House Extension Advice – The Existing House & Living Space

Before looking at what type of house extension you want, it’s important to review your existing house to make sure you focus on critical areas. Make a list of your priorities and look at what rooms you spend the most time in, often that’s the kitchen. Now look at what you’re doing in each room, if you find, for example, that you’re socialising in the kitchen and leaving you dining space empty and unused, it’s time to look at merging these together to maximise their potential. We would also recommend that you start looking at completed projects to get a feel for how you’d like you finished home to look, websites like Houzz or Pinterest are great resources for getting ideas. Don’t worry if you can’t find the perfect example of what you want, just build up a scrapbook of the various elements you like as these will prove invaluable to the designer when they are getting a feel for the look you want, and to yourself when you the time comes to select the final finishes for your project.

Do I Need An Extension At All?

90% of our clients are looking to modernise their living space. Houses designed as recently as 2010 had small separate kitchens and dining spaces that end up with families using the smallest rooms in the house the most often. By opening up the interior of the house and creating larger rear openings, you can create a far larger sense of space and better utilise the interior. The sketches below show rearranging the existing interior to form a larger open plan space without the need for extension.

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Rear Extensions

By far the most common extension in the city is the single storey ground floor rear house extension, these don’t need to be huge, and more often than not, a modest extension can give the best value for money while still transforming the way your home and the way you live. However, it is important that the design is carefully thought through as we find that the ‘standard’ rear extension can leave existing internal rooms lacking light making them unusable in certain situations. The first thing to consider is the orientation of the house and how to maximise the sunlight throughout the extension and existing house. Below are some quick sketches showing alternative arrangements for a rear extension.

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As you can see the there are many different forms that rear home extensions can take, all with their positives and negatives depending on the site and the orientation of the house. What we find most important is that these options are explored fully to ensure you get the perfect design for your home. Be open minded and you might just get the dream home you always wanted.

Will My Extension Need planning?

In our experience single storey house extensions to the rear of existing property can generally be achieved without the need for planning permission, the following would be the basic criteria for an extension to be exempt from requiring planning:

• It needs to be less than 40sqm/430sqft in floor area, that would be an extension approximately 6m/20ft by 6.5m/21ft.
• This extension must be entirely to the rear of the existing property with no element to the side and it must be attached to the existing house.
• When the extension is complete it must leave at least 25sqm/265sqft of open space.
• The walls of the extension can only be as high as the existing walls, if the roof is pitched it can’t be higher than the existing roof, if flat it can’t be higher than the existing gutters.
• Ground floor windows can’t be closer than 1m from the boundaries.

If the house extension you have in mind meets the above criteria, it’s more than likely it won’t require planning, however it is always best to confirm this prior to construction. It’s also possible for a first floor extension to be exempt from planning but the requirements are far more restrictive and in our experience it is rare when building in the city.

If the project exceeds any of the criteria or you’re looking for a first floor extension, don’t worry. While it can take longer to achieve obtaining, planning permission doesn’t cost a huge amount of money and if it ensures the extension is perfect for your house, it is worth the time and money it requires. We will explain the planning process in more detail at a later time if you book a consultation online.

The Growing Family – First Floor Extensions

A growing family means the requirement for more bedrooms, unless you’re existing house is a bungalow this generally means an extension at first floor level. First floor home extensions generally require planning but, as noted earlier, this shouldn’t be an impediment in ensuring you get the right extension for your home. Critical to the first floor extension is how it is accessed from the existing house, often part of a bedroom has to be sacrificed if you require a new separate bedroom and careful thought must be given as you are reducing the size of an existing bedroom to provide a new one. That being said, the first floor extension is an excellent opportunity to get that master bedroom with walk-in closet and en-suite you have always dreamed off! Here a couple of examples of two storey developments we have sketched up:

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If you need advice on which type of extension is best for your needs. Visit us online or call Sigma Homes today on 021-436-5866 to book your house extensions design and build consultation.

