wife could see themselves living there, albeit with some major alterations, and in 2014 they purchased the property.


PLANNING any of Bobs clients hae ictorian houses in conservation areas or even listed buildings, and planning could take years to get, and is “always traumatic, he says. e was epecting the worst with this project, he says.


A big part of the pessimism stemmed from their intention to add an extra bedroom on the at roof. Theres a standard clause that states ‘we don’t support applications that raise the ridge height of a home, and we were definitely going to do that ortunately, as an eisting water tank sat on the top of the structure, this provided enough precedent to get planning through without any obections. or once, it was easy Bob exclaims. Spreading the costs of the project into phases was always going to be a likely scenario: similar to many of Bob’s clients, he had a set budget from the outset, but as is often the case, it fell short of their ambitions. Realising that they didn’t have enough funds, they used a builder’s expertise and together devised a plan to split up the work into three phases. When construction started onsite, the family opted to rent a nearby at, eentually moing into their unfinished home after the main works were complete.


jul/aug 2023


PHASE ONE: ‘PUTTING A SWEATER ON’ Phase one took place in 2015, and was compared by Bob to “putting a sweater on the building, and consisted of most of the energy saving measures. Each wall was injected with cavity wall insulation while further internal insulation was added to some walls. Bob made the loft etension one of the first tasks. With this happening, it meant the original uninsulated roof covering which was probably about to start leaking, could be renewed. The timber extension required “unusual carpentry work and a careful approach by the contractor. The detailed design work could only happen after they had opened up the existing roof to see how it was preiously made. Conseuently, the engineer had to visit the site and quickly sketch detailed plans.


This phase also saw a high level of ‘strip out’ to change the internal spaces. The reconfiguration of the interior layout was chiey done to enhance space and functionality for the family. The loft extension added an etra room, while on the ground oor, the separating wall was removed, creating a spacious open-plan area. To improve the dark central portion, two large


rooights were installed on either side of the loft conersion. Joists on the first oor were cut out in places to allow natural light to permeate down to the ground oor. This significantly brightened the ground oor and transformed it from how it


www.sbhonline.co.uk 57


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