Convert sunroom into habitable room

[Jackswan]

I am hoping that someone could give me some pointers or ideas on converting an old sunroom into a habitable room.

The house was for some time used as a doctors surgery and this L shaped room built at the back was used as a waiting room. When we bought the property it had been converted (sort of) back into a residential property and this room was loosely called a "sunroom"

My daughter has now reached the age of two and I would like to use the room as a play room and possibly later as a kitchen.

Some photos of the room

This face of the room is 5 metres long and has a double skinned wall and has a height of 2.3 metres up to the gutter. All other walls are single skin.

This face is just over 4 metres wide

The room at the moment has a corrugated plastic roof which is worse than useless. Due to this and part single skin walls it is prone to condensation and is very cold in the winter. Surprisingly we have no rising damp on the inside walls.

What I wish to do if it is possible is to insulate the inside faces of the walls and put a proper pitch roof with matching tiles to the main house roof.

There is a very low pitch to the roof at present, roughly about 14 degrees.

Just wondering if I could build a timber frame on the inside of the walls with Celotex insulation and foil backed plasterboard and lift the pitch of the roof upwards by fitting new roof trusses?


Some details of the inside

Note that there are no lintels above the windows just timber, but looking closely might have been at some time.
The room is roughly 2.5 metres wide all around.

This view shows the patio door just visible to the right.

I am guessing that the general opinion would be to demolish it and start again, which I did intend to do originally. But finances have changed, so considering other ways.

I would be grateful if anyone could give their views or ideas which I could take onboard.

cheers

 

[Shytalkz]

Would be cheaper to pull it down and start again, rather than titting around with that, tbh.

 

[^woody^]

It looks like a proper job, so the foundations and walls would likely be OK.

In which case, assuming you want to keep the large windows, then its just a case of sorting out the roof.

It would be possible to span the piers and and form a suitably braced roof for tiling. Then you can either have a normal ceiling, or probably better as its a low pitch, to board the underside of the rafters - and possibly a couple of roof lights.

Insulate the walls internally with some Celotex board.

The floor may be an issue as it will need insulating. So if you can't do this on top and keep the floor level with the house, then you may have to chop up the floor and insulate and then relay

 

[Shytalkz]

Woods, you don't often talk out of your a*se (well, not too many times anyways ), but this is one of them.

The gable with the patio doors in is half-brick, presumably the courtyard flank is too and the suspicion is that the one with the humongous windows in is too. The roof is pants, the floor's not likely to be insulated....

Silk purses and sows' ears

 

[^woody^]

Do you mean 1/2 brick, like ... er... garage walls? Like.... garage walls which people don't knock down when converting to a room?

The piers look at least 1 brick thick, so will support a properly braced roof which can be tiled, so the existing roof will go.

As I said, the only issue would be the floor.

I can't see any reason to knock down a perfectly sound structure which will be suitable for conversion at much less cost and disruption, and which will be as good as any new build extension when converted

 

[Shytalkz]

What's it sat on? What's the wall between the piers?

By the time one has p*ssed about with it, you might just as well hoof it down and build what you want, than titting around with what is a farily crap structure to start with.

IMHO

 

[^woody^]

Of course.

But looking at it it does look a proper job, and as a former doctors surgery, it is likely that the work was done properly with adequate foundations.

Yes, it will need looking at for any signs of distress, but if that has been up a while with no issues, then I can't see why things would change if converted.

Have knocked down those old barn walls and replaced the old foundations yet?

 

[Jackswan]

Well, thanks for the replies

Would be cheaper to pull it down and start again,

I had a feeling that this would come up

I am just interested in opinions before I ring up a few builders, so any advice will be most welcome. Obviously the easiest option would be to pull it down and rebuild, but that is not going to be cheap.

What would be a rough estimate for a structure that is around 20 square metres in size, probably somewhere between £15,000-£20,000?

The room probably dates from the 1950s-1960s when the house was under the ownership of the local health authority, a proper roof might have been on it at the time rather than the one that is there now, I can only guess on that. The doctors surgery closed down in the mid 1980's and the house was left open to vandalism, when all the original slate tiles were nicked off the main house, possibly on this room as well. The previous owner fitted the current roof and roof timbers, a real bodge job, but has lasted while we have got the rest of the house into shape.

All the walls seem structually solid, don't know what foundations they are built on. Floor probably has no insulation, but does not seem damp, presently is covered with vinyl flooring. There is also a manhole cover which does not seem to be sealed under the flooring but does not smell.

How much extra thickness would be on the floor to insulate it?

The windows are just ugly and do not match the rest of the house, so would have to go, same with the door and patio door that are presently fitted

The piers are 300mm thick.

It might be better to knock down and rebuild, a couple of local builders might say that to make more money. I hope that they can give an honest opinion.

 

[Jackswan]

Forgot to mention my wife wants to knock it down and build a conservatory, don't think she realises how much that would cost. But I am thinking more about the heat that we would lose as our heating bill for this house is quite substantial

 

[^woody^]

You are probably looking at £10-12k to knock it down and lay new foundations and build new walls nothing else ...... and for the same £10-12k you can lay a new floor, sort out the frames and fit a new roof to the existing structure.

But if I was a builder, I would want you to pay me £25-30k to build you something new

Apart from the economics, the choice is to adapt what is there and work with the constraints, or build something new to how you want it.

Either is possible

 

[Shytalkz]

But if I was a builder, I would want you to pay me £25-30k to build you something new.

Yeh, right...!

The thing is, by the time you've done the roof, changed the windows, changed the patio doors, lineds the walls, insulated the floor yadayada, you're almost into Trigger's Brush territory.

Personally, I'd go the extra mile and have what I wanted, rather than mess about with some half-arsed bit of structure.

Talking of which Woods, it's in for pp at the mo for a pull-down and rebuild

 

[ColJack]

you'll be hard pressed to change the pitch of the roof anyway since it's right under the window on the long side...

 

[^woody^]

it's in for pp at the mo for a pull-down and rebuild

Wonderful. That's answered that then.

We'll just wait for the "how deep should my foundations be, how much will a builder charge me for..., what tiles will go on a 15 degree pitch" questions now.

It obviously must be a radically different design, and outside of any PD rights then, to require messing about with planning permission

 

[Jackswan]

Just an update on this so far.

I've had a few builders up this week and the general concensus is to knock it down and rebuild.

One estimate has come through tonight - £21,500 plus the cost of drainage after I have spoken to building control.

I am guessing the other estimates will be higher.

I thought that it would be expensive but not this amount!!!

 

[^woody^]

the general concensus is to knock it down and rebuild.

One estimate has come through tonight - £21,500 .....
I am guessing the other estimates will be higher.

Do you think there may be a connection?