The first set of drawings cost us three thousand pounds and a wasted summer. They looked fine on paper. The problem only showed up when a second home extension architect flicked through them in about four minutes and asked why the upstairs windows didn’t line up with anything below.
We had wanted to go up, not just out. A two storey rear extension to add a bedroom over a bigger kitchen. The first architect had drawn it, but he had treated the two floors as completely separate problems. Upstairs sat awkwardly on top of downstairs, with windows in odd spots and a roof that didnt relate to the existing house at all.
We thought all architects produced roughly the same thing. They don’t. The gap between someone going through the motions and someone who actually thinks is enormous, and we paid three thousand pounds to learn it the hard way.
The Red Flags We Missed First Time
Looking back, the warning signs were all there. The first architect never asked how we lived. He never measured the existing windows properly. He emailed drawings without a single site visit after the first one.
A two storey extension is not two single storey ones stacked on top of each other. The structure carries through both floors. The windows need to read as one composition from the garden. The roof has to tie back into the original house.
He had ignored every bit of that. We didn’t know enough to spot it. The drawings had walls and dimensions, so we assumed they were correct. That assumption cost us a summer and a deposit.
Why the Second Opinion Changed Everything
The second architect did what the first never bothered to. She visited, measured, and asked questions. How many of us lived there. Where the morning light came in. What we actually wanted from the new rooms.
Then she explained why the first design failed. The window misalignment wasn’t just ugly, it suggested the structure underneath was an afterthought. A proper two storey design works from the ground up, with loads carried cleanly down to new foundations.
She redrew it so both floors worked as one. Windows aligned. The roof pitched to match the house. It looked like it had always been part of the building, not bolted onto the back as an afterthought.
How a Two Storey Design Differs
People underestimate a two storey extension. They picture a single storey one with a box stuck on top. It isn’t that at all.
The foundations have to carry far more weight. The walls below need to support the floor and walls above. The party wall agreement matters more because youre building higher near the boundary. And the planners look harder at it because it affects a neighbours light and privacy.
Get any of that wrong and you either fail planning or build something unsafe. The second architect handled all of it as one connected problem, which is exactly how it should always be done.
The Planning Case We Nearly Lost
A two storey rear extension needs a stronger planning argument than a modest single storey one. Neighbours worry about overlooking and lost light, and the council listens carefully to them.
Our second architect designed the upper floor with windows positioned to avoid looking straight into next door. She set the roof line back slightly so it didn’t loom over the boundary.
She also prepared a proper design statement explaining the choices. The first architect had submitted nothing of the sort. With the redesign, the application went through where the original would almost certainly have been refused.
What Good Design Actually Bought Us
The finished extension gave us the extra bedroom and the bigger kitchen we wanted. But it also did something the first design never could have. It made the house look better, not worse.
From the garden it reads as one building. The proportions are right. Visitors assume the back of the house always looked like this. Good design does that quietly, by getting the basics right rather than chasing something flashy.
The value it added to the house easily covered the cost of starting again. A clumsy extension can drag a property down. A well resolved one lifts it. The three thousand we lost first time stung, but the second design earned it back many times over.
What I Would Tell Anyone Starting Out
Don’t judge an architect by the drawings alone. Judge them by the questions they ask before they draw anything. The good ones want to understand your house and your life first.
Be wary of anyone who skips the site visit or treats a two storey job as a simple add on. The complexity is real and it needs proper thought from the very start.
Six to eight months from that second conversation to a finished build that actually worked. If you’re weighing up the jump from a single storey idea to going upward, it is worth understanding how a double storey extension really differs before you commit. The first architect taught me what to avoid. The second taught me what an architect is actually for, and she was worth every penny.
