Hi Jodie, It is likely that Building Control will require the foundations to be checked by a Structural Engineer. The Engineer can usually organise the excavation of a trial hole (although you can do this yourself). You will need to dig along side the garage to expose the top and bottom of the foundation. Depending upon the age of the garage your Building Control department may have information on record. The Engineer will assess whether the foundations will adequately support the additional floor and if not recommend ways around it. They will also be interested in any nearby trees which may cause problems- although if there is no sign of movement to the garage it should all be ok. I may be biased but I would say that an Architect or Architectural Designer will be beneficial. In the first instance they can provide you with advice of whether Planning Permission will be required but they can also help maximise your space and investment- often coming up with ideas that you may not have thought of. Building Regulation approval will be required. There are two main ways of applying. Firstly a Building Notice where no formal plans are submitted but the officer will carry out more inspections and may ask you to rectify work (which could be costly). The other is a full plans application where an Architectural Designer creates a set of working drawings. These are useful for the Contractor to work from and get checked by the Building Inspector so that you can be sure that the Building Regulations are all met before starting on site. They are also good for issuing to potential Contractors to allow them to quote for your job. The cost of an Architectural consultant will vary depending on where in the country you are. We would charge nowhere near £3,500- in fact probably less than half of this. Strcutural Engineers are an additional cost you need to consider and Building Control will require you have one to look and calculation lintels, roof loadings and foundations. If your foundations are not quite up to scratch you will have options. Which could include creating a steel internal frame on new foundations or removing and rebuilding garage (which probably wont be as much of an additional cost as you think!). I am happy to answer any questions you have if needed. Crista

hi Jamie For side return extension if that is your plan be ready with about 70k+VAT budget and another 10k in total for client supplied items. that means you still have another 36k£ to spend on your project. as i haven seen your windows on a front i can just guess but i would say with 1 external door and 5 windows assume about 5k+VAT incl installation. bathroom refurb can cost you around 5k+VAT and refurbish of the whole ground floor about 15k+VAT incl new door liners couple of studwalls new plastering new skirtings and architreves etc. for flooring and other stuff allocate about 8k+VAT and for profession fees another 4k+VAT. i would say in total a bit tight but you can have all your list to be done. just be sure you get more quotes in as builders are charging nowadays from a-z depends on there availability and flexibility. have a good luck.

Hi Thanks everyone for taking the time to reply. Definitely food for thought! I've not got photos of the roof at the moment but we are going for a second viewing on Saturday so I'll take some then. In the meantime I've attached some of the pictures from the listing. Our favourite parts of the house are the original bits - the kitchen and lounge so I think opening up between the kitchen and lounge to create a kitchen/diner living space as Steph initially suggested would be good if its possible to remove the wall?! I think there would then be space for the dining room to be divided to provide a hall with perhaps utility storage adjacent to the bathroom and the extra bedroom we need. I've had a play around with the existing floorplan and come up with this - any comments (glaring obvious things I've missed!) would be so helpful. Once again, thanks!! Entrance Garden Dining room

Hi we are due to move into a new property. We are unsure on how we can change the layout. The bathroom is currently downstairs. This isn’t a problem as such, we could extend the bathroom to the same length as the kitchen however this would make the bathroom long and skinny, ideally would it be worth extending the kitchen on the side to make it bigger? We have thought about moving the bathroom upstairs into bedroom 3, changing the toilet upstairs into stairs to the loft. We have a baby and I wouldn’t like to be at a different level to her. Plus it’s end terrace so would mean a dormer on the loft. Need to keep the property 3 bedrooms, would be nice to extend above the kitchen as this is a single storey extension but I cannot come up with a floor plan! Also change the toilet upstairs to a small shower toilet and sink. Any ideas welcome! has anyone had this layout before and what did you do to change it? :) I don’t want to start decorating if in a few years time we will be changing the layout.