Hi All,
Wondered if anyone might be able to give me a little advice if possible re a very small 'extension' I am looking at building myself.
Quite hard to explain, but essentially what we have is a 1960's linked detached house where our garage is essentially attached to both my house and my neighbours. Behind said garage is a small area that housed an outdoor WC & coal store. The previous owner extended the flat roof that covered the garage to now cover the 'courtyard' like space behind the garage, between the two houses to create a makeshift utility area.
To do this they appear to have had a timber lintel fitted from the wall of the old external WC to the house itself to take the roof of the utility area and then had a UPVC door fitted below to close the area off from the elements.
Sensible idea at the time and looks like it has served it's purpose nobly for the last 20+ years. However, as per the below existing plan it leaves an area of approx 2sm2 behind the extension that is essentially dead space and we would like to extend the extension to meet the back of our house and utilise this space.
So as per the above, what we essentially want to do is remove the existing solid brick wall (single skim with thick render internally), build a new wall as close as poss to the end of our house across to meet our neighbours wall to close the space off and then extend the existing flat roof to meet the new wall.
The flat roof is a pretty simple shutter board type with a felt of sorts on top of that and with timber joists below that which have been ran from the garage wall out to the old WC wall and the new timber lintel. So, my thinking would be to prop up the existing roof once the new wall is built, remove the joists that will then be too short and replace them with appropriate length timber from the garage wall out to the new wall. Once that is done I can then add additional ply boards to extend the roof and then overlay the whole thing with new felt. So the roofing bit I think I have a workable plan in my head (do feel free to correct me if you can see a glaring error in my plan!). However, it is the new wall that is foxing me a tad..
The existing wall that housed the old external WC is built off of my neighbours wall as far as I can tell and uses the same bricks as both of our houses have used. As the wall was never planned to go all the way across the gap there are not enough bricks, so reusing is not an option.
The is an existing concrete pad that the old WC is sat on and that runs out into the garden past the point where we want to build the new wall (had a patio built on in which has now been removed).
In theory at least, would this pad be ok to use as a foundation for the new wall? Ideally I want to build a timber frame wall that will bridge the gap between the two houses and fit a new composite PVC door.
Second, and probably more tricky to resolve, issue is that the existing soil pipe comes up from the floor in the WC. When we move the wall and extend out the hole for the soil will be in the wrong place. Also, there is another entry point at ground level just outside the existing building footprint where the rainwater downpipe expels. This will be within the boundary of the new extension so will also need to be moved ideally.
I guess my question on this one is, how easy it to move these underground soil pipes? Will it be a case of excavating all around the two openings once the wall has gone and then making adjustments to underground pipework before filling all back in with concrete?
So I guess my questions are these:
1) Does my outlayed plan re the roof and extended seems about right / best way to do what I need?
2) In theory at least, is the existing large concrete pad that site beneath the WC and courtyard area ok to build a new timber frame wall off of? Or should I excavate and lay a new trench foundation?
3) Do I have any choices other than digging up the floor to move / adjust soil pipe?
I appreciate this is a little vague, but hopefully someone will be able to offer some advice.
Thank you.
Wondered if anyone might be able to give me a little advice if possible re a very small 'extension' I am looking at building myself.
Quite hard to explain, but essentially what we have is a 1960's linked detached house where our garage is essentially attached to both my house and my neighbours. Behind said garage is a small area that housed an outdoor WC & coal store. The previous owner extended the flat roof that covered the garage to now cover the 'courtyard' like space behind the garage, between the two houses to create a makeshift utility area.
To do this they appear to have had a timber lintel fitted from the wall of the old external WC to the house itself to take the roof of the utility area and then had a UPVC door fitted below to close the area off from the elements.
Sensible idea at the time and looks like it has served it's purpose nobly for the last 20+ years. However, as per the below existing plan it leaves an area of approx 2sm2 behind the extension that is essentially dead space and we would like to extend the extension to meet the back of our house and utilise this space.
So as per the above, what we essentially want to do is remove the existing solid brick wall (single skim with thick render internally), build a new wall as close as poss to the end of our house across to meet our neighbours wall to close the space off and then extend the existing flat roof to meet the new wall.
The flat roof is a pretty simple shutter board type with a felt of sorts on top of that and with timber joists below that which have been ran from the garage wall out to the old WC wall and the new timber lintel. So, my thinking would be to prop up the existing roof once the new wall is built, remove the joists that will then be too short and replace them with appropriate length timber from the garage wall out to the new wall. Once that is done I can then add additional ply boards to extend the roof and then overlay the whole thing with new felt. So the roofing bit I think I have a workable plan in my head (do feel free to correct me if you can see a glaring error in my plan!). However, it is the new wall that is foxing me a tad..
The existing wall that housed the old external WC is built off of my neighbours wall as far as I can tell and uses the same bricks as both of our houses have used. As the wall was never planned to go all the way across the gap there are not enough bricks, so reusing is not an option.
The is an existing concrete pad that the old WC is sat on and that runs out into the garden past the point where we want to build the new wall (had a patio built on in which has now been removed).
In theory at least, would this pad be ok to use as a foundation for the new wall? Ideally I want to build a timber frame wall that will bridge the gap between the two houses and fit a new composite PVC door.
Second, and probably more tricky to resolve, issue is that the existing soil pipe comes up from the floor in the WC. When we move the wall and extend out the hole for the soil will be in the wrong place. Also, there is another entry point at ground level just outside the existing building footprint where the rainwater downpipe expels. This will be within the boundary of the new extension so will also need to be moved ideally.
I guess my question on this one is, how easy it to move these underground soil pipes? Will it be a case of excavating all around the two openings once the wall has gone and then making adjustments to underground pipework before filling all back in with concrete?
So I guess my questions are these:
1) Does my outlayed plan re the roof and extended seems about right / best way to do what I need?
2) In theory at least, is the existing large concrete pad that site beneath the WC and courtyard area ok to build a new timber frame wall off of? Or should I excavate and lay a new trench foundation?
3) Do I have any choices other than digging up the floor to move / adjust soil pipe?
I appreciate this is a little vague, but hopefully someone will be able to offer some advice.
Thank you.
