Rear extension & full renovation · Liden, Swindon · Jun – Sep 2023

Okebourne Park, Liden

A 1960s house in Liden taken back to the structure, opened up with seven steel beams and extended across the rear into one big kitchen, dining and living space with bifolds onto a new patio and deck. Every stage photographed, from marking out on the old patio to the room two years on. A house we know every inch of.

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At a glance

The job in one look

What we built: Single-storey rear extension plus full renovation of the ground floor, new roof structure, underfloor heating, kitchen, porcelain patio, decking and re-turfed garden.
Where: Okebourne Park, Liden, Swindon
When: Jun – Sep 2023
Done by: SwiftBrick’s own team: groundworks, brickwork, structural steel, carpentry and roof, decoration and landscaping. Plastering, electrics, plumbing, flat roofing and the kitchen fit by our regular trades.

The brief was simple: more space, more light, and a house that works for a family. The way to get it was less simple — removing load-bearing walls across the back of the house, carrying the floors above on steel, and building the new extension in bricks reclaimed from a garden screen wall so the new work matches the 1960s facework. The main build took under two months, with the landscaping finished in the fortnight after.

Stage 1 of 9

Before, and setting out

The house as it was: a patio across the rear, a small kitchen and separate rooms. We marked the footprint of the extension out on the old patio and lawn with line paint, checked it square and to the drawings, and confirmed the levels against the existing damp-proof course before a spade went in.

The rear of the 1960s house in Liden before the extension, with the original patio and lawn — June 2023 — the back of the house before work started.

Extension footprint marked out in blue line paint across the old patio — The footprint set out in paint, measured twice, on the old patio.

Rear elevation with setting-out lines and profiles for the new footings — Lines and profiles in, ready for the digger.

Stage 2 of 9

Dig and pour the foundations

A mini excavator opened the trenches to the depth the ground needed, the drains were located and protected, and the concrete went in. The old garden screen wall had already come down by hand so its bricks could be cleaned and reused in the new walls.

Mini digger excavating the foundation trench behind the house — The trench going in along the line of the new rear wall.

Excavated foundation trench alongside the existing patio slabs — Trench to depth, sides clean, ready for concrete.

Concrete foundations poured in the trenches with the garden behind — Foundations poured and levelled.

Stage 3 of 9

Footings, drainage and the slab

Blockwork and reclaimed brick brought the footings up to damp-proof course level. New drainage was run and connected into the existing system, and the ground was prepared for the floor.

Footing blockwork and reclaimed facing brick rising out of the concrete foundation — Block below ground, reclaimed brick above — the footings coming up to DPC.

New drainage run in the ground alongside the footings — New drainage laid and tied into the existing run.

Stage 4 of 9

The walls go up

Cavity walls in the reclaimed bricks with blockwork inner leaf, built up around new window and door openings and tied into the existing house. From the garden the new work reads as part of the original house, which was the point of saving the bricks.

Reclaimed-brick cavity walls of the extension rising beside the house — The reclaimed bricks going up — the colour match is the whole reason for saving them.

The extension walls at full height seen from the garden with the house behind — Walls up to roof height, openings formed.

Stage 5 of 9

Steel: opening up the back of the house

Seven steel beams, the longest around seven metres, now carry the first floor and the roof where the old load-bearing walls were. Each one was propped, cut in and bedded on its padstones to the engineer’s design before the wall below came out.

Steel beams and temporary propping across the rear of the house while the walls are removed — Props up, steel in, old rear wall coming out beneath it.

Inside the ground floor with steel beams installed and ceilings exposed — Inside: the beams in and the ground floor opened into one space.

Stage 6 of 9

Roof structure

New flat-roof joists over the extension, bearing on the steel and the new walls, with the deck boarded ready for the hot-tar-and-felt roof covering laid by our roofing specialist.

New timber roof joists over the extension with the house wall behind — Joists on, falls set.

Boarded roof deck over the extension ready for the felt covering — Decked and ready for the roofers.

Steel beam and timber roof structure seen from below — From below: the steel carrying the new roof.

Stage 7 of 9

First fix and finishing

Then the slower part: first-fix carpentry and electrics, plumbing and the underfloor heating manifold, screed over the heating, plastering throughout, second-fix carpentry, decoration and the kitchen.

Interior at first-fix stage with stud partitions and services before plastering — First fix: partitions, services and insulation before the plasterers.

Finished kitchen with island and tiled splashback in the new extension — The finished kitchen.

Dining area with bifold doors open onto the garden — Dining space with the bifolds onto the patio.

Stage 8 of 9

Outside: patio, deck and lawn

A large porcelain patio off the bifolds, a timber deck beyond it built by our carpenters, and the garden re-turfed. Finished in the fortnight after the main build.

New porcelain patio and timber decking being laid behind the extension — Porcelain patio and deck frame going down.

The finished rear extension with patio and decking from the garden — The rear from the garden once the landscaping was done.

Finished extension with bifold doors, patio and decking in use — Finished, and in use.

Stage 9 of 9

Two years on

The honest test of any build is how it looks after the owners have lived in it. Photographed in July 2025, lived in and settled.

The rear of the house two years after completion with lawn and patio — July 2025 — the back of the house two summers later.

Living area inside the extension two years on — The living end of the room.

Kitchen and island two years after completion — The kitchen, lived in.

Timelapse

Timelapse: the dig

The excavator opening the trenches across the rear of the house.

Timelapse

Timelapse: pouring the foundations

The concrete going into the trenches.

Timelapse

Timelapse: the steel going in

Steel beams lifted and bedded across the rear of the house.

The result

One room, the whole width of the house

Kitchen, dining and living in one light space opening onto the garden, the first floor carried on new steel, underfloor heating throughout and a patio and deck that get used. It is also a job we can still walk a prospective client round.

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Prefer to talk? 07460 232373 · luke@swiftbrick.co.uk