Browse Forums Renovation + Home Improvement Re: Second Story Addition Sydney 5Aug 25, 2015 10:36 pm Thanks so much for posting this! It is great to hear your experiences and I look forward to hearing more. We are also hoping to add a second level to our home at the end of this year/ early next year. We are a family of 6 (2 adults and 4 young-ish children - all 7 and under) also living in a small 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom home. Our most pressing requirement is an additional toilet! For us, the decision to build up has come after a lengthy process. We initially planned to do an addition behind our current single story and we started the process about this time last year. We had plans drawn up and had chosen a builder. After submitting our plans to council, we then discovered that our block of land extends into Flame Zone (bushfire levels). (We always knew we were on bushfire prone land, but the classification has become stricter as we were classified BAL-19 (much lower risk) when we built a deck in 2011.) The single story addition would have cost an additional $80K (this was an approximation, based on our builder's prior experience building in flame zone) above our quoted price. After that shock, we also looked (briefly) into knockdown rebuild, but like you, we would have needed to make significant alterations to project home plans based on our block and the bushfire requirements. Many builders don't touch BAL-FZ areas anyway. The prices became beyond reach. We also didn't like the idea of moving out for a whole year to rebuild. We have family we can stay with for bits and pieces of time during an extensive renovation, but a whole year non-stop would be a bit much. If we build directly above our current home (also 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom, but fibro), we can build to the BAL-40 requirements, (as our current house sits towards the front of the block and the bush is behind us) rather than BAL-Flame zone requirements, which should save us approximately $50K. We will probably end up spending the extra $50K by going up instead of out (with stairs, structural reinforcements and making the home exterior more uniform - replacing current roofing and cladding), but we feel like we will end up with a better floor plan and better use of our block for the extra $50k. We are currently having our new plans drawn up, our builder is still keen, and we hope to go to council by the end of next month! I look forward to reading more of your experiences! Re: Second Story Addition Sydney 6Aug 25, 2015 10:40 pm PS - would you mind sharing the floor plan of your current home (lower level)? Will you make many alterations to the existing part of the house? Re: Second Story Addition Sydney 10Aug 26, 2015 1:13 pm Looks great. It looks like you have had plans in council for awhile! When we did our last application (which we withdrew), building designer told us 5 weeks in council. Ours was in for 9 weeks by the time we withdrew it. Much patience required in this process! Re: Second Story Addition Sydney 11Aug 26, 2015 1:23 pm Yes, we were expecting it to be about 6 weeks but so far it has been almost 11. We knew that there was going to be a bit of a delay as there is a large backlog, but we are hoping that it is finalized next week. We will see! Do you have plans for your second story extension yet? My build - viewforum.php?f=53 Re: Second Story Addition Sydney 12Aug 26, 2015 1:31 pm No, not yet. Designer is working on them. We are hoping to get them back by Monday week. I will definitely post a picture when I have them. Must be so exciting to be at the point you are up to! We haven't done any selections or anything yet, and I'm already feeling a bit overwhelmed by the process. I think I've spent too long on pintrest and instagram and I'm sure my tastes are becoming well beyond our budget! I know what I like, but not how much it costs, so my options might have to change. I really like the look of your bathroom selections. My taste is similar I think - simple, not too fussy, but with a bit of a feature (like your feature walls). My husband is not at all worried about the selections, so it is up to me (which is good, but also bad!). Husband just likes whatever is most cost effective! I'm really hoping the builder will provide some guidance when we get to that point. Re: Second Story Addition Sydney 13Aug 26, 2015 1:37 pm Ha ha, I know what you mean! I spent a lot of time on Pinterest looking at nice things but in the end chose practicality over design features. I sort of came to the realisation that my kids were not going to stop being messy just because we have a new house! I started looking around at things I liked straight away so I could get an idea of what I wanted. We were given a list of where to shop for things which helped, and most of those items we got at the builders cost rather than the list price which actually ended up being quite a discount! But even though I had a firm idea of what I wanted I still started getting a bit stressed about making our choices in the timeframe - there was just so much to choose from including door handles, doors etc that I never cared too much about until I had to decide then and there!! Good luck with it, look forward to seeing your plans! My build - viewforum.php?f=53 Re: Second Story Addition Sydney 15Aug 27, 2015 7:30 pm That's a really helpful cost breakdown. We are probably looking at about the same. Builder estimated $300,000 would cover us for a second floor