How to increase your home’s floor space without needing an extension
If you often feel like you can’t walk far in your home without bumping into a cupboard or banging your toe on a skirting board, there could be one simple solution: expanding your home’s floor space. Well, okay, so doing this can be much simpler in theory than practice.
You might think that opting for an extension would be the most straightforward way of adding to your floor space. However, according to Real Homes, you might have to pay about £1,500 per square metre even just for a basic extension. Fortunately, there might be some less costly alternatives.
Add a second floor within the same room
Admittedly, this wouldn’t be an entirely practical option if the room in question didn’t have a ceiling sufficiently high to accommodate that extra floor and anyone who uses it.
However, the good news is that, if your home is in the UK and the room does have enough space, you are unlikely to need planning permission to add that second floor, says Property & Building Directory.
You would, however, require that planning permission if your property is listed – or if the work would necessitate altering the building’s external appearance. In any case, you would have the current building regulations to heed anyway.
Convert your garage
According to TV presenter Phil Spencer, 90% of British garages don’t contain a car. Consequently, your own garage could easily be going to waste.
No, that’s not necessarily a hint that you should just buy a car. After all, you could convert that garage to impressive effect, turning it into a fully usable space indistinguishable from a “normal” room in your home.
A garage conversion is not always a cheap project, though; the bill can be as much as £1,150 per square metre even if you stick to the basics.
Repurpose unused space to create an en-suite bathroom
An en-suite bathroom is the kind of thing you might have previously only enjoyed during hotel stays, but it’s actually practically possible to create this kind of bathroom in your own home, too.
Just look for space currently going unused in an existing room and then see what you can do to essentially put together a bathroom from suitable cabinets and accessories. Just be careful not to overly disrupt the overall shape and dimensions established by the existing room.
The only way is up? Extend into your loft
Your loft is probably another strong candidate for the “most underused room in your house” gong – and, if there’s enough head height in your loft, extending into it is definitely a practical option.
Especially conveniently, in the UK, if your loft conversion project falls under permitted development rules, you won’t need planning permission for it, the London Evening Standard’s Homes & Property website says.
Nonetheless, make sure you don’t forget to fit such essentials as loft boarding, which will protect your loft’s existing insulation and a ladder to your loft. Instaloft is one specialist provider of products like loft boarding and loft ladders in the UK.
