Adding a Room onto a House

Adding a room to your home can be both a practical and exciting project, offering more space without the need for a full-scale remodel.

Whether you’re welcoming new family members, working from home, or simply in need of extra space, adding a room can provide a solution that transforms your living experience.

However, it’s crucial to understand the different types of room additions and how each could impact your lifestyle, property value, and budget.

How a Room Addition Can Benefit Homeowners

Increased living space: Growing families or lifestyle changes make it more necessary.

Added value to property: The home’s resale and market appeal increases.

Spaces unique to personal taste and use: You may just need a monotone wellness area or a studio for fine art.

Functionality: Improve your home’s practicality and make it convenient for everyday use.

Types of Room Add-Ons

Guest Room: Perfect for hosting guests or expanding your family.

Home Office: In this new world of remote working, allotted workspace may catalyze both productivity and comfort.

Extended Kitchen Market: Experience the pleasure of cooking and dining with sophisticated, larger spaces.

Solarium: Nor is creating kitchen appliances just alone, but a masterpiece because the craftsmanship is worth what it creates- every molecule, atom, and framework; however, it should be sourced from the most passionate, experienced crafters.

New Bathroom Addition: Unlike the average morning queue, convert the bath fitting into a fully installed multifunctional tile or mocha frost RG10.

Here are four main ways of adding a room to your home:

• Room conversion

Converting an existing space like a loft or garage is one of the most cost-effective options. This approach uses your home’s existing structure, often requiring fewer permissions and less disruption.

• Ground-floor addition

Adding a single-storey room to the ground floor offers more flexibility in design. It’s perfect for extending your kitchen, living space, or creating an extra bedroom. However, it may require planning permission and can reduce your garden or outdoor space.

• Second-floor addition

This option adds extra space without altering your garden. Often built above a garage, it allows for a seamless expansion. Keep in mind, though, that this requires structural support and may involve more complex planning.

• Detached addition

Building a separate structure, such as a conservatory or summer house, creates a tranquil space away from the main house. It’s ideal for those seeking privacy, but costs can be higher depending on design and materials.

Each of these options comes with unique challenges.

For example, conversions can be limited by existing architecture, while extensions often involve navigating planning regulations. Detached additions, though private, may require heating or plumbing to be truly functional.

Understanding these factors is vital to ensure your new room enhances both your lifestyle and your home’s value.

By making the right choice of adding a room, you can create a space that meets your needs today and increases your home’s appeal for the future.

If you need extra space but don’t necessarily need it attached to the main home, a cheap extension option is a summer house/hobby room.

– Yoop Architects

TWEET THIS

Planning on How to Carry Out Your Room Addition

Adding a room means analyzing its entire process carefully to be able to grant rules, design, and be practical. Here’s some steps on how to deal with it:

Assess Needs: Pinpoint the use of the new space and rank its features.

Allocate Resources: Determine an affordable budget to guide design decisions and the kinds of materials needed.

Determine Location: Will the room be a side or upward extension or a garage conversion?

Understand Planning Permission: Some room additions may fall under permitted development, while others require planning permission. This is a matter that can be worked on with Yoop Architects.

Bring in the Best: Consult a firm that is knowledgeable in asserting the stability of structural elements, efficient design, and compliance with UK building regulations.

Costs of Adding a Room Newly

Converting a Loft

The easiest type of loft conversion is a ‘Room Loft Conversion’. This is where you board out the loft and add a staircase. Maybe add a few skylight windows in the slope of the roof. You would require a good sized loft with good head height. The best roof type for the loft extension is a gabled roof (2 sides slope) rather than a hipped roof (all 4 sides slope). Always remember, you may lose a bit of space on the floor below when installing the staircase. Loft conversions are great for adding a room, maybe with an ensuite.

Prices start from £15,000

Designed and Built by Yoop Architects

Initial Consultation: Herein, you will outline your vision, needs, and budget, which paves the path for creating a structured plan.

Viability: Understanding feasibility is deciding whether the theories dreamed up in the previous steps are feasible or impossible.

Designing Custom Concepts: Completely new concepts for your existing home blending with the earlier function.

Submission and Planning: Help with planning applications, where necessary, and full compliance with building regulations.

