I'm interested in a house at the moment which has a sinlge storey extension to the rear. I'd like to extend the house by building ontop of this - is there any way to tell whether I can do this - ie are the existing walls of the ground floor strong enough etc.
Also - any ideas on how much this might cost? (3m x 4.8m extension)
One other issue - the house is very small (one up two down) how much might it be to get the house re-wired?
I think you should get a structural engineer to inspect the founds and walls to ascertain their capability to carry an additional floor. The size isn't that big so you could opt for self inspection so to speak which would entail getting in touch with whoever built the existing extension and see what was done at foundation stage.
You should also check out the issue of planning permission. [broken link removed]will help
Thanks nutty, getting in touch (if I can) with the person who built the previous extension is a good idea. After that I reckon you're right - I'll just have to dig and look at the foundations.
Any ideas on the costs & the re-wiring?
We recently had to get some tenders for rewiring a 3 bedroom bungalow - the tenders came in at c. €6500 incl. V.A.T. I'm sure it is very much dependent on the location in the country though.
Location is Dublin - was hoping to get it between 3K and 5K, 6500 sounds expensive but I wouldn't really know.
Timber frame is a good idea to reduce the weight.
do you, by any chance know if it's reasonably straight forward to fit a kitchen yourself - I'm good with my hands / DIY but have never done anything like a kitchen before - was looking on in-house website, seems very good, just wanted to see if people had successfully fitted one themselves?
thanks
if it's 3x4.8 metres you will need planning permission, assuming it's a terraced house or a semi-d. more rules on exempted development here..
it's the limerick county council site, but the rules apply to the whole republic.
be mindful of distances to the boundary and overlooking issues. a good engineer should be able to assess the possibility of extending the structure and the issues involved.