ᐅ Extension or knee wall height increase?

Hello everyone,

I hope this post fits here 🙂

We are currently in the process of buying a single-family house, but the space feels a bit tight.
My question is: what would you recommend to gain some extra square meters in the house?

• Two-story extension
• Or would raising the knee wall to at least 2m (6.5 feet) with a living room expansion (a heated conservatory 2 x 5m (6.5 x 16.5 feet) connected to the living room, which means the load-bearing wall here would also have to be removed) be sufficient?

In terms of space, either option would work for us, but my question is more about cost-effectiveness.
Is it worth spending a lot more money on an extension?

And just to clarify, unfortunately, we can’t afford a bigger house, as this one is a great bargain for us.

I hope you have experience and can help us out here.

Where exactly is the space too tight?
Each of the two measures must also fit (within the building envelope, and comply with height and number of stories), but we don’t know the zoning plan.
The floor plan of the attic would be very helpful to provide meaningful input regarding the knee wall issue. What is the house constructed from?

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https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/

Hey,

especially in the bedrooms on the upper floor (2 rooms of about 12m² (130 sq ft) each) where the sloped ceiling starts already at 80cm (31 inches) (which is still manageable),
but in the living room, where there is hardly any space for a sofa and dining table, we really have to consider how to gain some space.
A warm sunroom would probably be the cheapest and easiest solution, I think, but whether it is that simple is another question.

The building method is a prefabricated house with lightweight steel frame construction.

So, based on my rough calculation, that’s 28 sqm (300 sq ft) in the living room. It’s not a huge space, but there’s definitely room for a dining table and a sofa. I currently have 19 sqm (205 sq ft) here and everything fits.

What I’m not entirely clear about is what do you want? More space in the bedroom, a larger living room, or something else (like a two-story extension)? A higher knee wall can increase the usable area of a room, but in the bedroom, there are parts where it doesn’t matter that much. Whether there’s 10 cm (4 inches) or 2 m (6.5 ft) of clearance above the foot end doesn’t really matter when you’re sleeping. A sunroom increases the living room space but doesn’t add anything to the bedroom.

And if you’re planning to spend the same amount of money to completely remodel the house, are you sure it will still be a bargain after the renovation? Raising the knee wall in existing houses isn’t as simple or cheap as in new builds — it usually requires removing the entire roof first, and more.

Selcukxx schrieb:

The construction method is a prefabricated house using lightweight steel framing.

Both expansion options are not straightforward and should be discussed with the manufacturer in advance. This construction method is not very common – I would even call it a niche. At least, I haven’t heard of any manufacturers willing to modify competitors’ products in that way.

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https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/

WilderSueden schrieb:

So, based on my rough calculation, the living room is about 28 sqm (300 sq ft). It’s not a large hall, but you can easily fit a dining table and sofa in there. I currently have 19 sqm (205 sq ft) and everything fits fine.

What’s not entirely clear to me is what you want? More space in the bedroom, a bigger living room, or something else (a two-story extension)?
A higher knee wall can increase the usable area of a room. In the bedroom, for example, there are areas where this is less critical. Whether there’s 10 cm (4 inches) or 2 m (6.5 ft) of clearance above the footboard doesn’t really matter when you’re sleeping. A conservatory increases the living room size but does not add anything to the bedroom.

And if you’re planning to spend a similar amount to completely renovate the house, are you sure it will still be a bargain after the renovation? Raising the knee wall in existing houses isn’t as simple or cheap as for new builds. You usually have to remove the whole roof first, and so on.

An extension to the living room is expensive, but once the foundation is in place, adding an extra floor is not a problem according to the company, so you can achieve a bit more space that way. Then I would of course also expand the bedrooms on the upper floor directly.

A conservatory would naturally be the cheapest and also the most logical solution, but is that even possible? It’s supposed to be integrated into the living room, so part of the external load-bearing wall would have to be removed.

I’ve already requested some quotes: if the extension costs around €80,000 and the conservatory plus raising the knee wall only €30,000, then of course I would prefer the cheaper option.