Thanks to a modular extension, it took just four weeks to turn Alex and Lise Quan’s three-bedroom bungalow into a seven-bed house overlooking the fields and valleys of Axminster

WORDS SOPHIE GALE PHOTOS COLIN POOLE

On a cold January day in 2018, Alex and Lise Quan sat in their garden watching as two new fl oors to their house were lifted, room by room, via a 100-tonne crane, on top of the old bungalow they had bought six years earlier. It was a nerve-racking moment. “At first we were looking out from between our fingers,” says Alex. “Our renovation company had explained everything to us in detail, yet we were still somehow half expecting the bungalow to creak and give way!”

They need not have been anxious.the extension, comprising 26 pre-formed sections, was secured into place with no hiccups at all. “We started to relax after the first module went on,” says Alex. “Then it was a matter of simply watching the house transform before our eyes within a matter of days.”

”We simply watched the house transform before our eyes within a matter of days “

It took a mere four weeks on site for the Quans’ sturdy but small bungalow, which previously possessed only three bedrooms, to be reinvented into an impressive sevenbedroom residence. It gained a loft space, two new bathrooms and a games room, with a home cinema and snooker table.

A substantial solar array has been fitted on the property’s new roof

Alex and Lise’s conservatory is connected to the main living space on the ground floor

The scheme was the work of loft conversion specialists Moduloft. Each timber-framed, insulated component came complete with external OSB board, plaster skim, first-fix electrics – even roof tiles where appropriate. The company undertook second-fix plumbing and electrics when the modules were in situ. Once the firm was finished on site, the Quans used subcontractors to finish outstanding tasks such as decorating and bathroom fittings. In the space of just six months, from brief through to completion, Moduloft’s work was done. Achieving so much in such a short time explains why the project – the company’s largest at the time – won the 2018 Build It Award for Best Offsite Manufactured Home.