Why Do People Build Flat Roof Extensions?
November 16th, 2010 -- Posted in General | Comments Off
We’ve all seen them, those ugly carbuncles stuck on the back of houses, with no thought to appearance or aesthetics. If so many of us have seen them how come those building them still do it?
Asking around you find that people have this strange idea that it will increase the value of their property and the reason they are building the extension is because they bought in the first place simply to make a profit and not with any intention of living there any longer than they have to.
It is no wonder then that they do not care what it looks like or what the neighbours might think, they’ve got their planning permission got a builder, quite often the cheapest and with no thought of how long it will last it is a done thing.
So they have changed a two bedroom one reception house into a three bedroom two reception house. Then its off to the estate agent, make a decent (?) profit and off to wreck another area.
How do we stop this destructive cycle? Well the obvious way would be to not buy one of these vandalised properties, or at the very least knock down the price by more than the cost of the extension. Unfortunately there are so many people needing larger houses and pushed into whatever is available that we will never stop it from the buyers route.
The answer must be with the planners, and whilst it may seem hard stopping budding ‘entrepreneurs’ in mid stride, an insistence that all extensions must have roofs that match the rest of the property would go a long way to reducing the problem.
An area where flat roofs are even more obvious is on school buildings. Surely every professional linked to the building trade is aware that flat roofed buildings cost more to maintain than do conventional pitched roofs.
Are people so blinkered that when they cost out the new classroom that they ignore the long term cost of keeping it well maintained? Surely the board of governors are practical enough to understand this, then there are the professionals on the educational side who have to live within these buildings once completed. Do they not have any say in the process.
There is far too much short term thinking going around.
By John Harriyott