The errors people make when extending their home

Property and Building Advice: What to consider before you begin knocking walls

The most important thing to keep in mind when extending your home is why you are extending in the first place, i.e. due to a lack of usable space.

This lack of space may be due to a variety of factors.

You may have a poorly designed floor plan which doesn’t allow you to have full use of all the space available; the current fit-out of your house may hinder you from using this space to its full potential; you may genuinely have insufficient space for your needs.

'How many times have you seen someone add a kitchen extension, only to see that the kitchen has now become darker as the extension has robbed all of the light?' - Kieran McCarthy

A mistake I often see people making is that they feel they need more room so they just add an extension, which may or may not in fact fix the issue. An extension should always be designed in the context of the existing house and its best (optimised) usage. How many times have you seen someone add a kitchen extension, only to see that the kitchen has now become darker as the extension has robbed all of the light?

In a home renovation, your kitchen may need a rethink in terms of its design or where it is placed.

Let me explain. We were asked by a family some years ago to renovate their home and build them a new extension as they simply didn’t have enough space. I listened to their detailed brief and I walked their existing house with them to see what space they currently had, and what space they in fact needed in the future. What I noticed was there were several parts of the house that were under-utilised, including a garage, but given their current configuration, they were not able to release the value of these spaces.

We set about re-designing their current home for optimum use and made sure that every square metre of their existing space was put to work. The result was incredible. Not only did they not in fact need an extension but we had managed to find additional space for a pantry, a massive utility room that included a changing room for an athletic family of six, a home office and a study!

So the key steps required are as follows:

• Walk your way through your existing house.
• Take note of every space that is working well for you and every space that is either too small or indeed every space that you currently have no use for (if they exist!). This may be an old playroom that you no longer have use for, even if it is at the other end of the house.
• If you are considering a significant house renovation project it may be the case that your kitchen may need a rethink in terms of its design or where it is placed. The optimum siting and design of a kitchen in terms of practicality, flow, light and connectivity is the most important design element of your home. Every other room adjacent to your kitchen radiates from the correct location and design of the kitchen so start here.
• Next look at the dining/living areas and a suitable (though perhaps lower key) location for a suitably sized utility room with access to the rear garden. Beyond this is the sitting room (which often isn’t an issue) and anything else beyond this.
• If a home office is required, could this go upstairs instead to take pressure off the ground floor?

Once you have evaluated the above key areas and have used every piece of available real estate, if you feel you still have a significant shortage of space you may very well need to extend but at least you will now be extending for the right reasons and you will have a sense of where the pinch points are.

One final piece of advice here. Make the utility room bigger than you feel you need. This is the engine room of your house. 

Have you ever heard of someone complaining that their utility room is too large?

• Kieran McCarthy is a civil engineer and builder who heads up Cork-based KMC Homes, a bespoke home Design and Build firm. He is also a co-presenter on RTÉ’s popular Cheap Irish Homes series.
• Readers are invited to send their home build queries to [e-mail]