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January 2011
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- January 2011
The Garage
Research published by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has found that two million households have either negative equity or too little equity to finance a house move. With moving home becoming less of an option, more and more of us are thinking of creative ways to increase our living space within our existing homes.
With a little imagination and creative thinking, your home may in fact offer more potential for expansion than we actually realise. You simply need to be pointed in the right direction to spot those hidden opportunities to either add more space or improve the existing layout. For many of us with attached garages, they provide potential to convert into habitable accommodation - be it for use as an office, playroom for example.
Key points to consider:-
- How do I know if my garage is suitable for conversion? Providing it is structurally sound, in principle, there is no reason why it can't be converted. However, for the purposes of Building Regulations, you must check that there is at least 2m of headroom, after allowing for insulation of the walls, floor and areas of roof. In the case of modern houses for example, garages are often used as sales offices meaning that in some cases, the garage is capable of conversion with no major work required.
- Will I get planning permission? In most cases, this constitutes permitted development, so planning permission is not necessary. However, if you live in a listed building or where permitted development rights have been removed or restricted, this does not apply to you. In these cases, you will have to apply for planning permission. Also, a garage conversion may be prevented by a restrictive covenant on the property so you will need to check your deeds.
- What Purpose could I use the converted garage for? In principle you can use it for any purpose you have in mind. In some cases, it can be used to create a kitchen extension or cloakroom. Here, you will need to establish where drain runs and how you can connect pipe work -which can lead to extra cost.
- What will job involve and what will it cost? Ventilation, natural daylight and insulation are key to the success of the project. The first task will be to replace the garage door with an external wall. Normally, this provides the opportunity to install a window for natural daylight and ventilation purposes. In order to create the necessary minimum 2m floor to ceiling height, the floor may have to be lowered or ceilings raised. Before plastering can start, you need to think about heating and lighting the space. Whilst planning permission may not necessarily be required, all of the above work must comply with Building Regulations.
- How much will the project cost me? The likely cost for conversion work of this nature will on average be about £900-£1,200 per square metre. A typical garage is 6m long and 3m wide meaning that the conversion would cost in the region of £18,000.
- Will the project add value to my house? Yes the conversion of a garage may do but this all depends upon personal circumstance. By definition, you will be denying your home a space to park your car and this may influence value. This is less of an issue if you have off-street parking in the form of a driveway for example. However, please bear in mind that even if your conversion adds less to the value of the home than what it costs, providing it gives you the space you need when moving is not a real option.
Above all, please remember that we have been through property slumps before and any kind of improvement work you carry out will offer you the potential edge when you do finally come to sell and in the meantime, provides improved accommodation levels.
Our Extension and how much it may cost
For many of us, having work carried out to our property can be a daunting prospect. How do I start, whom should I contact and above all, how much will it cost are all questions we have wrestled with.
In order to help ease this process, we at DoINeedPlanningPermission.co.uk have included a complimentary calculator which is simple to use and will offer an ESTIMATED cost of the proposed work.
Given that no job is the same, it would prove impossible to provide an accurate cost without more detailed information about finishes and bathroom and kitchen specifications for example. Therefore, we have deliberately not included those and the calculator is simply there to help guide you should you be considering any improvement work.
It is not definitive and of course, we are obliged to tell you that we cannot be held responsible for any disparity between this indicative cost and the quotation you may receive from a builder for example.
We do however hope the Extension Cost Calculator will prove of benefit to you.
When it comes to home improvement, love thy neighbour
A belligerent neighbour whose sole objective is to make your life as miserable as his own is a sad tale that many of us can relate to. To add further salt to those wounds, any bridges of reconciliation were burnt years ago with little to no hope of making up. However, at times, we have to swallow that bitter pill, bite our tongue and go that extra yard to “love thy neighbour” as who knows when you may need their support.
When it comes to home improvements, to have a neighbour who accepts your grand expansionist plans for a two- storey extension hard up against the common boundary for example is a case in point. Their support can save you money and angst in the long run. In most cases, many of the common projects we carry out will not need planning permission which means that the local authority will not be required to consult with your neighbour over the said project. From our own experience, we would recommend that for the sake of common courtesy, you let all your adjoining neighbours know of your future intentions to carry out works. Again, by having their support, life can be so much easier when it comes to executing the work. For example, you may live on a busy street with limited parking meaning that you may have to park a builder's van on a neighbouring drive in order to allow materials to be stored on your driveway.
If you require planning permission, your neighbours will be consulted by the local authority and at that point, will have the formal chance to either support or object to your proposals. Again, for the reasons set out above, it helps to talk in advance and hopefully, head off problems saving you time and money.
For those projects which are likely to affect your neighbour, the Party Wall Act 1996 governs the alteration of any shared structures, access for undertaking work, hours permitted for this and responsibility for repairing any damage. You must serve notice to all owners affected- both freehold and leasehold- two months in advance, ideally by hand with an independent witness or by recorded delivery. Include full details and preferably, a set of plans. If they fail to respond within 14 days or refuse consent, you are in dispute and must pay for a surveyor to negotiate a party wall agreement. You can share the same surveyor, but your neighbours have the right to appoint their own independent surveyor at your own expense. They don't come cheap and a typical party wall agreement will cost approximately £700 per neighbour.
