When your home stops working for you, the obvious solution can seem to be “make it bigger”. Children grow older, working patterns change, and suddenly there’s a queue for the bathroom, nowhere quiet to work, and the kitchen feels cramped.
But before you bulldoze your back garden and plonk down an extension, ask a more fundamental question: do you actually need more space, or do you need to make better use of the space you already have?
For Georgina Hutton, MRIAI, principal architect with Nuhaus, that is the crux of the conversation. She says the first question homeowners should ask themselves is what they really need. Sometimes, clients who believe they need an extension discover that they do not.
A house that worked for a family with toddlers may feel very different when those children become teenagers. The answer might be another bathroom, a study zone, better storage, or rooms that can perform more than one function.
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“Sometimes people don’t realise what they need until somebody who has the expertise in making that happen can sit down and talk to them,” says Hutton. Small interventions can have a big impact. A guest bedroom, for example, might incorporate a folding desk behind pocket doors rather than requiring a separate office.
Likewise, a large house is not much use if it’s not well designed. Older homes in Ireland often contain plenty of floor space, but all in the wrong places. For years we had “the good room”, galley kitchens, and layouts designed for a different way of living. Reconfiguration can be transformative: a guest bedroom gathering dust might become a walk-in wardrobe and en suite; or one cavernous room may become two useful ones.
That’s not to say moving walls is always cheaper than building new ones. Once load-bearing walls are altered, structural beams may be required. Rewiring, moving radiators, and replacing flooring all add cost. Even a straightforward opening between two rooms can have knock-on effects for plastering, plumbing, and finishes.
“The biggest mistake that people make, in my opinion, is not seeking professional advice before they make any decisions,” says Hutton.
Her recommendation is to spend money at the outset investigating options on paper. A measured survey and an initial design sketch cost buttons compared with knocking the wrong wall. Establishing what’s possible before committing to a major build is the smart financial choice.
There is also the question of whether you can stay put during the work. For small, contained jobs that may be possible, but Hutton warns that larger remodels can make the house impractical for living due to health and safety, dust, and disruption. If you need to move out, rent should be factored into the budget.
When to extend
Sometimes, of course, more space is the answer. An extension can create a larger kitchen and living area, another bedroom or additional facilities a family needs. The trick is to not treat it as an isolated box bolted on to the house; consider the overall design.
Daylight, circulation, and the impact on existing rooms should all be planned out. So too foundations, drainage, boundary walls and structural capacity. Hutton frequently encounters homeowners who want to build over an existing garage without realising its original structure may never have been designed to carry another storey.
These are the pesky discoveries that can become cripplingly expensive if they emerge halfway through construction rather than at design stage.
Planning must also be considered early. Hutton points out that a rear extension may qualify as exempted development up to an aggregate 45sq m, but exemptions come with conditions, so under 45sq m is not a free for all. Where permission is required, the standard duration is generally five years, which can make phasing useful.
Extensions don’t have to happen immediately. If your wishlist exceeds your budget, think in phases. A house can be refurbished and reconfigured now while preparing for an extension later. Structure, services, and future openings can be planned in advance such that phase two causes less disruption and does not undo the expensive work already completed.
On one Nuhaus project, the owners wanted a two-storey extension but could not initially afford the whole project. The first phase was therefore designed so the foundations, roof structure, heating system, and internal layout could accommodate the later addition.
Your choice does not necessarily have to be to renovate or extend. With good planning, you can do one now while saving for the other later.
Adding value
There is another calculation to make: whether the money being spent is likely to come back when you eventually sell.
Estate agent Clare Connolly looks at the decision from the buyer’s point of view.
“If the house has been extended and it’s been signed off and is fully compliant – and the extension is stunning – that is definitely going to add to your market value,” she says. Significant additional floor area can increase value, where it adds useful accommodation.
That does not mean every euro spent will come back at resale. Connolly says homeowners should not expect the cost of upgrading a kitchen or bathroom to be returned in full. A quantity surveyor I spoke to recently estimated that the renovation work I carried out in my own home in 2020 would cost around triple today, making that calculation even harder.
Connolly does recommend smaller interventions that improve how a property presents and functions. Good staging, lighting, and storage all help. Finding room for an additional WC – under the stairs, for example – can make a noticeable difference in a standard three-bed with only one bathroom. Increasing natural light and making existing floor space feel generous also contribute to value in buyers’ eyes.
How long you intend to stay should influence the decision too. If a move is likely within a few years, Connolly would be cautious about a big structural project. A household planning to remain for 10 or more years is different: even if the investment is not recovered on sale, a better-functioning home has the value of improving your life for many years.
Cost before you commit
There is only one realistic, and deeply frustrating, answer when it comes to renovation costs: it depends. Engineer Kieran McCarthy of KMC Homes describes generic cost-per-square-metre figures as a “misnomer”: every project is different. The age and condition of the house, heating upgrades, structural work, and materials can all dramatically alter the final bill.
Steel in particular can be a big cost. If your dream design requires the removal of load-bearing walls or creating large openings, McCarthy recommends getting structural input early. An architect or a draughtsman can develop the layout, but only an engineer can establish what will be required to make it structurally possible.
McCarthy also cautions against leaving the serious cost conversation until a design is effectively finished. On his projects, designs may be adjusted and costed four or five times with QS input before the solution is settled. He works within a design-and-build model, but the same principle applies on the traditional route with an independent architect, engineer, QS, and builder: design and budget should be tested against each other early and iteratively.
Make the house work for you
Whether you renovate, reconfigure, or extend, the practical sequence is much the same. Work out what problem you are trying to solve. Get professional advice early. Check the planning and structural realities. Establish a budget that includes extras such as rent. Then test the design against that budget before you start demolishing anything.
Sometimes the answer will be more space, and sometimes it will be a better layout. Often it will be a combination of both, phased if necessary. The goal is not to make your house as big as possible, but to make the home you already have work cleverly for the life you actually live.
