issue (i.e. tender stage came back with quotes significantly north of what we'd anticipated)... despite being very upfront about what our budget (+ contingency) was.

I have never seen an architect (IRL or on a TV show) get budget right, or say "thats a nice amount to work with".
Budget is always "tight" and first round designs are always 30%+ over.

Except for our architect who does Design and build, so knew the cost of every material they were speccing down to the nails.

Not sure how important it is to you but where will the TV go in that lounge area? Can't tell scale but I imagine there's nowhere to wall mount with that glass on either side which means a corner unit - a bit 90s.
Yeah I wondered that. We only have one TV at the moment which is in the living room. We do have a smaller one that we could put in the extension but we'll probably just balance it on some accumulated crap, we're not really TV on wall people.

I like the roof design..
Thanks, I guess it's the only interesting thing about it. One of my concerns is we've just raised the pitch of the lean roof quite substantially so we'd need to work out a good way for the extension roof to join this nicely as it won't be a continuous form.

Thats going to be lovely!
Hopefully!
Wouldn't have the peak of the roofs in the centre make the whole extension feel a little bit higher with more headroom?
Yeah I guess so, but then you'd lose the form? You think it looks claustrophobic on the iso view?

Nice! Are you dead set on the dormer being en suite? Could the door be on the landing to make it a stand alone shower room and toilet? IE two doors between someone night pooping etc.
Not dead set, GF has brought up the seperate room / night pooping thing so that'd need looking at for sure.

Got a proposed location for a boiler and flue?
The very north west corner of the lean to on the ground floor. It's being fitted on Monday hence the need to raise the lean to roof to fit the pipework.

My personal opinion is to infill the side and gable end the extension. This will make the space much less segregated and clean the roof design.
Don't really understand the infill the side bit.

*will add significant cost.
Boo.

Hah - we used to live in Blenheim Park.
Where's that?!

I like it - the double pitched roof is nice, is there a reason for it or just because?
Just because i guess. The 1st floor windows are pretty low to the ground which I think potential designs.

Bench seating internal and external of the picture window could be nice (it’s what we’re doing) and might help with connection
Yep, just picked up a lovely 3m church pew from a local church last week

How do those corner doors work - in summer will it be easy to get in and out and the house/decking feel connected?
Not sure, GF not convinced and wants sliding french doors.

Are there windows all along the side of the utility? Seems like a lot of nice light to be giving that space over the main living space
Good point, we're having 2 velux fitted in the utility room so maybe a window centred on that through to the kitchen.

be interesting to know how the rear extension roof(s) drain.
Yep, I wondered that. A friend round the corner is having bad problems with leaking on his new rooflight and that's a straightforward one.

I don't know what your objectives are for the top floor room, but it might be worth exploring exactly how much space remains in it once there is a king sized bed in it, and whether there are options for increasing the size. I'm slightly confused by the diagrams how the proposed design accommodates the chimneys - does it envelop them or not?
Yeah it is a bit confusing, I'm not too sure why he's drawn it like that. It's a really big loft though so I don't know why it looks so small in the drawings. Think we're gonna have to lose a chimney or two, just internally though.

Also as this looks like your stage 1 - make sure they have a really clear idea of your costs and that any designs you go forward with won’t suffer endless reduction due to requiring value engineering.
He's aware it's a very tight budget. We're possibly gonna have to go first fix only and I'll have to do the rest over the coming years. Fun.

Nice, I like the matched slope of the roofs and that angle will give more of an open view while providing a bit more privacy for and from the neighbours.
Yep, it'll get the sun and there's already quite a high wall next to the neighbours so they should hopefully be used to it.

I'm thinking we might lose the proposed new living room doors, as we need space for a shit load of records and a wide turntable set up. Not sure what benefit they have apart from providing a quicker route to the living room for TV dinners which I hope we'll do less often anyway.

Phew.

In removing the chimney at lower ground only - how is proposed to support the rest of the above? Steel going across? Gallows brackets?

Where's that?!

Just opposite the Aldershot Military Museum

It was a very long time ago though.

I heard talk of gallows brackets.

Oh yeah, I know it. Small world. There's probably 10x as many people live around here as when you did though.

yikes - will be quite an eyesore to try and box it in? it is possible to remove the whole chimney and support the stack in the loft instead ?

I'm thinking we might lose the proposed new living room doors, as we need space or a shit load of records and a wide turntable set up. Not sure what benefit they have apart from providing a quicker route to the living room for TV dinners which I hope we'll do less often anyway.

Good idea, otherwise you are tracking shopping through the lounge. Especially if you can't get from kitchen to utility easily.

Yeah I guess so, but then you'd lose the form? You think it looks claustrophobic on the iso view?

I can totally see the case for symmetry, think its totally subjective, dont think anything looks claustrophobic, I'd prob change it to my suggestion as I love ceilings to be as heigh as possible.
I've seen simulate but struggling to find the refs... found it Delve.

That's not a bad shout. Doesn't look as interesting but it would add height and provide a continuation to the lean to roof.

Bit tricky still with the low 1st floor windows and the neighbour's rear projection.

@SteadyCam my point around budget was that I assume you’re paying the architect for each round of drawings - initial concepts, technical plans, final planning submission etc I think there’s like a 3-5step RIBA guide. You wanna avoid getting 10k deep on that before realising hardly any of its possible. Don’t wanna teach you to suck eggs but my experience was I really had to hammer budget home and still came in over and having to reimagine stuff

The delve example is lovely

Oh I see your point. We went for a newly established, local architect who I stumbled upon on instagram funnily enough. From the looks of if he and I have very similar tastes and design principles. This is the project that really made us consider him - http://lewisbailie.com/#/guinness-drive/

He's done us a very good price which will hopefully take us to the submission of a building control application stage. It's unspoken but we're putting our faith in him as he's young and relatively inexperienced, and he's giving us a good price because we're stretching our meagre budget.

If you want greater cost certainty throughout the design process, you will need to appoint a QS to undertake cost plans at the end of each work stage (feasibility, developed design, planning etc.). Architects are not cost specialists and will always be working to crude estimates based on rough cost per sq.m rates for similar spec projects plus a little bit of suck it and see.

He did mention getting in a decent QS. I'll have to follow up on that, thanks.

Budget: 40K 😭

seems v cheap for the square metreage- is the bold lewis doing some of the build himself