Are you looking to expand your family’s living room in a semi-detached house? Renovating and adding a second storey is a common choice. However, remodelling a semi-detached house presents its own set of challenges: shared wall neighbours!
This article discusses the best tips on how to handle the semi-detached house renovation to make your build as harmonious as possible.
Design
Neighbours are usually concerned that your home extension may interfere with their views, natural light, and privacy, and some will even doubt the new appearance. To resolve their issues while reaping all of the rewards of your extension, you should work with a designer who has extensive experience with semi-detached house renovation. They will educate you about possible approaches to accomplish your goals if there is a disagreement. They will also assist you in smoothing the process with Council when you apply for planning approval.
Share your plans with your neighbour as soon as possible, and take care of any questions they might have. Address these with your preferred designer so that you can later understand how they were incorporated into the final design.
Damage
Since you share a common wall, your neighbour might be concerned about possible harm. To fix these, make sure that your designer/builder has:
- An engineer’s report on whether the party wall would support the new addition; and
- A dilapidation report to document any current defects as well as the overall condition of your neighbour’s home
- You can also check with Fair Trading to ensure that your builder is certified to do the work you’ve hired them to do and that their insurance is up to date.
- Give your neighbour a copy of the Engineer’s certificate and the dilapidation report.
Mess
Construction is a mess! On the other hand, this mess does not have to linger for weeks on end, making you and your neighbours insane.
Find out ahead of time how your semi-detached house renovation contractor intends to keep things clean, such as how often trash pickups will occur. Check that they have arrangements to minimize the effect of the construction mess on your neighbours and that the mess is removed from the site promptly.
Keep track of your builder’s daily schedule and notify your neighbours if there is more dust than usual.
Noise
Builders MUST abide by noise regulations. And if the project is running behind schedule or under tight deadlines, make sure they follow the noise restrictions. Again, be mindful of your builder’s regular schedule and inform your neighbour when the noisiest work will be finished.
With a bit of forethought and preparation, semi-detached house renovation should be no more complicated than renovating a detached house. Only make sure to speak with your neighbour because they will have many of the same questions as you.
It is critical that you hire a designer and builder who understands each issue – design, the potential for harm, mess, noise, and so on – and has the skills and processes to fix each one effectively.
Recent Comments