It is also worth checking the property deeds to see if there are any restrictive covenants in place to prevent further development of your property without the consent of any beneficiaries. These apply to most ex-local authority properties and to many homes built on estates.
When your neighbour decides to play his music loud or has a dog that fails to stop barking, remember that home improvement. Please let us know if you have had similar experiences.
Fuel Bills
A sure way to end light-hearted conversation is to mention household fuel bills and their meteoric rise over the past seven years. According to the comparison website moneysupermarket.com household bills have doubled since 2003. With record low temperatures in December, my heart goes out to all of you who rely on oil to heat your homes who have seen unfair and exorbitant price rises as demand for oil has soared. Fuel poverty is a real issue amongst the vulnerable and occurs when more than 10% of household income is dedicated to paying fuel bills. However, with a degree of guile and imagination, we can do our best to reduce our energy consumption in the following ways:-
- Be savvy and search out competitive deals from other suppliers. There is nothing a service supplier likes more than a customer who is compliant and loyal to them. One thing I have begun to recognise in life is that there is little personal gain in being a loyal customer. Make your supplier be it your telephone provider or utility supplier work for their money and above all, take the time to search out more competitive deals. Also, avoid being caught in the trap of thinking that you have to stay with a supplier for a certain period of time. You can in some circumstances, change supplier after as little as 6 weeks for example but do check that the tariff you are on does not incur any penalties for doing this. I changed my dual fuel supplier last year and was rewarded with a more competitive tariff and Nectar bonus points which paid for my turkey!
- Be Proactive and submit your meter readings. Again, we are all too comfortable in paying estimated bills which falls right into the hands of the utility supplier. If your gas and electricity meters are not regularly read, estimated readings mean that you could be paying more for gas or electricity than you actually use. More importantly, if you do not submit your own meter readings, you will not be entitled to a refund should you find you have overpaid.
- Take the exercise and switch your appliance off at the plug. It is something we all do with unerring regularity and will ultimately cost us in the long run. Leaving appliance on standby is a real no no and can cost us up to £10 per month per appliance.
- Invest in Mastic and Foam. If you feel a draught, that will often indicate a potential heat loss source. In this case, try if possible to seal any gaps by either using mastic or expandable foam. By doing so, you would not only reduce the draughts but also your carbon footprint by approximately 15-20%!
- Get those Curtains lined or shutters ordered. Sadly windows are one of the most efficient ways of losing heat from your property. This is a real issue if you live in a listed property with single pane windows and the potential to have them replaced not possible on historic building grounds.
- Last but not least, wrap up warm and turn that thermostatic control down by 1 or 2 degrees.
If you have imaginative ways of reducing your fuel bills, we look forward to hearing them in the comments.
Underfloor Heating
Talk to any interior designer, and it is without doubt that if they could have their own way, conventional radiators would be consigned to the science museum. Yes, they can be considered ugly given the blank panels hanging to walls but also the pipework that feeds them. When compared to underfloor heating, a properly laid system can provide consistent warmth as opposed to the hot and cold spots of conventional radiators and free walls from clutter.
Whilst some systems use electric-powered underfloor heating, this tends to be energy hungry and in these days of high energy prices, can equate to expense. Instead, the reality of underfloor heating is that it is likely to be a wet system of pipes filled with circulating hot water.
Yes, you have guessed it; it works very much on the same principle of a conventional heating system with pipes buried in a solid floor or between the joists of a suspended timber floor.
The system is very much favoured by green builders who use it for its energy saving potential. Underfloor heating works by creating a giant radiator from the floor. This has the effect of warming you directly rather than the air around you for which I am reliably informed means it can run on lower temperatures.
When compared to underfloor heating, radiators work on the principle of giving off only around 20% of their heat by radiation, the rest by convection. The hot air rises from the radiator then flowing across the room and drawing up cool air in its wake. Not only is this extremely inefficient with the warmth located invariably at ceiling level but it also means that the temperature of the water in the system has to be much higher. It is believed that the water temperature has to be in the region of 80 Degrees C as opposed to 45-55 Degrees C. Moreover, if your room only has one panel, think that single panel has to heat the entire room.
The benefits of underfloor heating include its ability to run off any type of boiler, and that it can be bolted onto any existing central heating system. For most of us, the last thing we really want to be doing is lift existing floor slabs. However, if you are considering an extension or converting your loft, why not install this type of system? Additionally, it runs at low temperatures making it an ideal for renewable energy sources such as solar panels or ground source heating, which are unable to provide water at high enough temperatures for traditional heating systems.
Whilst the benefits of underfloor heating cannot be denied, the system has drawbacks and these are largely to do with installation and the flooring beneath which you wish to install it. Should you wish to choose this form of system, you will need to compliment it with high levels of insulation at floor level. Additionally, if your floorboards are prone to warping or shrinking, this may also affect the efficiency of the system. Some say that underfloor heating is best avoided beneath timber flooring and others believe that if the floor is properly seasoned, there should be no issue.
When considering any alteration work, there is more to heating than simply panels.
