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Home Extensions - How Designs Have Changed Through the years

If you were to visit a typical moderately prosperous suburban estate, built perhaps in the 1930's 50 years ago the probabilities are it would have changed little at the time it was first constructed. Maybe there would be a few garages, where they weren't part of the original, commonly a ramshackle collection of buildings often made out of concrete panels or corrugated sheet materials. There'd however be relatively few extensions even as we think of them today. Advance fifty years and most will have been altered significantly. Windows and doors will often have been changed (on many occasions several times as different materials and styles come and go). Furthermore the majority will have some form of extension and many from the earlier more basic garages will have been replaced by more elaborate matching structures. Admittedly five decades having passed you are likely to expect a certain amount of change but even looking at estates of twenty or many years old today there would still be a lot of alterations. Exactly why are we increasingly keener to switch our homes?

The generation who initially bought those new properties within the 1930's had often come from crowded inner city accommodation so getting your own bathroom, kitchen and perchance even a bedroom each seemed a world away form whatever they had previously known. By in regards to the 1960's quite a few might have changed hands and even for individuals who had not, people were gradually acquiring more goods. With the cooking a fridge and automatic washer were becoming common therefore it was beginning to feel a little cramped. The box room not seemed quite so roomy with childrens' seemingly endless availability of toys. It was the time when increasing numbers purchased their first car, but they had not reached the building when given the choice you could actually leave it outside, unless you wanted to watch it rust before up your eyes and not be able to start a winter morning.

The 1960's therefore marked a symptom to any significant extent of extending homes. Extensions because of this era were often more overtly inclusions in the building with flat roofs being extremely common and windows would often keep to the popular style at that time rather than necessarily match the first building. Prefabricated extensions also became well-accepted with walls often of concrete panels or timber and roofs of either corrugated plastic or perhaps a felt flat roof and frequently built as a 'sun lounge'.

Because the 1970's and 80's moved on there became a growing trend towards home extensions matching the prevailing building. There are several possible reasons behind this:-

· Town Planning departments increasing relation to even fairly minor schemes.

· The prefabricated sort of extension, particularly when utilized as a habitable room (instead of a conservatory or similar) became more complicated to justify under building regulations with increasing requirements of insulation etc. and possibly a more robust interpretation ones by some councils. Any savings in price began to diminish.

· Finally and perhaps most importantly there was a realisation by householders it's generally better to result in the extension look a far more integral part of the original building. This was partly driven with the increasing value of houses which at times has become a national obsession. The larger scale sale of council houses also increased the quantity of owner occupiers who were often keen to individualise them, undoubtedly in part to show that they now owned the exact property.

Southern Highlands Builders

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