demolish+rebuild or extend and repair?

in general if what you have is sound, add to it.

Reasons to demolish in my opinion are

- when what you have would require as much work to bring it up to standard as to demolish and replace.

- added costs of mating new work to old exceeds demolish and rebuild costs of existing.

The latter is often quite relevant..you may not be able to match existing bricks in the existing are suspect, and may need underpinning to support or attach to the new work reliably. Or you may be faced with a need to relocate drains etc.

Generally a builder is a good guide. If he starts muttering darkly about 'dint like the look of' etc. - i.e. its not just a straightforward job any more,strongly consider demolition or partially demolition.

There is a lot to be said for opening up access to the point where diggers and concrete lorries can get in, rather than working by hand in tight spaces, as well.

Been through this, but as we found that it was possible to get an additional bedroom over the new kitchen, it was demolish and rebuild.

The one thing that was a serious pain was the loss of kitchen facilities during the rebuild, and that does have to be taken into account. Can you site a sink, a cooker storage and worktops on a temporary basis ? We were fortunate that we were able to tap through a stud wall to the bathroom and getting drainage and water.

Rob

isnt VAT refundable if you demolish and rebuild?

plus you would be able to superinsulate the floors and walls, south facing solar gain etc..

I doubt it. It might be if you demolished the entire house and rebuilt it.

There may be differing issues with planning and building regs. If you extend only the newest part will be liable for planning permission (it may count as permitted development). Similarly if you extend only the newest part will have to conform to the latest building regs.

Ask your local council. They can be very helpful.

Snag with extending victorian stuff is the footings are unlikely to be to modern standards. Use modern footings to an extension and you might well get movement between the two. Have a word with your local building inspector.

Going slightly off-topic. Is there any reason why, if one has a property with a large amount of structural problems one should not pull it down and rebuild the same thing without needing a new planning application? I would assume that it would need to meet current building regs but that is a different matter.

Andrew

They'll just tell you to use wall starters that allow some slippage, rather than toothing in the bricks. They seem to want these all the time now. Simon.

Which can look pretty awful. So may make more sense to start afresh.

It becomes a new build and therefore subject to planning: In fact the demolition is subject to planning as well (sort of). However if it is a duplicate of existing, it passes more or less on the nod.

Been there....