Any expertise on extending a stone built cottage?

[myotis]

We are looking at maybe buying an old (18th century) stone cottage. The problem is that the second bedroom (above the kitchen) is too small to take a double bed, (only by about a foot), and we are discussing the possibilities of extending it.

The stone walls are about 15" deep and the extension would need to be about 8ft long by 2 to 3ft deep, and obviously over two floors. The ground floor is slightly sunk, with steps down to the back door, so its not the full two stories high, if that makes sense.

With a modern house this wouldn't be too much of an issue (I don't think) but can anyone give an indication how much bigger a problem (in particular cost) it might be because its thick stone walls and as you would really want to keep the character of the property (Its whitewashed and you can see the shapes of the stones under the whitewash)

Obviously, this is difficult to say much without actual details, but in principle how much more difficult and expensive is it to put and extension onto an old stone property like this than a more modern building.

There may well be some websites on this, but my initial google didn't throw up anything useful.

Thanks

 

[Mr Bump]

I think what would happen is the new side of the building would be built with a traditional matching stone outer wall but then breeze and insulation for the inner walls. most planners / councils would insist on full eco credententials on such an extension. it would have to match the old building. It may even be possible to reuse a lot of the stone from taking down the existing wall to mix in with the new walls. I also suspect you would need full foundations installing so essentially the back door area would need to be completely dismantled and rebuilt.

 

[myotis]

I think what would happen is the new side of the building would be built with a traditional matching stone outer wall

So a costly exercise ! The back door isn't actually on this wall, but that is an aside.

Thanks

 

[Mr Bump]

So a costly exercise ! The back door isn't actually on this wall, but that is an aside.

Thanks

You would have to match the stone up or it would look tosh, yep expensive, old house often had very poor foundations as well.
some were just bricks lined up in a trench.

 

[myotis]

You would have to match the stone up or it would look tosh, yep expensive

I fear we need to abandon this idea, and move on :-(

 

[Cartus]

I looked into extending a listed thatched cottage once and was told that any extension would (generally) have to be either a) indistinguishable from the original building or, b) totally different and attached by a type of annex.

This was a grade 2 listed building but similar planning guidelines would apply I should think.

 

[tijuana taxi]

Bunk Beds

 

[myotis]

I looked into extending a listed thatched cottage once and was told that any extension would (generally) have to be either a) indistinguishable from the original building or, b) totally different and attached by a type of annex.

This was a grade 2 listed building but similar planning guidelines would apply I should think.

I suspect it would, as its the oldest house in the village, and apparently escaped listing because of some mix up with county boundaries, but regardless of the planners we wouldn't want to add anything that wasn't totally in keeping with the existing building.

 

[myotis]

Bunk Beds

Unfortunately, given this is somewhere to retire to and a fair proportion of our visitors will be aged and getting more aged the longer we live there, this, we decided wasn't a practical option. We could also probably just squeeze a small double bed in, but people would then have to climb over each other to get in and out of bed, and again we decided this probably wasn't a realistic solution.

 

[tijuana taxi]

Unfortunately, given this is somewhere to retire to and a fair proportion of our visitors will be aged and getting more aged the longer we live there, this, we decided wasn't a practical option. We could also probably just squeeze a small double bed in, but people would then have to climb over each other to get in and out of bed, and again we decided this probably wasn't a realistic solution.

Fair point, our smallest bedroom just about takes a 4ft bed, but it was only ever occupied by one person.
On the plus side it keeps the less wanted visitors away

 

[myotis]

On the plus side it keeps the less wanted visitors away

Errm yes I did suggest that as a positive to my wife, but she didn't seem to agree !