About Me

Planning and Executing Construction and Contracting Projects: Tips for Consumers

Welcome to my blog. My name is Deborah. About 15 years ago, I bought an old home. We worked with several contractors to rehabilitate it, but ultimately, the foundation simply wasn't stable enough, and we had to tear it down. After that, we worked with a construction crew to build a home from the ground up. The experience was exciting and challenging, and I learned a lot through that process. I want to share construction and contracting facts and information with others so I decided to start this blog. I hope that you like the results, and I thank you for reading. Enjoy!

Planning and Executing Construction and Contracting Projects: Tips for Consumers

The 3 Steps To A Bigger House

by Samantha Russell

A large number of prospective new homeowners lack the financial ability to build a new home or to buy one that is newly-built. Such homeowners often end up investing in pre-owned houses that may lack a few of their desired features. A good example of the features referred to is the number and the layout of rooms within the house.

Adding new structures to a pre-owned house is among the best ways to increase the number of rooms in a house and to improve the layout of these rooms. Here are a few things that every homeowner should do before undertaking any extension-related activities on a pre-owned house.

Call The Home Insurance Company

This is among the first things that a homeowner should do when looking to add a structural extension to an existing house. In a large number of cases, homeowners assume that their home insurance policy will continue to cover their property during the extension period and after the extensions have been made.

However, this is not always the case. A large number of home insurance service providers do not provide cover when a house is being renovated. Also, home extensions alter the physical structure of the house as previously known to the insurer. Certain changes to this structure may void the homeowner's insurance policy. Thus, making a call to find out if the insurance provider will agree to cover two or three extra rooms is well worth the time.

Talk To The Immediate Neighbours

Once a homeowner ends the call with their insurance service provider, it would be a good idea to make a stop at the neighbors' so as to get their opinion on the intended house extension exercise.

This is especially important if the extensions to be made will "move" the house closer to a neighbour's windows, thereby interfering with the path that light follows as it gets into the neighbour's house. This interference is considered an infringement on the neighbour's right to light and it can be a major stumbling block for the intended house extension exercise if the neighbour was to challenge this infringement in court.

Study The Site

Assuming that the neighbours are pleasant and that they won't challenge the plans for extension in court, a homeowner should walk back home to study the site on which extensions will be incorporated into the existing structure. 

Homeowners should especially be concerned about the kind of access that the extension(s) will provide. For example, an extension that will provide direct access to an external pool area may be illegal in certain jurisdictions.

Once these three things have been done, the home extension contractor can be called in. 

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