1m Side Extension - is it worth it ???

6 years ago

Hi there,

We have a 1930’s semi-detached and starting to think about
extending it as we can re-mortgage early next year and would have some equity
in the house

Thinking about a side return and rear extension – single storey ( also considering a double storey… )

Ideally would love a downstairs toilet/shower, utility room
and of course a bigger kitchen, with bifolds on the back that open onto the
garden. Thinking we block off the living room in the front and then opening up
the other spaces

Is a 1m side extension worth it ? we have 220cm from the
side of our house to the boundary and my other half would like to keep a side
access to get to the backgarden

I’m assuming the wall thickness could be 30-40cm and you
would need about 85cm for side access …. So this would leave us with 95cm-100cm
– you can fit a toilet – but it doesn’t leave much space for washing machine
/utility room ….

Featured Answer

K D

6 years ago

A friend had this dilemma and was given great advice by her architect. She extended the full width but used the space for a long utility and storage space, had a door at the front and rear and tiled it all, so could still take bins and bikes through without going into the main house. Works brilliantly.

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Comments (23)

lopdop
6 years ago
We did an L shape extension that wasn't much more than 1m (certainly no more than 1.5m) and it transformed our kitchen. We have a semi too, same layout. We bricked up the wall between living and dining, and knocked through between kitchen and living room, so we have one big room across the back. We didn't put in a utility room but should have done. Could you get a loo under the stairs and then turn what I'm guessing is a cupboard or recess in the kitchen into a small utility? I mean the area behind the understairs cupboard.
Chelsey Somers thanked lopdop
Chelsey Somers
Original Author
6 years ago
Thx so much for your comments Lopdop – something to consider definitely

Have u got a drawing of the works you had done ?
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Jonathan
6 years ago
In my opinion there is no point adding an additional room that is only 90 cm wide as a 75cm doorway will use up lots of its space or similar space in the adjacent room. In my opinion much better to make the kitchen bigger and open it up to the back reception.
lopdop
6 years ago
No, I don't think I do at the moment, but it was along the lines of the image posted above by Jonathan, although as I said, ours was L shaped. I think in total we added 12sqm, the room at the back of the house has kitchen, dining table and then a living area. There's also room for a small sofa near the dining table - at it's widest the space is about 25 feet although it's not a straightforward rectangle.
Chelsey Somers
Original Author
6 years ago
Thanks Jonathan, thats brilliant, we will be extending on the the rear as well - the conservatory that we have on the back will be coming down, its just serving a purpose and currently a dumping room
A B
6 years ago
I don't think you'd gain anything from extending 1m to the side. I'm sure you can squeeze a utility shower room in if you extend to the rear.
Claire Nicholson
6 years ago
Hi there,

We remodelled the downstairs of our house recently and rather than taking down the back wall of the house, decided to work with two very small rooms and use one as a walk in pantry and the other a utility room.

I've just measured it and the utility is 1.95m internal width (and 3m long) and is just wide enough for a doorway plus a washing machine and tumble dryer with worktop above them and pipes behind and out the external wall. We've then got a little bit of space on the other side of the door way but not much!

The total width of the appliances plus the doorway is 1.4m. If you took even 50cm off the width I don't think it would be a very useful space but I guess that's slightly down to personal opinion.

We already had the space, so it would have been costly for us to change it, so therefore decided to work with it. However if it were the other way around, I wouldn't have paid to add a space of that size, if that makes sense?

Happy to share a pic if it helps.

Best wishes,

Claire
Jonathan
6 years ago
If you are definitely extending at the back I would put a garage at the side- a front and rear door means you will still be able to get stuff into the back garden. Check the local property market- a garage might be necessary to get top dollar
Abi Jo
6 years ago
Can you make use of this long narrow side space with more temporary style and therefore cheaper rainproofing of the area? Would depend on how visible this area is from the road, and which side your front door is. This could house utility machines, drying washing, and much other storage without costing so much. I have seen a long narrow extension like this and it was extremely useful, but not living area. Could be shed style construction with corrugated plastic roof, and if all was waterproof could house machines and take up less wall space than proper building. Could also be rainproof to the fence, giving you access to back garden with gates. Then you could spend your money profitably on a decent rear extension, maybe moving your kitchen across or into the new extension, and changing the old kitchen to a downstairs bathroom as the plumbing is all in that part of the house.

