/7 min read
Rebuild or A&A? How to Decide
In short
How to settle the decision most enquiries are stuck on. The test is structural rather than aesthetic: will the existing frame give you the plan you want. A survey answers it in the first fortnight, before anyone draws anything. A&A runs fifteen to twenty-one months, reconstruction eighteen to twenty-four, rebuild twenty-one to twenty-eight — and the outcome to avoid is a compromised plan at eighty per cent of the price of a good one.
In this article
Topics
- Alterations & Additions
- Rebuild
- Planning
The question is what the structure will allow
People arrive at this decision through cost and leave through structure. What matters is whether the existing frame lets you move the walls that need to move, put the lift where a lift can go, and open the elevations you need open.
If it does, an A&A is faster and cheaper. If it does not, an A&A buys you a compromised plan at eighty per cent of the price of a good one.
What each route costs you in time
Fifteen to twenty-one months for an A&A. Twenty-one to twenty-eight for a rebuild. Reconstruction sits between them at eighteen to twenty-four and is worth investigating whenever the frame is sound.
The case for keeping the house
Sometimes it has nothing to do with either. A family that has outgrown a house it does not want to leave is making a decision about attachment, and that is a legitimate input. The job is to make sure the compromise is understood rather than discovered.
Key takeaways
- The deciding test is structural and answered by a survey, not by taste.
- A&A: 15–21 months. Reconstruction: 18–24. Rebuild: 21–28.
- A compromised plan at eighty per cent of the cost is the bad outcome to avoid.
First published in the KAPA Journal, written with KAPA Design Collective, the practice that designs and builds our residences.
Published by TMB Development at tmbdevelopment.com/journal/rebuild-or-a-and-a. Quoting a passage with a link back is welcome; republishing it is not — see the terms.
