Category
CP Developments, Two StoreyThis side extension was built onto a property belonging to one of our customers in Stanley Lane, Liverpool. They wanted us to build a new lounge on the ground floor with a bedroom and en suite on the first floor.
Preparation work
As with every extension, the first thing we needed to do was draft the design. When you’re building a large extension like this you need to be careful with how it attaches to the property. With smaller, single-storey efforts, it’s rarely a problem. Often, it’s a box-shaped room stuck on the side and the connecting wall knocked through (more or less). With extensions that span multiple floors, things get a bit trickier. Lining up an extension to run the whole length of the house runs into all kinds of problems. Most notable is extending the roof.
It’s not just a case of adding more timbers and tiles: roofs are capped off in a very specific way to prevent leaks. Taking them apart to extend them leaves your house exposed to the elements for the duration of the build.A better answer
If you look at the photographs opposite, you’ll see our solution to this problem. From one side the extension doesn’t look like it spans the full two storeys. It has a high, sloping roof, but the peak of it doesn’t match the peak of the rest of the house. However, if you take a look at it from the other side…
Dormer extensions
That box sticking out of the side of the extension roof? That’s what we call a dormer extension. Commonly used in loft conversions, it turns a sloped roof into a square roof by rising out of the building. It allows for greater head room in a property and, in the case of an extension, means that you avoid the problem of having to match up the roofs.
An inside point of view
From inside the house both floors are entirely level with the rest of the property. This includes floors and ceilings. The only way of knowing you’re in an extension to the house is from the outside with difference in height between the tops of the roofs.
Get in touch
Would you like a two-storey extension on your property? Have you considered it before but worried about the difficulty in constructing it? Will a dormer extension help to solve your problems? Who knows? Why not call the experts at CP Developments Ltd? Give us a call on 0151 345 6774 and we will arrange for one of our designers to have a consultation with you and see what we can do to help.
