A bungalow, given a first floor
Five bedrooms on one level became six across two, with a home office, two new en-suites, and the security and network systems built in while the walls were still open.
The brief
More house, same footprint
A large detached bungalow in Thornaby with generous ground-floor rooms — but everything on one level, and a roof space doing nothing at all. The owners wanted two more bedrooms with their own bathrooms and a proper home office, without losing any garden to get them.
So we built upwards rather than outwards: raised the roof, put a staircase through the middle of the house, and took the two new bedrooms into space that was already there. On the ground floor, a small bedroom nobody used became the office.
At a glance
| Property | Detached bungalow, Thornaby |
|---|---|
| Works | First floor within a raised roof, new staircase, internal remodelling |
| Systems | CCTV, structured network, alarm, door entry |
| Architect | KASD |
| Divisions | Construction · Security · IT & networks |
| Status | Completed |
Before and after
What actually changed
The footprint barely moved. Everything new happened above the existing walls, which is why the garden survived and why the ground floor stayed liveable for most of the build.
Ground floor
- Lounge, dining room, kitchen and living room all retained
- Bedroom with en-suite kept at the west end
- One small bedroom became a dedicated office
- New staircase inserted between kitchen and living room
New first floor
- Two double bedrooms, each with its own en-suite
- Landing and stair core lit from the new gables
- Minimum headroom zone drove the roof geometry
- Insulation and fire separation to current regulations
Start to completion
Eight stages, one contractor
Most of what goes wrong on a job like this happens in the gaps between trades. Running the building work and the systems under one programme removes the gaps.
Survey and measured drawings Construction
We measured the house and recorded the existing layout before anything was priced, then checked KASD’s drawings against what was actually on site. A bungalow of this age rarely matches its original plans, and it is cheaper to find that out now than during the build.
Planning and building regulations Construction
Taking a floor into the roof brought minimum headroom, fire escape, insulation and structural loading into play. The scheme was worked up until it satisfied both planning and Building Control.
Structure and the new opening Construction
Steel went in where the staircase cuts through the ceiling, and the roof structure was opened up. This is the stage that looks alarming to live with and is entirely normal.
Roof, gables and weathering Construction
The raised roof, the two front gables and the new windows went in, and the house was made watertight again before anything else started.
First fix — the part most people miss IT & networks
With the walls still open, the cabling for the CCTV, the network, the alarm and the door entry went in alongside the electrics and the plumbing. Adding any of it afterwards means lifting floors and chasing walls a second time.
Plaster, joinery and second fix Construction
Staircase, doors, skirtings, plastering and decoration, and both new en-suites tiled and fitted.
Systems commissioned Security
Cameras aligned and recording, the network tested end to end, alarm and door entry programmed, and the whole lot demonstrated to the owners on their own phones.
Handover Construction
Certificates, Building Control sign-off, warranties and a walk round. One contractor to call afterwards rather than four.
Why it mattered here
The cabling went in once
The usual sequence is that a builder finishes the walls, an alarm engineer arrives three weeks later and chases them open again, and then the network installer does the same.
Because all three divisions are ours, the camera runs, the data points and the alarm cabling went in at first fix alongside the electrics — before a sheet of plasterboard went up. One set of scaffolding, one round of making good, one snagging visit.
Talk to us about your projectCCTV
Camera positions agreed at design stage, cabled at first fix, aligned at commissioning.
Network
Data points to every room on the new floor, back to a single cabinet.
Alarm & detection
Detection to the new escape route, wired to current regulations.
Building works
Structure, roof, staircase, plastering, joinery and both en-suites.
Thinking about going up rather than out?
We will look at what your roof space can take, what it needs structurally, and what it would cost — including the wiring most people only think about once the walls are shut.