can you recommend a builder for kitchen side return extension in SW London?

[imtheirmum]

Hoping to get a kitchen side return extension - but a bit worried about the cost - has anyone had this done at a reasonable cost and can you recommend your builder?
Yellow Pages terrifies me for this sort of thing!

whereabouts are you ? I am having someone round to quote tomorrow for a load of work and he has done a lot of building work for 2 of my friends (you'll have to wait till I've used him though and I believe he's book up till about Oct/Nov).

South West london ... not in an immediate rush - so would prefer a recommendation than take pot luck in a rush!!

If you want to do it cheaper than an extension then we had a conservatory company come in to do it in the last house we had.

We had a 4 bed halls adjoining semi with an 18ft by 9ft kitchen at the back. We knocked out the side return and put a lovely conservatory in - just had huge rsj put in - this turned our kitchen into 18ft by 15ft which made a major difference. All the glass brought in a lot of light and we put a huge dining table in that part.

Now here's the tricky bit. We wanted it open plan so we had it totally open but when it came to sell we already knew we would have to put doors in to separate it off from the kitchen. We didn't as it would have totally spoiled this lovely big space so we paid an insurance indemnity of £30 for this just so it was all legal and above board. The new people also didn't want to put doors in but the indemnity gave them piece of mind if they ever wanted to sell it.

Whole thing only cost £14 k.

Much much cheaper than building an extension - and done in 4 weeks.

Laurie - that sounds very interesting and a creative solution! Did they do the whole, moving the boiler and sink stuff as well? And sorry to be dim, but don't know what you mean about the insurance indemnity... do you mean that on your buildings insurance policy it was an extra risk so you paid more on your premium? Or have I got that totally wrong?

will dig out the number ......

No they didn't move the boiler or sink, we just had a back door and a window on that wall. They just put in the conservatory and the rsj (rolled steel joist), plastered, we had a good deep brick wall put in, waist height (the higher the wall part the more substantial it is if you know what I mean cos it looks less like a conservatory because the wall part is plastered/painted same as kitchen).

The indemnity was an insurance policy in case when the new buyers came to sell it there was a problem with building control.

I'm leading you down a blind alley here because we had to buy it because of the new regulations that were coming in in 2003 which said that ALL conservatories had to be able to be seperated from the house. We got ours done just before the regulations came in hence we had to 'indemnify' the new people.

That doesn't mean you can't have it though, it just means you have to be prepared to put extra doors on if/when you come to sell. I would definitely do it again if I was going to stay in a house.

I realsie this may not be the clearest of answers so ask away if I'm saying it stupidly [daft emoticon]