Thinking about remodelling your kitchen? Remodelling is a fantastic way to breath new life into a home, but it can be expensive. That’s why you want to make sure that you get it right and any new addition to your home isn’t just part of a fleeting trend and will still look fantastic in 5, 10 or 15 years. Here are 4 timeless kitchen remodel ideas that never go out of fashion.

1: Open Layout

More open and spacious kitchen/dining areas are here to stay. By removing a few walls you create a more comfortable cooking environment because the cook isn’t banished to the kitchen by themselves and the more informal dining arrangements both serve to support a modern casual yet connected style of living.

2: Induction Hobs

Induction hobs look like they are here to stay and are growing rapidly in their popularity. They heat up pans quickly, they are energy efficient and extremely safe (it’s almost impossible to burn yourself on them, even when they are on full). They also produce much less excess heat than their electric/gas counterparts so even smaller kitchens stay cool while cooking.

3: LED Lighting

Not so long ago, LED bulbs gave off a cold blue hue that made them a nightmare for interior designers. However thanks to strides in technology, their future is looking brighter than ever. They are brighter, more efficient and last longer than fluorescent and halogen bulbs and they can be used in so many creative ways around the kitchen like illuminating an island overhang, brightening up work spaces under cabinets and much more. Many LED bulbs now have a lifespan of 50,000 working hours. So even if they were left on for 12 hours every day, you would still only have to change them once every 11 and a half years or so.

4: Marble Countertops

Marble countertops may be at the higher end of the price scale, but they are something that never goes out of fashion and they can really add a touch of class to your kitchen remodelling project. Marble counters have been popular for so long for a reason and that won’t be changing any time soon.

If you’re going to remodel your kitchen and you want to be sure that your beautiful new space won’t go out of fashion with the passing of a season, you should consider going with an open plan layout, using induction hobs instead of electric or gas, incorporating LED lighting and choosing marble as the surface for your countertops.

Book your remodelling consultation with Sigma Homes now by visiting us online or by calling us on 021-436-5866.

A growing family can mean that your home that used to have an ample amount of space is no longer fit for purpose. An increased demand for bedrooms and living space as the little ones grow up usually leave families with 2 options. You can either move and find a new house, or extend your home to make it more suitable for your needs now and in the future. Here are 3 advantages of extending instead of moving.

1: Stay In The Area You Love

One huge advantage that building a house extension has over moving is that you get to stay in the area that you have made home. When you chose to live in a particular area in the first place, you chose it for a reason. Now that moving house might mean moving away from more friends, family or your children having to move schools, you have all the more reason to stay put.

2: Full Design Control

If you move to a new home you can find something a bit more suitable than your current situation, but with a home extension, you get as much control and input in the design process as you want. You don’t have to rely on what the previous owner decided was best, you can discuss all of the ideas you wish to incorporate in your home with the architect. Nothing is off the table, you get to tailor your home to perfectly complement your needs and lifestyle.

3: Less Reliant On Third Parties

Another major advantage building a home extension has over moving to a new property is that you don’t have to rely so heavily on third parties. If you’re trying to move into a new home, most of the time you will have to rely on an estate agent to sell your current home which puts the process largely out of your control. Another unfortunate factor that happens quite often is that the seller of a new home might be almost finished with the deal and decide they don’t actually want to sell it anymore. This can be hugely frustrating and expensive, especially if you have timed the sale of your home to coincide with when you would be moving into the new home and are forced into the inflated rental market.

If you’re weighing up the options and trying to decide if you would be better off moving to a new house or extending your existing home, remember that when you extend you get to keep living in the area you love, you get full control over the design which means you get the exact features you need and you’re less reliant on third parties like estate agents and indecisive sellers.

If you’re running out of room in your home and need an extension, book your consultation with Sigma Homes today. Visit us online or call 021-436-5866 today.