Tuesday March 24 2009

Walk down any street in the country and you’re bound to hear the sound of a nail gun or sander hard at work. Little wonder, when you consider that more than half of all Australians renovate their homes at some stage in their life. According to Housing Industry Association Chief Economist Harley Dale, we spent a whopping $31 billion on renovations last financial year. But while homeowners are enthusiastic about extending their homes, they are spending less and less money doing it. As renovators tighten their belts to achieve their dreams, the trend is to carry out the work in stages, thereby spreading out the costs.

GOING UP OR GOING OUT?
It seems there are no hard and fast rules, only technicalities, which could sway your decision to extend out or to add on up top. The simple fact is that most people extend out to gain extra living space and to embrace the indoor-outdoor concept. They go up when they want extra rooms (usually bedrooms) to free up the ground floor for a larger living area that may also include a new kitchen and laundry. Both styles of renovation have benefits, but the decision on how to proceed should be made after careful consultation with an architect, building designer or builder – and the earlier in the planning process you do it, the better.

Council regulations stress a maximum building size for the land, including set-back from the boundaries, so going up may be your only option. However, an extra storey can substantially increase the value of the house, especially if the addition gains you a view.

If expense is the deciding factor on whether you extend out or up, consider that excavation, laying new piles, floor joists and bearers and concrete slab will all have to be budgeted for with a ground-floor extension. When adding another storey, you also have building costs (including new roof). If there are structural problems with the existing building, you will need to allocate funds for repair work as well.

MAXIMISING SPACE
With average building costs running at $3000-$3500 per square metre, renovation is about maximising the sense of space, with minimal hassles. Angus Kell, NSW/ACT Manager at Archicentre, advises opening rooms to the view beyond, and avoiding over-furnishing.

“Play with any voids created around a staircase – it’s the one place in the house where you can be creative with double volumes,” says Michael Folk of Campbell Luscombe Folk Lichtman Architects. Tone Wheeler, principal architect at Sydney’s Environa Studio, says he favours the inclusion of a courtyard. “A courtyard linking the house with the extension extends the space visually as well as physically.”

PLAN AHEAD
Future proof your extension by using durable, low-maintenance materials, and include design features that will make your house easy to live in. “Research what you like and don’t like about other houses, and be articulate in getting this message across to your architect or designer,” says Kell.

APPROVALS
The approvals process can be long and arduous, but under a ‘fast-track system’ which comes into force in NSW on February 27 (other states have similar legislation), a proposed extension could be approved in just 10 days, providing it complies with the building code and eight criteria.

“Previously, any objection meant the homeowner had to change the plans,” says Wheeler. “Now, neighbours won’t be able to object to anything in a plan that has met the code. In fact, they wouldn’t learn about any building proposal until after it had been approved.”

Often, renovators discover a long way into the approvals process that there are charges for council reports that they hadn’t budgeted for, such as architectural shadow drawings and BASIX (building sustainability) assessments. Depending on where you live, your local council might also request a heritage or asbestos study, Aboriginal relic analysis, environmental-impact statement or bushfire report. The fees and charges for these reports can add between $10,000 and $50,000 to the final cost. Building professionals agree that you need a contingency of at least 15 per cent to cover these ‘unknowns’.

TRENDS TO TRY
These days, quality of space, not quantity, is the key to a successful addition. The tide is turning on the open-plan trend, where kitchen, dining and living rooms combine in one huge chamber. Instead, french and sliding doors are installed as a clever way to partially close off rooms when required as well as create a mix of private and public spaces.

The latest trends, however, are to be found in the ‘greening’ of your home. When you eventually sell, it will be competing with new, environmentally friendly houses that don’t cost as much to run. Kell calls this the “added-value factor”, reckoning that it could increase the sale price of your home by as much as 10-20 per cent. There’s a huge range of innovative building materials and decorating products available – from insulated wall panels made from 100-per-cent recycled materials, to low-VOC and chemical-free paints, lighting options and appliances, even concrete, sealants and finishes. Ecospecifier (1300 669 997 or www.ecospecifier.org) is a good first port of call for information about eco and health-preferable products to include in your design.