Aragon Road Extension

This property had a narrow kitchen with a rarely used dining room. The client wanted us to give more of a free flowing dynamic throughout the ground floor to allow them to make more use of the new kitchen and dining room easily. The removal of the load bearing wall and installation of steel beam between the kitchen and dining room firstly opens up lots of more usable space so the kitchen isn’t restricted to one area, it also allows space for the client to have a kitchen/dining room in one.

This is a more modern feel and allows for a more social aspect to the cooking/dining experience as the client can cook and entertain guests at the same time.

This video begins with the steel beam in the middle of the extension to break the span of the roof rafters as the extension goes out 5 meters, smaller timbers can be used if the span is broken. The roof structure is built with 6×2 timber from a timber plate which is bolted to the wall to the midpoint steel beam, then from the steel beam to a timber plate which is fixed to the internal/load bearing skin of block work which is carried by the Catnic lintel. This roof also features two bespoke roof lights, both at 1.1m x 1.1m to allow more natural light into the extension. This roof was built with a warm roof construction method, we find this method quicker and more efficient to carry out compared to a cold roof construction, it also allows for services to be run in the ceiling voids easily as there isn’t any insulation in the way to cause problems. The roof is then covered with a 3 layer felt system which to make it water tight and finished with the bespoke roof light units installed.

At this stage of the construction the walls are built and the roof has been constructed, we are on to the most difficult part of the project which was the drainage. For this we had to dig down and break out the existing man hole, to then join the drain run back up with extra pipe whilst adding the necessary drainage for this property, we also had to add Roding access points in case of blockages in the future. After the drainage was all joined up the hole was back filled, type 1 was spread out whacked down, then ventilation pipes were run from the wooden floor in the existing house to vents in the new brick work. Next was the steel mesh and the 100mm concrete over site. We then blocked up the existing doorway from the kitchen to the garden and run the necessary drainage to convert the kitchen into a downstairs toilet in the future. We then plaster boarded and plastered the ceiling and walls, insulated and screeded the floor, before removing the existing patio doors to create the opening to the room. This room is now ready for a kitchen to be fitted at a later date when the client is ready.