addition, of approximately 84 sqm with 3 bedrooms, a bathroom and living area, also including a renovation to existing downstairs with stairs and storage, renovated bathroom and pushing out the back wall downstairs in one area to enlarge the kitchen (additional area only about 6-8m2, but will make a big difference to function of our current kitchen/ dining area). This figure is also to include new weatherboard style cladding (probably the scyon linea product) to the whole house, adding batts/insulation to walls and a new roof. He hasn't quoted on the actual plans yet (as we don't have them) so this was his estimate. In addition to this, I'm thinking we will have to cover painting (which will be either massive $$$ or a massive time commitment - builder suggested getting this done while he has the scaffold here, so we don't have to pay to hire scaffold again later), floor coverings and blinds. It is an expensive process, but, like you, we couldn't buy what we will end up with in our area by selling and adding $300,000 to our purchasing budget. I'm interested in the $7500 figure you quoted for bathrooms. Is that for both upstairs bathrooms, including tiling, labour, fitout and everything, or is that just for your products? Re: Second Story Addition Sydney 16Aug 28, 2015 5:35 am It's always reassuring to know you are looking at similar costs! Seems as though you have a fair bit going on downstairs too - would you be able to stay in your home while it's all being done? The $7,500 would be just for tiles, fixtures and fittings for both bathrooms. The cost of labour, tiling etc is all included in the large $200,000 figure. To give you an idea, they also quoted us to have only one bathroom upstairs, so no ensuite, and that came to about $21,000 less (including $3,000 less for tiles, fixtures, fittings etc) which overall was a cost we were willing to pay to have an ensuite (& not share with the kids!) and obviously resale value etc. In the first 5 minutes of the meeting he told me straight away that the minimum for this kind of job is around $250,000 and that's just for a box, on the roof without any of the finishing touches. We are not at all handy so we definitely needed a quote to have everything complete and ready to walk into and live in at the end - including painting etc, as with work and the kids we just never end up getting those little jobs done! But we will be painting the downstairs to match the upstairs when it is all finished - mainly the doors, architraves etc. I would agree with getting the painting done while you have the scaffold already there as I believe that can be quite a large cost - as well as the inconvenience of having to put scaffold around your home twice in a short period of time! My build - viewforum.php?f=53 Re: Second Story Addition Sydney 17Aug 29, 2015 5:08 pm Thank you for sharing, and I look forward to following your progress. We have just had council approval to build a first floor addition and completely reconfigure downstairs. The upstairs will include four bedrooms, a walk in robe, ensuite, bathroom and open rumpus area. We are in a bushfire zone and the whole house will need to be BAL 40 compliant. Downstairs will be totally reconfigured to include a three car garage. We will need to move out and rent, and are hoping to start at the beginning of next year. I will be eagerly following your build. Re: Second Story Addition Sydney 18Aug 30, 2015 7:29 am Thanks for joining in parrydise - that's a big top floor! Would love to see your plans if you don't mind sharing? Have you found somewhere to rent yet or have you been waiting on the council approval? Paying for rent would have been a cost that tipped us over the edge I think. My build - viewforum.php?f=53 Re: Second Story Addition Sydney 19Aug 30, 2015 1:39 pm Hi again, Not sure whether we will be able to stay the whole time things are being done at our place. We were hoping to move out initially for a month or so, get a lot of the downstairs stuff done, then move back in while the second story is built, then maybe move back out again when the stairs etc go in, for however long that takes. I'm sure it won't all be as smooth as that, but that would be the ideal. We also wouldn't be able to afford to rent and pay the new mortgage, so will be staying with family for the times we move out. Unfortunately the family is 30 mins away from here, from where our kids go to school, and 30 minutes on top of the already 45 minutes I commute to work. My husband works locally so the commute would still be around 40 minutes for him, which is pretty good by Sydney standards! I only work 2 days a week, so I think I can do it for a while. Look forward to hearing more about your reno too parrydise - it does sound like a big job! Rj-mcgray - the $7500 makes sense now - being just for fixtures and tiles. Re: Second Story Addition Sydney 20Sep 07, 2015 3:13 pm Just an update - our council approval is slowly on its way to being approved! Apparently it has been signed and should be in the mail by the end of the week! We have had our scaffold delivered and it will be put up this week so it is definitely feeling more real! My build - viewforum.php?f=53 Hi, We have a single story MacDonald Jones house, on a waffle pod slab with steel frame. Are we able to build a second story extension? Other info is we are 900mm from… 0 9428 Hi there, We’ve recently had plans approved to add a 1st storey addition to our existing house for a growing family in Sydney. With the current cost of building… 0 5360 |