To buy or to extend

[DIFFBROOK]

I currently live in a semi, with a drive that goes along the side of the house, garage to the rear.

Now, Mrs D and I were thinking about whether to move. However, we could extend the house on the side and make our current home quite a bit bigger.

The cost of moving up is probably around £100k (taking into account equity etc)

Has anyone extended their home and what are the pros and cons and any idea to costs

 

[Papa Lazarou]

We extended our place rather than moved. We considered that to move would
cost (other than price differences) up to 12k in taxes, fees and moving costs.

For 35k we got a loft conversion which added 2 bedrooms and a bathroom, and increased the value of our house by more than the cost of the work.

What we did BEFORE we did anything was to get 2 different estate agencies round to:

1. Give us a current valuation of the property
2. Advise whether the house was suitable to add 2 bedrooms (i.e. not too top heavy - too many bedrooms for the other living area, such as toilets and reception rooms)
3. Advise us as to the potential value of the property with the proposed extension added.

It all worked well for us, as allowed us to stay in our current place.

 

[Superphil]

My advice, having done a major extension 4 years ago, make sure you design the job to look as much as possible as though it was meant to be there. It will make you more comfortable with it, and if/when you decide to sell, it won't look too much like an extended house. We managed this, and now you would never know our house wasn't always like it is now.

 

[Simster]

We extended our place rather than moved. We considered that to move would
cost (other than price differences) up to 12k in taxes, fees and moving costs.

For 35k we got a loft conversion which added 2 bedrooms and a bathroom, and increased the value of our house by more than the cost of the work.

What we did BEFORE we did anything was to get 2 different estate agencies round to:

1. Give us a current valuation of the property
2. Advise whether the house was suitable to add 2 bedrooms (i.e. not too top heavy - too many bedrooms for the other living area, such as toilets and reception rooms)
3. Advise us as to the potential value of the property with the proposed extension added.

It all worked well for us, as allowed us to stay in our current place.

We did exactly the same thing, and we're just having our extension finished off. Messy, slow, expensive. I'll let you know in a year or so whether it's been worth it.

Couple of other things to consider:
* by extending, ensure you're not making the house bigger than the road can carry. i.e. you might find that people simply wouldn't pay the premium for a massive extension on that particular road
* would you consider moving in a few years anyway for reasons that cannot be solved by staying where you are, such as better schools. If so, it maybe worth putting it off.
* don't underestimate the upheaval involved in having extension work. leaving in a shit pit for several months is not fun!

 

[Marshy]

My advice would be if you are happy where you are extend.

Its Dead money moving, our loft conversion with ensuite cost 25k about a year ago.
We thought its going to cost 10k to move reallistically at least so effectively you get your conversion for 15k.

Just had the house re-valued and it waas really worth it, gone up by quite a bit more than the cost of the conversion

 

[Tooting Gull]

There are clearly far more important factors than this, as listed above - but presumably if you extend to the side, you would no longer have side access? And no garage, possibly?

That was done at our house before we moved in. Made for a lot of room inside, but if you have a garden and anything to do in it, it can be a right hassle.

The people who did the extension helpfully had buried half of it in a mound at the end of the garden (don't do that to any future owners!) and also left building stuff piled up behind a fence panel.

Taken about three weeks on and off to transport two large skipfuls of earth and concrete blocks through the house with that being the only exit, and the interior has taken a hammering even with dust sheets down.

 

[DIFFBROOK]

Good point Tooting, something to consider. However, I suppose I could still have a garage to the front, a utility room at the rear, with a bigger 3rd bedroom and a fourth room at the top.

 

[glasfryn]

Extension every time

 

[Beach Hut]

We added a conservatory and it has made a world of difference now where you can actually get a bit of peace and quiet.

Extending is cheaper so if you like where you are then do it

 

[tinx]

We have added a conservatory and converted our garage into a study/utility room. Our downstairs is like a tardis now (The garage was too small to be used as a proper garage anyway) Just got the loft conversion to do and I'll be set, no plans to move as we have excellent schools nearby and a nice area so it makes sense for us to extend the house we like so much.

 

[Scoffers]

I thought about extending my 3 bed place, but didn't have a tremendous amount of space and so ended up moving to a 5 bed place, that had all the rooms we wanted, but now, 5 years on, and having kids, I'm getting itchy feet again !

My brother in law had his 3 bed place extended, spent 50k on a double floor extension, and it's worked really well for him (although I'll back up what someone said earlier, you can tell where the old house and new extension start and stop, which wouldn't have been my choice!)

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

if your new property is over £ 250000 do not give Brown 3%, over £ 7500, esate agents 1-2%, surveyors fees, solicitors costs, re mortgage or get a further advance and save all this money, for advise on the best re mortgage options PM me

 

[Caveman]

I currently live in a semi, with a drive that goes along the side of the house, garage to the rear.

Now, Mrs D and I were thinking about whether to move. However, we could extend the house on the side and make our current home quite a bit bigger.

The cost of moving up is probably around £100k (taking into account equity etc)

Has anyone extended their home and what are the pros and cons and any idea to costs

I extended my Bungalow from 1 to 3 bedroom, the estate agent worked on the fact that an additional room would add about 15k to the value for the first room then 12k for every other room then added. In my case it was 100% worth doing.

 

[Caveman]

Obviously the other major factor is how much its going to cost and where the money is going to come from to pay for it?

 

[driller]

buy a bigger house and extend that

 

[Starry]

We have extended, it's not finished and has been going 18 months or so, so far. We've gone sideways on two floors and out the back on two floors, then a single floor. We are out in the country and not surrounded by any houses adn no neighbours to complain, just lots of cows and we had a real ballache with the planning department.

We did it in two stages more or less, the side first then the back. We have gone WAY over budget. My husband has done a lot of the donkey work (~probably why we are so over budget) and then we got the pro's in for the electrics etc.

We (rather a man that knows) worked out the value of the house with the extra bedrooms/bathrooms etc and what a comparable house would cost and extending (even though we are over budget) still works out cheaper for us.

 

[supaseagull]

I'm having an extension and room in the roof done at the moment...Lots of dust and mud but i'd have that every time compared to estate agents, stamp duty, solicitors and all the other b*stards who steal money off you when you move

 

[Al Bion]

I've had two extensions built - one on the side pretty similar to what you want to do though we did have some spare space on the side too. We built a garage at the front and have a utility room, kitchen extension, dining room and study behind it. We were going to build this extension as a two storey one but the planning people wouldn't let us so it's worth finding out early on exactly what you might be allowed to put on your land in case that makes your decison for you.

After this big extension we have since extended our living room and added a conservatory.

If you like your current house and it's area then I would say you should really look into an extension. It is a real upheaval whilst the building work is being done but it's soon forgotten when you have the extra space. Even though my hubby is a joiner and him and a lot of his mates did most of the work we still went over budget so be generous with your costings!

 

[dougdeep]

Depends a lot on the house, some will sell better if they are as built.

 

[cjd]

I currently live in a semi, with a drive that goes along the side of the house, garage to the rear.

Now, Mrs D and I were thinking about whether to move. However, we could extend the house on the side and make our current home quite a bit bigger.

The cost of moving up is probably around £100k (taking into account equity etc)

Has anyone extended their home and what are the pros and cons and any idea to costs

If you get your plans drawn up..(and passed), send them off to Travis & Perkins for an estimate (costs £54). It,ll help when you get estimates from builders to compare prices. The estimate from T & P will detail just about everything you need, down to last screw. Just had mine done and the detail is amazing.....(12 pages of info, with prices for all materials and how many man hours each job takes at the different costs for each tradesman)