Costa Blanca enables you to offer house expansion, If you have lived in your current house for some time and your family is growing, you may like to consider acquiring a new home. However, if you haven’t maximized the available space on your land, you may always build an additional room. Planning a home expansion is less costly and more convenient than house hunting. However, planning a home addition is a very other matter. The technique consists of a number of steps, which we shall detail below in chronological sequence.
How to plan a home extension?
When you wish to expand your home and increase the living area, there are a number of factors to take into account. These consist of:
- Brainstorm Your Strategy
- Compute the Costs
- Determine How to Finance the Construction
- Do Your Homework Regarding Planning Permissions
- Employ Competent People
- Formulate a Plan for the Expansion
- Obtain Planning Approval for the New Plan
- Ensure You Comply With the Regulations
- Do not overload the utilities.
- Consider Temporary Relocation
Now, let’s examine each stage in depth.
1. Generate ideas for your plan
Integrate Your Addition into Your Existing Floor Plan.
There are several methods to expand a home. Consider constructing an additional room, adding an extra level, converting your open garage into a room, or extending an existing room into the backyard. Options are limitless. Prior to moving on to the next phase, you must make a choice about the sort of extension you want to construct.
2. Determine the costs
It is essential to assess the cost of the home expansion project prior to beginning construction. Once you have determined the sort of extension that satisfies your demand for more space, get bids for the project from architects, designers, and builders. You may also do research online on the anticipated price of expanding your home or adding a new room.
When calculating the cost of a house addition, you must include in the cost of the construction materials, the fees for an architect and a builder, the labour expenses, the building permit fees, and even the cost of staying in a hotel or leasing space for a few days if you decide to move out temporarily.
3. Determine how to finance the construction.
Carefully Determine Your Budget for the Construction
The goal of cost estimation is straightforward. A cost estimate can give you a clearer understanding of how much money you will need to finish the renovation job. Depending on your estimations, you may be able to finance the project with your savings, temporarily borrow money from relatives or friends, or get a bank loan that you may return at a later date. Although credit transactions are restricted in Pakistan, you might consider using your credit card to finance the house addition since it functions similarly to a commercial bank loan.
4. Do your research on planning permissions
Similar to how it is clearly stated in the building regulations of the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) and Lahore Development Authority (LDA), most local building authorities in Pakistan require you to apply for a new planning and building permit if you wish to expand the interior space of your home (LDA). Therefore, the next stage in designing a home addition is to do local research into the permits you will need from the local building authority.
A thorough investigation will reveal the specific designs for the expansion, as well as the papers and costs required to apply for a new construction permit. This will facilitate your future planning for the remaining phases.
5. Hire the right people
Select Qualified Architects and Builders for the Project.
The most important part of any construction project is employing the correct individuals to do the work in a timely and effective way. For optimal results, your home extension demands a competent and experienced architect to design the addition into your existing floor plans and an equally skilled builder who can carry out the work and add a new room to your existing structure without causing any disruptions.
Consider the following factors while selecting designers and builders:
- Evaluate prior experience and credentials
- Identify a person who is simple to connect with:
- Obtain recommendations wherever feasible in order to find the finest prospects:
- Seek for individuals who provide firm quotations for the project’s cost and duration;
6. Develop a plan for the expansion.
Once a designer is on board, it is time to begin actual planning for the addition. Communicate your ideas to the designer and collaborate with them to change the existing floor plan.
Please be aware that many building authorities may need you to colour-code the additions and modifications on the submitted drawings differently from the authorised design. The LDA specifies, for example, that any additions and revisions must be indicated in red, the original designs in black, and any demolition in yellow.
7. Get planning permission for the new plan
Each Authority Has Distinct Planning Permissions Procedures
Once you and your designer have reached an agreement over the building plans for the house addition, you will need to submit the changed plans together with all the necessary paperwork to the appropriate authorities. The approval process might take anything from a few days to a few weeks.
Ensure that you comply with any other requirements established by your local housing authority. Otherwise, your extension request will be refused. You should also be psychologically prepared to respond to queries or reapply in the event of rejection.
8. Check that you comply with the regulations
To get planning and building clearance for your home expansion project or even a new development on an empty lot, you must adhere to a number of requirements. Despite the fact that they vary by city and housing society, the following characteristics may be universal:
- You will be required to leave a specific distance between your home and your neighbour’s.
- You may be required to dedicate a certain percentage of your plot to open space or green areas
- You may be required to comply with fire safety standards
- You may face restrictions in terms of the external appearance of the property in some housing developments
- You may or may not be permitted to modify the number of rooms inside the house if you plan on demolishing walls to create a larger living space
- There may be a limit on the number of windows that you can instal in a room
Before submitting your construction designs, check with your local authorities to determine the requirements that must be met.
9. Do not overload the facilities
Overloaded circuits provide a fire risk.
Adding a new room necessitates the installation of extra lights, fans, and switches to the home’s existing circuit. However, before you do so, you must determine the maximum load your home’s electrical system can support. If the circuitry is overloaded, a power outage may result from short circuits. Most houses can accommodate a few more lights and fans. It is recommended, however, that you have the load-bearing capacity tested if you want to build an additional kitchen since kitchen appliances demand a great deal of electricity to run.
10. Consider relocating temporarily.
The above-mentioned stages make it simple to plan a home addition, but if you are not living in the house during construction, the project will go along much more quickly. While it is essential that you monitor daily development, you may like to move in with a friend or family for a few days or rent a modest apartment while the expansion is constructed.
Please note that relocation is not required. It is feasible to live on the property while renovations are being performed, but you must be prepared for the interruption resulting from the continuing construction.
Now you understand how to optimally design a house expansion to provide more living space alongside the existing building. Before beginning construction, you should consider the aforementioned factors to evaluate if a home addition is the best option. Best of luck!
