The Guide To Having A Pitched Roof For Your Extension

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Extending your home is an exciting project, and it can become easy to get wrapped up in details like decor and the finer points of choosing your exact specification. But before you get into the fine-tuning, you have to consider the bones of your project – its structure. And few parts of a home’s structural elements are more important than the roof, so you need to get it right.

Essentially, there are two options for your roof – a flat roof or a pitched one. Here, we are looking at the important aspects of pitched roof extensions, and why or how you might go about choosing one.

The benefits of a pitched roof for your extension

It’s durable

A pitched roof’s design naturally deals with the elements better, it tends to make use of more durable materials and it will last longer than a flat roof without the need for extensive maintenance. A pitched roof offers better insulation than a flat roof, too, so it’ll help keep your energy bills down.

It blends in more naturally with the rest of the building

Planning departments tend to look favourably on pitched roofs for extensions, as they tend to fit in more sympathetically with the style of older housing stock.

It gives you more scope for design creativity

Pitched roof extensions mean you can create a better sense of space and light with higher ceilings, vaulted ceilings, or sloping ceilings. You can also make use of interesting architectural features such as beams, or install skylights to create a truly bright space.

Problems associated with choosing a pitched roof extension

It costs more

Put simply, a pitched roof extension will cost you more to build than an equivalent one with a flat roof. This is because the materials are more expensive and there is more structural engineering involved, so you’ll simply have to pay that bit more

It takes longer

The other challenge pitched roof extensions face is the extra time it takes to build them in the first place – so you’ll have to pay more in labour, and cope with the disruption caused by your building works for longer.

The costs of your pitched roof extension

To a certain extent, how much your pitched roof extension will cost depends on your budget and the type and size of extension that you’re planning to build.

The smallest, simplest builds could cost around the £30,000 mark, but larger or more highly specified projects could go to £80,000 or even more.

The main factor in cost is size, but the complexity of a job will increase your costs too: can you do it under permitted development rules or do you need full planning permission? How easy is access to the site? These are the sorts of issues that will push your costs up.

Another important factor to consider is the need to budget for unknown contingencies – so make sure you have around 10-15 per cent of your overall budget set aside for unexpected extras.

Whatever your dreams for your pitched roof extension plans, at Extension Architecture we can help you with every step of the process, from planning to completion.