What to consider when extending your home

Extending your house

Image by Laura Shaw from Pixabay

Adding on new structures to an existing house poses a number of challenges.

• Floor levels should preferably match. Where there are steps between the new addition and the original house these need to be planned so that the size of the stair treads and risers are a consistent size that match the recommended comfortable and legal stair sizes. See Ensure the steps in your house are not a hazard or a nuisance and Designing stairs in your new home
• It’s often difficult to match the existing finishes – particularly face bricks, textured or coloured render work, floor tiles and timber flooring. The problem of matching finishes often results in a permanent mismatch and the new work always appears different from the original building. The alternative is to change the existing finishes and materials to match the new work, which can add significant extra expense which wasn’t foreseen when the budget was prepared.
• Tying in a roof structure poses many challenges, the most obvious being to ensure that there are no leaks. But even getting the same materials of the same colour can be a problem.
• Where floor finishes are carried through from one room to another, such as ceramic tiles or timber, it’s difficult to find the same matching materials and colours. In fact, even when the exact colour is found you’ll frequently find that the existing material in the house has faded with time and use.

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• Existing floor levels may dictate the type of materials used on the new floor. Generally we don’t want small steps between different rooms in the house. So, if you’re chopping up the floor tiles in the bathroom and re-tiling it you’re often restricted to use a product of similar thickness, or thinner. Using a thicker tile or product will mean the top surface is probably higher than the finished level in the adjoining room. It’s not recommended to reduce the top level of the existing concrete slab to accommodate a thicker tile because this is expensive and it will weaken the slab. Using a thinner tile will necessitate using more glue, or applying a layer of grout under the tile to ensure the top of the new tile is level with the adjoining room. In addition, changing the floor level will impact the doors. If floor levels increase doors may scrape on the floor so they’ll need to be cut shorter – not usually a major problem. But if the new floor level is lower, then the doors may have a large gap underneath which could be unsightly and allow noise and light to enter from the adjoining room. You may have to install new doors of the correct length. Sometimes door frames and architraves end at the top of the finished floor. Installing a floor finish which is thinner than the existing floor will mean that the bottom of the frame is now raised above the new floor level. This is unsightly and is a place for dirt to be trapped and it could even be a hazard that cut people’s feet.
• Sometimes, simply moving a wall, or even a kitchen cupboard may seem simple, but often timber and tile floors have been laid around the existing wall or cupboard. Moving the wall or cupboard exposes a bare piece of floor. Patching the timber or tile often results in colour differences (assuming the product is still available). Before removing an internal wall for your house renovation consider this

In our house we undertook renovations in the main bedroom. This involved moving a few walls slightly and the timber floor had to be patched in a couple of places. Firstly we had to find the exact same timber for the patches. Then the complete bedroom floor had to be sanded and sealed. But the timber floor continued from the bedroom out the door through the whole upper level floor. The newly sanded and treated floor was always going to have a different colour from the original floor which had aged in the sun and with use. We eventually had to sand and seal all the existing timber floor upstairs to achieve a uniform coloured floor – about one hundred square metres (a thousand square feet) because one square metre (ten square feet) had to be patched!

Extending your home is not always simple

As we have previously discussed always be careful when cutting new openings in existing walls or removing existing walls you do not want to damage your home like in this example House collapses during renovations so see these important tips  Before removing walls or adding new windows and doors check your house will not fall down and ​Restrictions which could impact your home renovation plans
There are often potential problems which are hidden, additional costs which you only see when you connect the additions and new portions to your existing house. Proper planning and thought can help avoid some problems. Sometimes you must allow for the additional costs of altering existing floor finishes and repainting roofs and walls.

​This is an extract from the author's book 'An Introduction to Building and Renovating Houses: Volume 1 Hiring Contractors, Managing Construction and Finishing Your Home'.

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​Paul Netscher has written 2 easy to read books 'An Introduction to Building and Renovating Houses - Volumes 1 and 2'. An Introduction to Building and Renovating Houses Volume 1 deals with Hiring Contractors, Managing Construction and Finishing Your Home.  and Designing your ideal home Volume 2 deals with Finding Your Ideal Property and Designing Your Dream Home. 
​("Great for those that DIY. Very helpful in home renovations!" said a Reader on Amazon.com 5*****)
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