Types of Kitchen Extension Explained

Cream shaker kitchen with an island, integrated ovens and a rooflight
Types of Kitchen Extension Explained There are six realistic routes to a bigger, better kitchen diner, a single-storey rear extension, a side-return infill, a wrap-around combining both, a double-storey extension, a garage-to-kitchen conversion, and reconfiguring your existing footprint with no extension at all. Each suits a different house shape, garden size and budget, and the [...]

Open-Plan Kitchen Extensions and Kitchen-Diners

Dark green kitchen with a vaulted ceiling, rooflight and curved island
Open-Plan Kitchen Extensions and Kitchen-Diners An open plan kitchen extension removes the wall or walls separating your kitchen from the dining area, sometimes the lounge too, and rebuilds that opening on a structural steel beam so the space reads as one kitchen diner rather than three small rooms. The result is a kitchen diner extension [...]

How Much Does a Kitchen Extension Cost?

Open-plan kitchen and dining room with pendant lights and a large island
How Much Does a Kitchen Extension Cost in Bristol? A kitchen extension cost in Bristol with Excellence Living starts from £20,000 for a kitchen reconfiguration within your existing footprint, £60,000 for a kitchen extension, and £45,000 for a garage-to-kitchen conversion. These are honest starting points rather than quotes, since the real figure for your home [...]

How to Choose the Right Kitchen Extension Company

Kitchen and dining area with pendant lighting and a garden outlook
How to Choose the Right Kitchen Extension Company The right kitchen extension company designs and builds under one contract, employs its own team rather than subcontracting the structural work out, carries adequate insurance, and gives you a fully specified quote before anything starts. A kitchen extension is a major structural project in every sense that [...]

Does Converting a Garage Add Value to Your Home?

Converted garage bedroom with a double bed, dressing table and mirrored storage
Does Converting a Garage Add Value to Your Bristol Home? A well-built garage conversion can add up to 15% to your property's value, and across Bristol and North Somerset it is the fastest route to an extra room in a house that already has the structure standing. That is less than a loft conversion, which [...]

Garage Conversion Ideas: What You Can Actually Do With the Space

Converted garage fitted out as a bedroom with a dressing table and fitted storage

Thinking about a project of your own? The next step is a free feasibility visit: we look at your property, tell you plainly what is possible, and follow it with a fully specified price before you commit to anything. One contract, one in-house team, and a five-year guarantee. Book a feasibility visit or call 0117 […]

How to Choose the Right Garage Conversion Company

Converted garage dining area looking out to a gravelled garden through bifold doors
How to Choose the Right Garage Conversion Company The right garage conversion company designs and builds under one contract, employs its own team rather than subcontracting the work out, carries adequate insurance, and gives you a fully specified quote before anything starts. References, a written contract and completed projects you can visit all exist to [...]

Types of House Extension Explained

Roof terrace with a sun lounger and patterned outdoor rug
Types of House Extension Explained The main types of house extension are the single storey rear extension, the double storey (or two storey) extension, the side return extension, the wrap-around extension, and the multi-storey extension, each suited to a different combination of plot, budget and existing structure, and none of them the automatically "right" choice [...]

How Long Does a House Extension Take?

Mini digger clearing rubble where a rear extension is being broken through into a stone period house
How Long Does a House Extension Take? A house extension runs through a fixed sequence of stages, from a feasibility visit and survey through design, planning, Building Control, groundworks, structure, first fix, plaster, second fix and decoration to a completion certificate, and how long each of those stages takes depends on the size and complexity [...]

Single Storey or Double Storey Extension: Which Is Right?

Garden room with a pool table and full-height glazing onto the estuary
Single Storey or Double Storey Extension: Which Is Right? A single storey extension is right when the problem is genuinely confined to the ground floor, the budget and disruption need to stay lower, and the planning route needs to stay as simple as possible, whilst a double storey extension is right when you need more [...]

Do You Need Planning Permission for a House Extension?

Open-plan kitchen, dining and living space with herringbone flooring and a pink sofa
Do You Need Planning Permission for a House Extension? Many house extensions can be built without applying for full planning permission, because they fall under a right called permitted development, but a meaningful proportion cannot, and the only reliable way to know which category your project falls into is to check it against your specific [...]

How Much Does a House Extension Cost?

Bedroom in a new extension with a green feature wall and glazed doors to the garden
How Much Does a House Extension Cost in Bristol? A house extension in Bristol is a five-figure to six-figure project, and the honest position is that Excellence Living cannot give you a single number until we have stood in your garden, looked at your foundations and your existing structure, and understood exactly what you want [...]

What Can a Basement Become? Realistic Uses for the Space

Vaulted lower-ground space opened out, with light reaching the far wall
What Can a Basement Become? Realistic Uses for the Space A basement can realistically become a snug or media room, a home office, a home gym, a utility and laundry room, genuinely organised storage, a guest room, or a full bedroom, and which of these suits your basement depends far more on head height, natural [...]

Basement Waterproofing and Damp: What Actually Works

Lower-ground level stripped back to stone piers with new steel beams installed overhead
Basement Waterproofing and Damp: What Actually Works A dry basement is a designed system, not a product you buy, and the honest answer to what actually works is whichever approach, barrier protection, a cavity drainage membrane, or a combination of the two, has been properly designed for your specific ground conditions, then correctly installed and [...]

How Much Does a Basement Conversion Cost?

Excavator removing spoil from beneath a period stone house during a basement dig
How Much Does a Cellar or Basement Conversion Cost in Bristol? A cellar or basement conversion in Bristol typically costs a five-figure sum for a straightforward, dry cellar with reasonable head height, and a six-figure sum where waterproofing, a new lightwell, structural repair and a higher finish specification are all needed together. Which end of [...]

3D Modelling: Seeing Your Project Before It Is Built

Interior mid-build showing a steel and timber frame with full-width glazing onto a sea view
3D Modelling: Seeing Your Project Before It Is Built 3D modelling turns a flat floor plan into a space you can actually walk through before a single wall is built, showing how light falls, how tall a room genuinely feels, and how one space opens into the next in a way lines on a page [...]

Home Design Services for a Full House Renovation

Open-plan kitchen and family room under a vaulted ceiling
Home Design Services for a Full House Renovation A home design service for a full house renovation takes your project from a rough idea through to a technical package your builder can construct from, in a set order: survey and measured drawings, concept design, a developed layout, the necessary permissions, and finally a Building Control-ready [...]

Do You Need an Architect, or a Design and Build Firm?

Roof terrace with glass balustrade and decking overlooking the estuary
Do You Need an Architect, or a Design and Build Firm? It depends on what you value more for your specific project: one point of accountability from the first sketch through to completion, or an independent professional acting on your behalf when the design meets the builder actually constructing it. Most homeowners planning a loft [...]

How Much Does a Garage Conversion Cost?

Garage conversion opening onto a courtyard garden through bifold doors
How Much Does a Garage Conversion Cost in Bristol? A garage conversion cost in Bristol with Excellence Living starts from £15,000 for a partial garage conversion and £20,000 for a full single garage conversion, rising to around £28,000 for a double garage conversion and £30,000 for a detached garage conversion. Because the existing structure is [...]