Adding extra rooms under the house

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neb

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#251742 9-Jul-2019 16:52

SWMBO, a.k.a. SWWorksFromHome, has been wanting her own workspace for awhile now, rather than the overloaded office/library/storeroom that's currently been pressed into service. Problem is that all we've really got to work with is this:

It's 2.6m high and 2.5m wide, and as long as the house. It's also under the house, so innately waterproof. The ceiling, meaning house underfloor is this:

which could be further insulated and used as the ceiling for whatever we put under there.

Beyond that it gets very open-ended, we could add anything from a basic shed (ugh, will be freezing in winter and pretty unpleasant in general) through to turning the existing strip of laundry in the house above into steps down to that area and enclosing the entire area underneath, which would also give me a workroom for machinery. There's power and water access under there, so that bit isn't a problem.

It's mainly a question of dealing with the council and cost, presumably anything beyond a basic shed will require a permit and cost an arm and a leg, but it would solve ongoing stress over space.

If anyone has any thoughts on the best tradeoff, I'd be interested in hearing them...

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#2272512 9-Jul-2019 16:55

I suggest taking a sketch of what you want to do and go into your council to see if they have any issues with it, and what they would need from you.

neb

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#2272513 9-Jul-2019 16:57

At the moment we're not sure what we want to do, i.e. whether to go more for the low-end add-a-shed approach, the high-end build-a-basement approach (which will definitely need council approval), or some halfway step, thus looking for suggestions...

DarthKermit

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#2272515 9-Jul-2019 16:59

I suggest that you decide which arm and leg you can live without, when your friendly local council tells you how much they're gonna charge you.

PolicyGuy

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#2272538 9-Jul-2019 17:32

Don't even consider sticking a "shed" under there and making "SWMBO, a.k.a. SWWorksFromHome" work from it, unless you are looking forward with keen anticipation to a chat in due course with a Family Law specialist
Just my $0.02 ;-)

You have IMHO only two realistic alternatives: leaving things the way they are or spending a substantial sum of money.

If you are inclined to spending, then draw up a list of things you want downstairs (a toilet and therefore a wash hand basin of some kind? a shower? a kitchenette?) make a rough sketch, and go to your local council offices and ask to chat to the Duty Planner.
Ask him/her:

Am I actually allowed to do this kind of thing?
What kind of Consent(s) will I need?
How much would that cost? (Without knowing where you live, I'd guess at least two or three grand.)

neb

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#2272541 9-Jul-2019 17:39

Actually it's SWMBO who wanted the shed, I've been trying to argue for something more permanent and liveable because there's no way a shed-style structure will work in the long run. Thanks for the advice, I think the Duty Planner thing will be the best approach to get an idea of possible cost and time.

I'm in Auckland, so take whatever worst-case estimate you can think of and triple it. Worst case I'll have to ask permission from every Auckland Iwi to do the work, which happened to a neighbour.

tdgeek

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#2272547 9-Jul-2019 17:50

Id talk to the council, see if they can pop out, who cares if its $300, then you know the boundaries and the options

antoniosk

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#2272577 9-Jul-2019 18:47

tdgeek:
Id talk to the council, see if they can pop out, who cares if its $300, then you know the boundaries and the options

I concur

Accept that you are converting an outdoor space to a living facility, and plan for that. Accept some costs will come from the council IF you proceed. Accept that the output will be a lot better than a shed.

I’d say it’s worth it - it the catch will be when someone says “add a window across the support poles”

😉

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neb

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#2272579 9-Jul-2019 18:50

antoniosk: it the catch will be when someone says “add a window across the support poles” 😉

I'd budgeted in a certain level of "it's just what I asked for, but not what I want" :-). I'll report back after the meeting with the council person, in case others need to go down this path.

Aredwood

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#2272583 9-Jul-2019 18:57

Decide if you want the finished room to be fully consented or not. As there will be a big cost difference between just building some walls to enclose that space, insulate those walls etc. And just have access via a door from outside. Vs going the whole way and making it fully compliant.

Consider if you would likely to continue living in that house long term. And what would likely happen if you sold the house. Would a developer demolish it and build apartments instead?

As unfortunately the council make everything way more complex and expensive than what is necessary.

neb

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#2272652 9-Jul-2019 21:43

Aredwood: Consider if you would likely to continue living in that house long term. And what would likely happen if you sold the house. Would a developer demolish it and build apartments instead?

Whoever buys this place will bulldoze the house and build something much more expensive, it's a 1970s universal home that's worth 10% of the property value. That's another factor, not wanting to spend a large amount of money on adding to a house that's (a) not worth that much and (b) will be bowled by the next owner.

Kiwifruta

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#2272657 9-Jul-2019 21:48

Have you considered renting one of those portable rooms?

trig42

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#2274631 11-Jul-2019 14:21

We have a very similar space under our house that I have been considering doing the same thing to (including converting what is currently the laundry into stairs down).

What I am thinking of doing is putting in a wall like you have there to the left (ours is currently just dirt, it has drainage at the top of the hill so the under house stays pretty dry) with drainage behind it and then concreting the floor - leaving part out at one end for a potential bathroom and laundry later.

I'd then look at enclosing it for storage/shed and maybe further down the track going to the council about turning it into an extra room/putting the stairs in.

It would be awesome if we could turn it into an extra bedroom at some point (the total space would be about 40m2 I think, so could have storage, a laundry/bathroom and a decent bedroom).

We've had a couple of builders estimate the work at $50-60k, including council.

neb

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#2274907 11-Jul-2019 23:42

trig42:
We've had a couple of builders estimate the work at $50-60k, including council.

Well I must say you've got no-one but yourself to blame for that one. Fancy specifying Italian marble floors, stucco ceilings, and hand-painted frescoes on the walls. No wonder it came to $50-60K.

Disrespective

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#2275084 12-Jul-2019 09:51

Building work for bespoke projects (i use that term loosly but as it's not a new bulk home it isn't going to be the cheapest) will set you back north of $4500 per square meter of build (excluding all fees and contingencies). Sure there might be some savings to be had due to there already being a 'roof' overhead, but renovation work in general costs more due to the unknown complexities of working around existing structure that may not be easy to incorporate.

So if you have an area of 45m2 and all you want is a very basic fit out then i'd be guessing you'll be looking at a budget cost of anywhere from $25k to $35k.

This assumes you can find a builder who wants to do small jobs with minimal margin (not the easiest given the building boom Akl has at the moment). I suspect quotes in the <$50k range are a combination of lack of desperation for the job, low efficiencies of scale, and skyrocketing materials costs.

If you are in any way handy then I would consider doing the work yourself under the owner-builder exemption. See - https://www.building.govt.nz/projects-and-consents/planning-a-successful-build/scope-and-design/choosing-the-right-people-for-your-type-of-building-work/owner-builder-obligations/

This will save you all the builders margins and rates but cost you in time and materials.

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#2275098 12-Jul-2019 10:16

Kiwifruta: Have you considered renting one of those portable rooms?

This is what we did recently (we're not in Auckland so have land space), $80 /week to have ~10sqm of insulated space while we work out what we want to do long term with the house. I think I can see us having this for the next couple of years (its used for business so is a business expense).

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