Hi all, we would appreciate some advice on our extension… we have an 80s extension on our Edwardian semi. It has an odd arrangement with a toilet and shower that we want to combine hopefully with a window to help ventilation but a main issue is the whole area is freezing in winter and boiling in summer. What do people recommend to make it more habitable? It will ultimately be a playroom/dining/office room Would it be worth replacing the flat felt roof which is old with pitched and properly insulating? It needs new windows which will help but the sliding door is fairly new. It is solid brick with concrete pad, so would insulated plasterboard be suitable? What about external insulation? I know neither would be suitable in the older part of the house. We don’t have a big budget but hoping to make changes to make it more habitable.
Advice needed for changing old extension
- Thread starter Build49
- Start date
We think it’s a single skin brick wall, the toilet and shower are part of the same space but the kitchen is the original building, we think the toilet may have been the old outbuilding maybe but the felt roof is over the toilet shower and back room
That corner where the patio door meets the the window, is a structural red flag.
I personally would not faff about with it, rather I'd knock it down and re-build. Purely because of the 'lipstick on a pig' approach. If the foundations surprised me, I might change my mind and try and modify the masonry above.
Seems to me that your basic choice is either take everything down behind the kitchen and start over, maybe even extending the kitchen sideways which would maximise the potential but at highest cost or do some tarting up which could take many forms and many levels of cost.
If you involve Building Control you will almost certainly be required to bring any thermal elements up to standard which will involve a lot of insulation, whereas in the real world even an inch of Celotex will make a difference (but not as much as 2).
You want to try to attack the worst areas of heat loss first to get the best out of your budget and since heat rises and you've said the roof needs replaced then that's where I'd start with a simple change to a warm deck flat roof. You'll want 150 of Celotex to match code and in this case I would go the whole hog. (When I did my daughter's place it was 100 required and I used 2x50 since that avoided wasting half a sheet of 100)
This is one of those situations where a trustworthy builder who can talk prices for different options is likely to be your best bet.
If you involve Building Control you will almost certainly be required to bring any thermal elements up to standard which will involve a lot of insulation, whereas in the real world even an inch of Celotex will make a difference (but not as much as 2).
You want to try to attack the worst areas of heat loss first to get the best out of your budget and since heat rises and you've said the roof needs replaced then that's where I'd start with a simple change to a warm deck flat roof. You'll want 150 of Celotex to match code and in this case I would go the whole hog. (When I did my daughter's place it was 100 required and I used 2x50 since that avoided wasting half a sheet of 100)
This is one of those situations where a trustworthy builder who can talk prices for different options is likely to be your best bet.
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