Also we survived with a side passage that was 19" wide at its narrowest (past the chimney breast) but it was a pain as we could never use a wheelbarrow to get anything into the garden. We did manage to get access to the bottom of our garden via the park behind with special permission from the council, for a particular project.

Would be very cautious about spending that much without the advice of an estate agent or similar as to how much value it would add to the house.
Abi Jo
6 years ago
You can have a bathroom that is 1.5m x 1.5m as we had at our first house, see photos.
It is small and the door opened out into the hall, but we lived there with 3 children... The room was literally twice the size of the bath. Rad was a towel rail on the wall the the left of the WC and had a hand towel ring near basin.
Lena
6 years ago
Please bear in mind that you might need an access to the back garden.
My neighbour was sorry that she did not leave a side access while extending to the side, so her three boys ended up bringing their muddy bikes through the house while bringing them to the back garden for storage.
On the other hand, my house was extended to the side by the previous owners. They left a side access, leaving me with a long and narrow playroom on the ground floor and a long, dark and narrow bedroom on the 1st. I would have loved to have the space inside the house, as we have a back door at the end of the garden
Chelsey Somers
Original Author
6 years ago
Thanks Everyone - certainly will consider options. Will also look into your comment Kay as that does sound like a good idea as well !! Do u have photos of your mates extension / sorry I know cheeky :)
Ta
K D
6 years ago
Not cheeky, but sorry no pics as it's my friends. The front section just looks like a slim garage (they use that for bike storage etc and have a garage door at the front) then the middle section just looks like a long galley kitchen where they have washer, dryer, sink, second fridge etc, and a normal back door leading to the garden. The separated the garage section from the utility part with an internal wall and door, so to get bins through you pull through garage, through internal door to utility, along utility floor and out through back door all in one straight line.
Jonathan
6 years ago
I took another pass at the design. I hope this inspires you
K D
6 years ago
I've no editing apps and am a terrible artist but this is what my friend did!
Simone
6 years ago
Hi
We have just recently done a side/rear extension and like you wanted to leave access down the side of the house for the bikes/bin. I have attached our plans for you.
It has worked really well and we now have a decent size shower room and utility and a small office space, we could go right to the front of the house due to neighbours house been in an angle we didn't want to block any light.
somervell
6 years ago
We have recently completed a similar project. I am extremely happy with the result, but my advice would be to think about what is your aim. Are you looking to add value to your house to improve the resell value or improve what you have with your budget?

Our layout was very similar to yours and we kept a narrow access down the side for bins, bikes etc (90 cm). We were not permitted to build a double height side extension so we only looked at options for single height. The end result is amazing, but involved extensive steel work and complicated construction. It is far more costly than simply knocking down an internal wall to make an open plan living space.

If you get as far as employing an architect, I would stress the importance of discussing budget constraints.
Sven
6 years ago
Excuse my poor drawing but I was thinking something simple like an extension to the conservatory bringing the kitchen partly into that and giving the open plan feel?
Chelsey Somers
Original Author
6 years ago
Thanks all - been doing some drawings as well - gonna have a builder come round tomorrow to get more of an idea as well

Other half is keen on the side extension so we will see what they say - as long as we can get a downstairs toilet and shower out of it and utility room then move the kitchen to the dining room and then open it up the rest of the house with bifold doors - keen to find out costs etc and we re-mortgage in Feb
somervell
6 years ago
Hi
Just a thought...where are your utilities connected in the house? When you speak to your builder talk over where they will have to be located (our were under the stairs and had to be moved due to the side extension).

We moved ours outside in a box at the front so not to take up valuable space at the side. All these decision will impact your budget.

Going by our width of our downstairs toilet you might be optimistic with the idea of a shower in there too. The internal width after tile/plaster etc is 83cm which is tight even for a toilet turned the other way.
somervell
6 years ago
Side extension
somervell
6 years ago
A cheaper option instead of the side extension would be to add a brick porch and put the WC in there?

You will need to think about where the boiler is located too. This could go in the utility room?