Work from home extension + more

A small home in a good location needed extra space to suit a growing family, who also required separate work from home accommodation. To do this we helped design a two-storey rear extension to create a nice kitchen + master bedroom suite upstairs. A simple single storey side extension with flat roof and rooflight was also added to form the dedicated work from home space. Internal remodelling and upgrades were also required to other parts of the house to create a downstairs toilet + new bespoke staircase + extra storage + full external re-render to the old house and new parts.

A simple set of matching in extensions have been used to create the extra space, while also providing excellent levels of natural light.

Half height buff brick walls are topped with a white render with a profiled roof tile covering. A high-performance Sika polyurethane flat roof covering has been used to the single storey side extension element. A made to measure timber staircase has been built to suit the specifics of the existing house, that also complies with the Building Regulations  [the old staircase didn’t comply and the owners regularly bumped their heads!]. A new luxury kitchen has been supplied by DIY Kitchens that is of high quality, while also being good value. 

At face value this is a relatively straight forward project, but it ended up being far from straight forward as there were several complications to overcome. The two-storey extension part is located above a small public sewer and needed special mini-pile foundations. The project was initially signed off by the council with shallow strip foundations being allowed, sitting on top of the drains below. We weren’t convinced this was correct as it risked damaging the sewers, we investigated further, consulted with Yorkshire Water, and asked for another site visit from the council. When on site again the council agreed with us that shallow strip foundations were not suitable and that piled foundations needed to be used instead. We helped source a local piling specialist to complete the piled foundations to bridge over the drains so there is no weight from the extension pushing down onto the drains below. 

The side extension is also quite close to the boundary with the next-door neighbour, so we needed to obtain permission from the neighbour for the deep piled foundations. This is dealt with by the Party Wall Act legislation. Despite early positive discussions with the neighbour, when a formal Party Wall Notice was served, the neighbours quickly changed their minds and lodged a formal Party Wall Act disagreement. The Clients then had to employ two more Party Wall Surveyors [in addition to their own Party Wall Surveyor] to draw up a Party Wall Award, the legal document that sets out an agreement between both parties. This was all approved without any issue and didn’t change any of the building work as we had ensured our designs were as least disruptive as possible to the neighbours. Unfortunately, this did delay the project by several weeks which was frustrating, disappointing and avoidable. 

Despite the complexities and frustrations, the project is going to provide a fantastic house that all the family will love using, while also providing a quiet, work from home space.