COMMON HOME EXTENSION MISTAKES

This normally boils down to one major thing - poor planning at the design stage. However, this is not always the fault of the home extension designer as they often have to implement the homeowners requirements. A good home extension designer will not be scared of offering opinions and alternatives based upon their own experiences and recommendations rather than simply doing what the client first says.

Most home owners appreciate this aspect and will probably take on board most good suggestions that will improve the use of space or external design.

Listed below are some of the more common house extension mistakes that can and do happen:-

1 - Making the house extension too home owner specific and not considering future trends or future occupiers. EG - having a kitchen extension that does not have an eating area (semi-open plan).

2 - Adding an extension when the rest of the house is falling apart. Upgrade the existing home as well.

3 - Adding extra bedrooms simply for a tick sheet. 4 cramped bedrooms is less desirable and functional than 3 good sized double bedrooms.

4 - Adding token gesture en-suites to bedrooms. Many en-suites are so cramped and dysfunctional that they are unusable for day to day use.

5 - Out of scale rooms. A cottage style dwelling having a small kitchen with a huge living room extension would be out of character. Simply having large rooms is not enough - it is how the space is used for their function that counts.

6 - adding a token gesture conservatory - Fortunately this trend is now dying in favour of the highly glazed but thermally efficient properly built extension. Fully glazed conservatories still overheat in the summer and are too cold in the winter for daily use throughout the year.

7 - Adding an extension ‘for the moment’ that makes it difficult to add to or extend over in the future.

8 - Saving costs by not implementing proper building works (eg - retaining an existing window lintel & opening size rather than fully opening up into the extension by installing a new beam.