Construction and Monitoring: Work with well-respected builders to do the job well and finalize it with quality.

Adding a Room: Dormer Loft Extension

A dormer loft extension is where a big box is typically added to the rear of the roof. This gives lots more space. Typically created via permitted development.

Prices start from £20,000 or from £35,000 with the inclusion of an en suite

Converting a Garage/Basement

Turning an existing basement/garage into a usable living space costs from £700 per square meter for the build costs

Other cost factors that you may need to consider include:

• Will you need to move your boiler/consumer unit/gas meter?
• Will you need to underpin (reinforce existing foundations)?
• Will you need to lower the floor to increase ceiling height?

Ground Addition

For a single storey, ground floor addition, if you worked out a square meter at £1500, that’s a good base price for basic quality; £1900 per square meter for good quality and £2200 per square meter for excellent quality. For an average single storey extension of 20 square metres, the build cost would be from £30,000 for a basic quality room addition.

 

Second-floor Addition

If the ground floor’s existing foundations can take the load, then you may have the option to build a second-floor addition on top of an existing room. This is much more cost-effective than building a new extension but will need planning permission if the addition is at the front of the property (i.e. above a garage)

Prices start from £15,000

 

Detached Addition

Build a Conservatory

Conservatories can usually extend by a maximum of 3 meters from the rear of the property and also have a height restriction of 3 meters without needing planning permission.

A conservatory could be a great dining area/child’s play area/pet room etc, freeing up space for a larger kitchen/lounge area in your home.

DIY, ready-to-install conservatories can cost as little as £3,000 or a mid-priced design that will be comfortable even on hot and cold days can cost from £15,000.

Build a Summer House

If you need extra space but don’t necessarily need it attached to the main home, a cheap extension option is a summer house/hobby room. A quite generous size can be easily achieved under permitted development unless the unit will contain a toilet and kitchen (then the building will be considered a self-contained unit and may need planning permission).

Costs vary depending on the size, quality, level of insulation, type of interior and exterior finishes etc of the summer house/hobby room but a cheap, modular kit can cost as little as £2,000

Share this…

 

Adding a room will generally come under permitted development unless the addition is at the front of the property.

Additional costs that you may need to consider include:

• Professional fees (if you need an architect/structural engineer/project management)
• Reports about your property (Tree/Flood Risk/Ecology etc)
• Building Regulations Approval
• Party Wall Agreement
  (Covers shared walls/structures and protects both yourself and your neighbours whilst work is being carried out)
• Build Over Agreement
  (If you’ve got a shared drain running across the back of your garden and you’re going to build over it or within three meters proximity)
• Insurance

 

Total Cost for adding a room

To calculate the cost of your project, Yoop Architects take a measured survey of your property, which captures all the information. Then we draw it all up in 3D and create sketches to show sometimes five or six options if it’s not entirely clear how you want to achieve your brief.

A lot of the times there are different ways of achieving your desired result and the more you work with the building, the cheaper, easier and faster your build will be. Once you’ve got a favorite scheme or a couple of favorite schemes, we have a phase called ‘Meet the Builders’. That’s when we can introduce you to a couple of builders, they visit the property and they give you a ballpark figure.

How Yoop Architects Can Help

Yoop Architects – we bring experience, creativity, and attention to detail for each project. Here’s what separates us from everybody else:

We Design Our Innovation: Spaces created to reflect whatever kind of environment and look a resident fancies.

Regulation Know-how: This ensures the appliance of the project on the domestic land, with respectful consideration and related works. 

End-to-End Project Management: Starting from the idea, we introduce ourselves right through to the point of extinguishment, ensuring a smooth experience for you. 

Green Features: We take environmental issues in account and also adopt eco-friendly measures to increase energy efficiency and create the dream responsible domicile. 

Benefits of Adding a Room with Yoop Architects

• Better utility and functionality
• All advice from the experts and an uninterrupted job.
• Increase in house rates and curb appeal.

Reconstruct Your Living Space Now

“Protruding” a room into your home offers an exciting experience as it adapts the new space for your needs. Yield a well-thought-out and meticulously implemented project from an experienced team-with a Yoop Architect. 

Contact us today to get your appointment in tentative planning for your room addition journey to begin!