Hello all!
I recently moved into a flat (Victorian conversion) in NW London (Zone 2). I'm on the upper ground floor. There's a flat on a floor below, and 2 flats/floors above.
Ceilings throughout are nice and high (~3.2m). The kitchen is a smallish, I think quite old, extension (just under 15 square metres). For some reason, they left the ceiling height lower than it could be (probably about 40-50cm) - it's 2.35m. I'm planning on knocking through an internal wall to enlarge the kitchen, but the extended bit would have the 3.2m ceiling height. Ideally, I'd like to raise the ceiling/roof height of the existing extension by, say 40cm, to give a much nicer, more open feel to it (especially as it has great views over communal gardens). So 2 questions:
1) The big one, cost: I had a builder round who said that the cost of a new roof would be ~£300/sqm, so about £1,500 in my case. But the bigger cost would be building up the side walls. So as a rough ballpark (without having looked in proper detail), he said something in the region of £15k. Appreciate it's hard without much info, but does anyone have any experience of this, any ideas of whether that sounds like a realistic number?
2) Building regs - I doubt the existing walls of the extension meet current building regs. If I were to add to the height (and have the new bit comply with new regs), would I be made to "refurbish" the existing walls to comply as well (which I guess would be a big expense) or could I leave them as is?
Any advice/suggestions massively appreciated!
I recently moved into a flat (Victorian conversion) in NW London (Zone 2). I'm on the upper ground floor. There's a flat on a floor below, and 2 flats/floors above.
Ceilings throughout are nice and high (~3.2m). The kitchen is a smallish, I think quite old, extension (just under 15 square metres). For some reason, they left the ceiling height lower than it could be (probably about 40-50cm) - it's 2.35m. I'm planning on knocking through an internal wall to enlarge the kitchen, but the extended bit would have the 3.2m ceiling height. Ideally, I'd like to raise the ceiling/roof height of the existing extension by, say 40cm, to give a much nicer, more open feel to it (especially as it has great views over communal gardens). So 2 questions:
1) The big one, cost: I had a builder round who said that the cost of a new roof would be ~£300/sqm, so about £1,500 in my case. But the bigger cost would be building up the side walls. So as a rough ballpark (without having looked in proper detail), he said something in the region of £15k. Appreciate it's hard without much info, but does anyone have any experience of this, any ideas of whether that sounds like a realistic number?
2) Building regs - I doubt the existing walls of the extension meet current building regs. If I were to add to the height (and have the new bit comply with new regs), would I be made to "refurbish" the existing walls to comply as well (which I guess would be a big expense) or could I leave them as is?
Any advice/suggestions massively appreciated!
