Before extending your home there are several things you need to factor in before jumping in the deep end with builders and cement mixers. 

Extending your home shouldn’t be an overly stressful situation so we have prepared some things to think about to smoothen your journey. 

Make sure you hire the right people for the job

Everyone wants the perfect image in their head when extending their home. Make sure you hire someone who will listen and take time to plan out your extension. You want someone who can draw up a design of your description, match your home interior and exterior to the extension and look out for any obstacles that may occur. 

Before extending your home and before you contact builders and / or architects make sure you have a detailed plan for how it should look, the sizes you want and most importantly the reason you are getting an extension. A professional can guide you in the best way possible when they know what you want to achieve from your extension. 

Time

Rome wasn’t built in a day and your extension won’t be either. Adding an extension to your home can be a lengthy process with a lot of back and forth to ensure everything is done just right. Even smaller extensions can take up to a couple of months and large projects can take up to six months. 

Make sure you and your family discuss the time involved when adding an extension. You want everyone in the home to be comfortable with the time it will take as it can get noisy and messy in the house from time to time. 

Budget

It is easy to lose track of costs when you are extending your home so ensure you have a very detailed budget beforehand. There can be so many minor things you might want added to your extension so write them all down and get costs for everything. 

Building an extension is like any other financial investment, you want to make sure you have the money to do it before going ahead. Again, if you make sure you hire the right people for the job they can work with you on your budget and show you what can be achieved. 

Planning permission and any other permission needed

Ensure you have planning permission to extend your home. Your local authority can best advise you on whether or not you need planning permission for your extension. Generally, you will not need planning permission for: Building an extension to the rear of the house which does not increase the original floor area of the house by more than 40 square metres and is not higher than the house. Although always check to be sure!

Also make sure you follow the Building Regulations when adding an extension. Your extension should abide to a fire safety standard, structural integrity, ventilation, energy-efficiency and more. Ask your builders to look into this further for your particular property. 

You will also need to update your house insurance to include your extension and be sure to check in with neighbours to ensure the extension does not affect their property. 

See here for more information on extending your home.