Natural-looking extensions
When a home becomes too small for a family’s needs, an obvious choice is to move to a bigger house.
But it is often more sensible and indeed cheaper to extend the existing property simply by building on additional rooms.
More and more people these days are abandoning the idea of moving to a bigger home when they run out of space, choosing to build on to their current property instead. Of course, people’s needs vary – some want two-storey extensions or an ambitious loft conversion, while others need only an extra living room to give them some much-needed breathing space. But whatever the requirement, a home extension is a big project that needs careful consideration.
Space requirements
It is important to analyse your situation carefully to decide just what sort of extra space you need. Perhaps the most obvious requirement is an extra bedroom to cope with an addition to the family. You may have a house with just one living room, and feel that it cannot cope with all the different activities of the family.
There may be a need for a study where you can pursue your favourite hobby or where teenagers can do their homework. You might even feel it a good idea to provide a separate playroom for the children. This can be converted into a teenager’s playroom alter, and then a guest room once the children grow up. And extra space in the kitchen or the bathroom is always useful. A garage for a second car, or a room devoted entirely to storage or hobbies could ease the pressure elsewhere in and around the house.
You may be able to resolve your space problems simply by rezoning a room for a different purpose – such as repurposing a garage and turning it into a playroom for the kids. Alternatively, adjacent rooms can be opened up to create one large open-plan space that would serve your purposes much better – for example, if you have a really small kitchen, it might be better to open it up into the dining room and lounge to create one open-plan living area with a more airy and spacious appeal.
Siting and structure
With some idea in your mind about the sort of extra room you need, you can then start thinking about where to build and what type of structure you would like. You will need to consider such factors as planning restrictions, access from the existing house and site geography when it comes to choosing the site for the extension.
One aspect worth remembering is that it can be very difficult to blend the lines of an extension in with an existing structure. One clever design trick to get this right includes setting the front of a side extension back from the front of the house by a metre or so. By keeping the windows at the same height, you retain a feeling of continuity, but maintain a subtle aesthetic for the add-on. The same applies for roof lines – it is often preferable to go for a broken roof line, than to try and dovetail a new roof into the existing one. Similarly, instead of erecting a living room extension parallel to the wall at the rear of the house, why not consider building it as a wing at right angles to the house for a more dramatic effect.
Blending old with new
Your choice of building materials is vitally important if the extension is to blend perfectly with the existing house. Matching brickwork is notoriously difficult, which could be a real problem if your home has a face brick exterior. If you can’t find matching bricks, architects often suggest you plaster the new extension in a manner that blends in with the rest of the house. It is far easier if your home has been plastered entirely, then it doesn’t matter which bricks you use, as long as the finished rendering is plastered in the same method as the rest of the home.
The type of roofing you choose should also be an identical match to the existing roof, as should the doors and windows used in the new extension. Mixing and matching can look very awkward and clumsy – for example, using aluminium frames in the extension, when the rest of the house features wooden windows would look awful.
When planning you new extension, do not miss the opportunity to include the kind of feature you wished you had in the rest of your home, such as solar geysers, double-glazing, added wall and roof insulation, and so on. – Antonella Dési
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