5 Reasons to Renovate rather than extend your home
When it comes to our homes, we often think we need ‘more’. However, making the best out of something we already have is often a more sensible and worthwhile approach. If you are looking for more space but don’t want to move, the decision between renovating and extending can be a difficult one. Should you extend your home or should you look into renovating?
In this blog post, we look at 5 reasons to renovate over extending your home
DO YOU ACTUALLY NEED EXTRA SPACE
All too often, when it comes to home renovations, we think we should ‘extend’. We presume that we need the extra space. Much of the time we don’t actually need to extend. What’s achievable within the space you have? We often don’t require as much space as we think we do. Wanting that extension is usually motivated by a dissatisfaction with the interior layout, piles of clutter and chaos or perhaps an old, dated kitchen. The result can be a fantastic new kitchen/diner and extra space (for the clutter in many cases!) but unfortunately the same collection of dark, dreary, cold, energy-inefficient rooms elsewhere in the house. And where is the logic in that?
RENOVATIONS CAN BE LESS HASSLE
It’s sensible to look closely at the space you have. How we can improve it? before rushing to building an extension. Sometimes just knocking down a wall or adding a window can have a profound impact upon the overall space.
RENOVATING CAN HAVE MORE FLEXIBILITY
If you do decide to optimise your existing home, you won’t have to apply for planning permission either. Plus, you won’t be encroaching upon any outdoor living space. Think about all the the money you’ll save – building an extension is expensive and will add to the cost of heating and maintaining your home. Not to mention the extra space to clean!
RENOVATIONS CAN MODERNIZE A HOME
Anyone who is considering investing in their home and improving its energy-efficiency should be aware of the concept of ‘Deep Retrofit’. At RENOVA, a Deep Retrofit involves stripping back to the bare blocks and timbers and re-building a highly insulated, air-tight, well-ventilated and consequently, energy-efficient home. This ‘stripping back’ process presents the perfect opportunity to re-plan the layout of a house that hasn’t been functioning well.
Deep Retrofit takes an holistic view of the entire building – it links together all the retrofit elements of your home renovation.
A ‘Deep Retrofit’ is a single solution as opposed to a collection of solutions. There are multiple elements to a Deep Retrofit approached in sequence and never in an ad-hoc fashion. Ventilation goes hand-in-hand with insulation. Air-tightness is incorporated into dry-lining and plumbing pipework must be installed beneath the floor before it is insulated. A home renovation without Deep Retrofit would be as a missed opportunity. A lost chance to make your home more comfortable, warm, cosy, draught-free, well-ventilated and, of course, energy-efficient.
RENOVATIONS CAN BE MORE ENERGY EFFICIENT
Under the new building regulations all new houses are extremely energy- efficient, comfortable and healthy – both for the occupant and the environment. A Deep Retrofit will transform existing houses that are cold, draughty and badly designed, giving them the same standards of energy-efficiency.
By having an energy-efficient home you’ll actually be doing your bit to help the environment and reduce Climate Change. According to the Centre for Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Policy,
“High-efficiency Retrofits are the key to a low-emission building future.”
A quarter of the energy consumed is used in the home. That’s more than in industry or by cars.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, there are many advantages when it comes to choosing renovation over an extension when it comes to gaining extra space inside your home. Think twice, therefore, before presuming you need to extend your home. It makes abundant sense instead to make the most of the space you already have and to make it as energy-efficient and comfortable as possible. In financial terms, not only will the value of your home increase, you’ll also be saving on fuel bills and mitigating the impact of future fuel price increases.
