Your home… with living:room

Earlier today, I watched a great talk by Seth Godin (entrepreneur, author and self-styled ‘agent of change’), called ‘This is Broken’, where he highlighted various ways that people or businesses design around a problem rather than fix the problem itself.

It made me think about housing design and the kind of problems that I come across time and time again – things that are ‘broken’ and with a little bit more thought and care could be designed out, so that they are no longer a problem.

I came up with so many examples that I’m preparing a series of posts highlighting the issues to watch out for when buying or extending a home.

The Bad Extension

Many of the enquiries I have received lately have been from homeowners who bought a home in the past few years that had already been extended but now, having lived in it for a while, they find doesn’t actually work.

Often, they have lots of space but the rooms are too dark or are in the wrong place or there is no natural flow between rooms and some become corridors.

Does this sound familiar?

The No. 1 culprit in the Bad Extension category is the extension that has been built across the full width of the back of the house, blocking all natural light to what were the main rooms and making these spaces almost unusable.

This bad boy will have the worst impact on a terraced house, where there are no side walls to add new windows and bring natural light back in. If you have a semi-detached or detached home, there may be the possibility of introducing new windows on the side elevation, to light those middle rooms, but if you also have a neighbouring house only a couple of metres away, these windows will have only a limited effect.

It is a double-whammy, cost-wise – not only do you end up with space you can’t use but you’ve paid extra for that space and will have to shell out again to get it fixed.

The other main offender is the ‘Designed (and possibly Built) it Myself’ extension, whose distinguishing features include a warren of small rooms that have either no or limited use, rooms that become through-routes to the next room and rooms that aren’t connected but should be.

These are sometimes enhanced by ribbons of boxed in pipework where kitchens or bathrooms have been moved around, without considering existing water and drainage outlets and single skin external walls without insulation that retain little or no heat and will increase heating costs.

It is not always necessary to use an architect, if you are carrying out work – but would you have the know-how to recognise if your project is a simple or a complicated one? An architect will usually save money – and earn their fee – by identifying the most cost-effective way to extend your home, reducing the build costs and ensuring that the final result enhances your home and protects its value.

When buying a house that has already been extended, make sure your solicitor requests Compliance Certificates from the seller – these are documents, signed by an architect or engineer, confirming that the extension complies with the appropriate Planning & Building Regulations.

It is perfectly feasible, however, that an extension could be granted planning permission, built to the correct standards and still be a ‘bad extension’, as described above. Planning criteria relate to the impact of new building work on neighbouring properties and the surrounding area – not the quality of the space created in the building itself.

The lesson then, if you are extending, is avoid these mistakes and you will be on your way to creating a pleasant and functional home. If you are considering buying a previously extended house and spot any of the above tell-tale signs – approach with caution.

Did you find this article useful? Do you have any pet peeves about housing design? Please leave a comment with your thoughts on the subject and also any other home improvement issues you’d like to know more about.