Why is my home raised, can it be fixed?

[boxrick]

Good afternoon folks! I have recently purchased a Bungalow and plan to renovate and extend it. However as you can see from the below picture the height of the floor is raised a good elevation.

Simply put, why would this be the case?
Secondly if I am about to completely gut the building, replace all the windows and extend is this an opportunity to lower the floor down or is this expensive insanity?

 

[RonnyRaygun]

Is there a flood risk in the area?

If you lower the floor you will also need to lower the DPC.

what would be the benefit of lowering the floor?

 

[bernardgreen]

Flood risk maybe, https://flood-warning-information.service.gov.uk/long-term-flood-risk

or maybe radon gas area https://www.ukradon.org/information/ukmaps

 

[Notch7]

There will be a reason it is raised, a builder wouldn't have built it that way for no purpose.

 

[catlad]

Its got a look of M.O.D about it to me.

 

[JohnD]

to me it looks like a former small-town telephone exchange, redundant and converted to housing.

are there manholes outside?

try to find an old streetview or OS map.

they were not identified by signs.

 

[bernardgreen]

Is that a gate to an estate of some sort ?

 

[Nige F]

[
Is that a gate to an estate of some sort ?

Barracks ?

 

[HERTS P&D]

Shouldn't you of asked these questions before you bought the house?

Andy

 

[endecotp]

He has previously described it as “It was originally the ground keepers house for a gated community and a bunch of flats.”

Read more: https://www.diynot.com/diy/threads/...missions-and-road-noise.551450/#ixzz6gmzgih7T

 

[^woody^]

I see.

It's like the serving window at McDonald's drive through which needs to be higher than the car window and level with vans and lorries.

 

[mattylad]

I assume it looked like that when you bought it.

Personally I'd be happier knowing its fairly well protected from floods.
Mind you, if you have a access hatch, whats underneath? the bungalow I have seen like that has a concrete floored area that you can crawl through and use for storage (suitably wrapped).

 

[boxrick]

Thanks for the responses everyone, as you saw from my previous post. It is a 1970s groundkeepers bungalow, probably built quite basic I imagine.

I did pull up the floorboards this evening and see if there was anything underneath. It all looks fairly plain and standard, nothing too shocking down there.

There is a slight flood risk in this area, so I assume it would be related to that. The main reason to look to lower the floor would simply be so we wouldn't need to climb up stairs to enter our house.

Also got some plans drawn up for the extension and it means of course that we cannot simply go right into our garden but need stairs lowering us gradually down. I guess just leaving it as is will be the most sensible route to take though.

 

[endecotp]

Insulate the pipes.

 

[boxrick]

Insulate the pipes.

I am going to be doing a whole lot of renovation work, I am not entirely sure much of the original pipes will be left when I am finished. But of course it will all insulated!