Extensions · Worcestershire · 2024

Side Extension — New Bedroom, En Suite & Utility, Plus a Large Oak Tractor Port.

Item: Side Extension — New Bedroom, En Suite & Utility, Plus a Large Oak Tractor Port
Rating: 5
Author: JRC Developers Ltd

A full side extension adding a bedroom, en suite and utility room to a detached house — built from setting-out to handover in matched red brick — alongside a large oak-framed tractor port and new boundary walls on the same site.

Overview

The owners needed another bedroom with its own en suite, plus a proper utility room, and they wanted covered storage for their tractors. Rather than two separate jobs by two separate trades, we took on the whole site: extension, boundary walls, hardstanding and the oak port.

Everything is faced in a red brick matched to the existing house, under a tiled pitched roof with black rainwater goods and anthracite windows, so the extension reads as though it has always been there.

Groundworks

Setting out, digging and getting out of the ground.

The job started with setting out against the existing gable, then excavating and pouring footings, diverting drainage and forming the new inspection chambers. Foundation walls went up in brick and block with the cavity filled to the right level and a continuous DPC run through.

Our own plant did the muck-away and the stone — a JCB 8025 and a one-tonne dumper working the side of the house, which keeps the job moving instead of waiting on hired machines and other people's timescales.

Setting out and excavated foundation trenches for a side extension beside a red brick detached house, with a JRC Developers van on the drive — Day one — set out, dug and profiled against the existing gable.

Brick and block foundation walls built off concrete footings for a side extension, with drainage and a builder working in the background — Foundation walls out of the ground, drainage set and levels checked.

JRC Developers one-tonne dumper and JCB excavator working alongside the new brick wall on the side extension site — Our own plant on site — muck-away and stone handled in-house.

Wide view of the working site showing the excavator, stone stockpile and the new red brick boundary wall under construction — The wider site — extension, walls and hardstanding all running together.

Brickwork

Matching a house brick for brick.

The superstructure went up in a red facing brick chosen against the existing elevations, in stretcher bond with the perpends lined through and joints struck to match the original weathering.

The same brick and the same standard carried into the new boundary and garden walls — long runs, piers and returns, all levelled off the same datum. Cavity work was insulated and tied properly as it rose; that part disappears once the plaster is on, but it's what the wall does for the next fifty years.

First lifts of red brickwork for the side extension against the gable of the existing detached house — First lifts up — the footprint finally readable.

Side extension brickwork rising above damp proof course level with corner piers and a spirit level on the wall head — Rising above DPC, corners run first and lines kept off them.

Long run of matched red brick boundary wall built to a string line beside the garden — The boundary wall — same brick, same bond, same joint.

Cavity wall brickwork with insulation and wall ties visible at the head of the wall on the side extension — Cavity insulated and tied as the wall rises.

Roof

Gable, verge detail and trusses on.

The gable was topped out with a soldier-course verge detail raking up the pitch — a small piece of set-out that has to be right first time, because a wandering rake shows from the road.

Trusses were craned and set, wall plates strapped, then the roof was felted, battened and tiled in a brown interlocking tile to match the house, with black fascias, soffits and gutters.

Gable brickwork of the side extension with a raking soldier course verge detail and cavity insulation visible below — The raking verge detail — cut, set out and run in one go.

Roof trusses installed over the side extension gable brickwork ready for felt, battens and tiles — Trusses set and strapped, ready to felt and batten.

Finished

A bedroom, an en suite and a utility room — and it looks original.

Inside, the extension gave the family a double bedroom with its own en suite plus a proper utility room off the house, all first- and second-fixed, plastered and decorated by us.

Outside, the new gable sits under a pitched tiled roof with anthracite windows and a composite door, and the ground around it was finished in decorative gravel with block paving to the existing drive. From the road it reads as part of the original house rather than a bolt-on.

Finished red brick side extension with brown tiled pitched roof, anthracite windows and black rainwater goods — The finished extension — matched brick, matched tile, matched detail.

Gable end of the completed side extension with a black composite door and new decorative gravel hardstanding — The gable end with its own external door into the utility.

Completed side extension seen from the driveway showing the tiled roof, brickwork and new gravel and block paved surfaces — From the drive — extension, gravel and paving all finished together.

Oak Tractor Port

A large oak-framed port for the tractors.

Alongside the house works we built a substantial oak-framed tractor port on a new gravel hardstanding: heavy posts on concrete pads with galvanised post shoes, braced heads, a deep joisted roof structure and a boarded back wall to keep the weather off the machines.

It is generous enough to take full-size farm tractors and a couple of vehicles, and the frame was cut and set so that the bracing does the structural work honestly rather than being decoration bolted onto a shed.

Large oak-framed tractor port with dark sheet roof on a new gravel hardstanding beside a hedge — The finished tractor port — built to take full-size machines.

Oak tractor port frame showing heavy posts, angled braces and the steel roof edge from the side — Braced heads and heavy posts on concrete pads.

Underside of the oak tractor port roof structure showing timber joists, rafters and the boarded rear wall — Looking up — the roof structure doing the work.

JRC Developers Facebook post from March 2024 announcing the completed side extension with new bedroom, en suite, utility room and oak tractor port — JRC Developers Ltd, 18 March 2024.

Gallery

Every image from Side Extension — New Bedroom, En Suite & Utility, Plus a Large Oak Tractor Port.

Swipe, use the arrows or your keyboard to move through all 17 photos — tap any image for fullscreen.

1 / 17

Day one — set out, dug and profiled against the existing gable.

In the client's words

"Another project finished. Side extension which has created another bedroom, en suite and utility room. We've also built a large oak tractor port for the customer's tractors."

— JRC Developers Ltd · via Facebook