If you have extended your home...

[MillionPramMiles]

Particularly if you've had a single storey rear kitchen extension and internal walls reinstated...was it worth the expense/stress?

I'm especially worried as our house has a single point of entry/exit so there would be inevitable damage to floors, walls etc in hall/living room I assume. Also can't work out how the builders would bring diggers etc through the house to the back garden.

Oh and our garden is on two levels so would need some excavation to level it and put in stairs etc.

There wouldn't be anywhere to put a temporary kitchen or hide from the dust so we'd have to rent elsewhere too I think while the works went on.

I'm not keen (you can probably tell..) but dp is. The extra space (inc a proper separate living room) would be nice and it would still be cheaper than moving but we'd never make the money back if we sold.
How did others reach a decision? It feels like a minefield....

[Marmitelover55]

Do you have (side) access for digger? If not then if will have to be dug by hand, which I understand will be much more expensive. All of the earth etc would need to be trugged through the house - very messy. We have side access so had digger, but it's still very messy.

We are 11 weeks into our single storey extension and have not moved out. It is very cramped as we haven't put anything into storage and have set up temporary kitchen in sitting room.

I am very excited though as the end is in sight. It has been expensive but the space is fantastic and I hope we will never have to move

[morchoxplz]

We extended our house in the horrific winter of 2010-11 We we're without walls whilst there were 3ft icicles just outside. Minus 10 was recorded several nights. DS was under 1.
Our boiler packed up.
A f nightmare.
Love it now though!

[MillionPramMiles]

Thanks both. I'm wondering if we've left it too late for this year as am assuming it wouldn't be a good idea to do the works in Winter. Even if we weren't living there I'm guessing bad weather could delay the works?

Can I ask how long you your works are expected to take (or did take)?

Thanks for your help.

[unrealhousewife]

It only took our builders a few days to dig our foundations by hand, and cart the waste through the house but we had cowboys and the rest took about two years. We did it all for 18k including the kitchen as dp did most of the work.

If I had known I think I would have simply knocked through the two back rooms and built a sips panel extension which doesn't need deep foundations.

[tryingtocatchthewind]

We had a single story kitchen extension last year roughly the size of a garage (5mx3m) but we had access round the side of the house. Can't imagine it with no access, all the bricks and everything would need to come through the house.

The timescale was 8 weeks and it took 8 weeks from start to finish (fully painted and kitchen fitted) but my job means I can give out recommendations to lots of people so my builders really made the effort.

We didn't move out but sent my son to live with MIL for two weeks and for a week we had to live upstairs as downstairs was just too dusty and full of stuff.

It is worth it in the end but I would question if it's worth the hassle if you won't recoup costs when you sell. Do you plan on staying a long time?

[Hooliesmoolies]

We had our single story kitchen extension done 3 years ago. We have no side access, and they simply didn't use diggers. They had protective sheets down, and it was dusty. They didn't damage anything other than the space they were working on.

Ours was 4*5, and we ended up with a utility room, a downstairs toilet, storage and a LOVELY kitchen/dining/playroom area.

We didn't move out. We stayed with our 2 year old and our 5 month old, with our fridge (and unplugged washing machine and dryer) in our living room, and had to eat out of a microwave. Needless to say, Weaning of baby number two involved lots LESS lovingly hand made purees .

The one thing I regret was letting the builders rip out our kitchen on day one!?! They then did nothing to the old kitchen for about 6 weeks!!! We washed up in the bath for 14 weeks. And in fairness, some people would be upset by the dust.

So, the main question, was it worth it? A million times YES. I LOVE our kitchen space. It is beautiful. I love our utility room (which is a tip but with a door to close). I loved potty training with a down stairs toilet.

The period of disruption is tiny relative to the amount of years you will be using it (unless you plan to move out quickly). But, I do agree with tryingtocatchthewind - you don't really recoup costs. They cost more than they add to the house. For us, it is worth it nonetheless because having a kitchen which has a playroom, it has the piano, it has the kitchen table, and it has a wonderful view onto the garden.

I'll stop raving about it now .

[unrealhousewife]

Even ours was worth it, our garden is tiny but our side return was wasted space. Now we have bifold doors we see the green lush garden from the kitchen table, can regularly eat outside and entertaining is less cramped.

We hardly use our living room and are thinking of turning it into a fourth bedroom which saves on a loft conversion.

[MillionPramMiles]

Thanks all - we'd definitely plan on staying if we extend as it would be instead of moving house.

Can I ask, how did you find your builders/architects? I'm finding it hard to get consistent recommendations and also finding many builders are booked up for a year.
And how did you find managing the builders if you both worked full time out of the house? We're not home 10-12 hours a day, 5 days a week....

[unrealhousewife]

Book a year ahead in order to get the best builders.

[MillyMollyMama]

I think hand digging and taking everything out through the house is not pleasant and will make the hall etc messy. Definitely a summer job! Imagine the mud in the rain! If you are having to dig out the garden to level it and put in steps, this suggests to me you will need a retaining wall to keep the remaining garden in place. If so, this is expensive both in engineering costs and building costs. Is it worth it? Maybe it is cheaper to move but only you can weigh this up for your house / area.

We live in a fairly large house in a very attractive area. I look out from my extension (kitchen) onto lovely gardens, fields and woodland. Yes, it was worth it on all counts. We will get the money back if we ever sell and in the meantime my kitchen and the other changes we made have made the house a real pleasure to live in. However, nothing had to be trudged through the rest of the house and we had access for diggers, but not big delivery lorries. That caused plenty of problems because everything had to be ferried down to our house from a site in the village. This was labour intensive. Everything costs more than you think so be realistic about costs and disruption.

[unrealhousewife]

As I said our hand dug foundations, in pouring rain, too about a week. They laid down board and it wasn't a big problem.

You don't need a digger to shift soil, it can be done by labourers who will charge 100 a day. It will cost a little more, that's all.

[Hooliesmoolies]

We used Architect your Home. They come and discuss designs and you can have them involved in as much or as little of the process as you want. I liked the fact that if we had problems with our architect (and we did have some, although overall we loved what we got), we could talk to the parent company and they could 'encourage' her to improve her communication. But the best way is, again, ask people. My neighbours across the road who we don't know just knocked on our door one day to ask about who we used. I invited her in because it is also great to get ideas from other people (both what you like and don't).

To be honest, if you are going to apply for Permitted Development (from planners), starting the whole process now, to start work in Spring next year s probably a bit more than you need but not dreadful. It all takes so much longer than you think to get your plans sorted, to get party wall agreements signed etc. Better not to rush it.

Do it, you know you want to

[MillionPramMiles]

Thanks all. I totally agree it shouldn't be rushed (but unfortuantely dp is already planning kitchen and garden decor so I need to rein him back a bit...).

We've asked around and online and I'm following up on some recommendations (so far not had much luck). Some of our friends/neighbours who've had renovation work wouldn't recommend their builders so I can see it can be difficult!

unreal: that's reassuring, thanks.

[Hooliesmoolies]

We got the recommendation of our builder from our architect. Sadly we fell out over one thing, but otherwise they were great. Which Local is great. You can sometimes get reasonably cheap temporary memberships to Which, so might be worth looking at.

[blueshoes]

We cannot be happier with our extension. We spend most of our time as a family in the extension which links with the kitchen and living room and is one large open space that leads to the garden via French doors. It is the 'wow' factor the minute someone walks through the door.

We rented whilst works were being done - apart from the single story extension at the back (which we ended up doing mini-piling for the foundations - extra costs and delay), we also re-configured the staircase to do a loft/dormer extension and took down almost all internal walls, re-wired, re-plastered. re-painted the entire house. We moved out of the house and rented for that period. The whole process took 8 months of which 4 was to do the architect's plans and secure planning permission. By moving out, the builders did not have to tidy up the house every day which meant we were not paying builder money to do cleaning at builders' rates. They could also leave all their stuff in the house without having to worry about children tripping or cutting themselves, which meant we could throw a huge number of men at it and pretty much work full tilt, saving costs and time. At least that is what our builder told us.

We love our builder. If we did not know him already, not sure we would have had the appetite for such a big project. The builder project managed the whole extension. The architect was just for the creative work and the plans and specs, which the builder worked to. Good luck!

[MillionPramMiles]

Hoolie - thanks will try Which, hadn't thought of that.

[Marmitelover55]

I think ours will be finished in a months time - we are 11 weeks in and at the plastering stage now. We started mid April, which was a good time to start I think, although it was very wet for the two days of foundation digging and therefore v v muddy. We are very happy with our builders and architects, both of whom were recommended by friends.