House Building / Extension - Kevin Mccloud types wanted

[DillyDally]

Now I have nearly sold my house I am looking for a new house. I have found one that looks ok, but there is a yucky downstairs bathroom that will need upgrading at the least and moving at best.

Has any got any good tips for dealing with architects / builders / local planning types?
Any good tips on bathroom / kitchen fitters in kingston? Anyone recommend an architect?
Is moving a bathroom upstairs very costly?

I am dreaming of a glass roofed kitchen that is prob well out of my price range.

well I am sitting at home to the sound of builders knocking one of our downstairs walls down!
most important thing IMO is to try and get a builder and plumber by recommendation or go through the trade associations. Good tradesmen are always busy to be prepared to wait for quotes and for them to start work.

Agree with katierocket but a couple of more points. For starters the hardest bit about moving a bathroom (or kitchen for that matter) is the plumbing. Are you moving the bathroom relative to the floor? i.e. will the bathroom be going directly upwards or moving horizontally as well? If yes then this will have more costs. The architect/builder will have to review moving the plumbing and without far more descriptions of your house I couldn't start to comment. We did it in our house ourselves (i.e. no builder no architect just got the building regs done). We moved the bathroom from downstairs back to upstairs front. Luckily we have a private drive that we were able to dig a channel through to connect to the main drains. Hardwork but all went through fine.

I would get a few architects round. They tend to come round for an initial look for free. See which ones you get on with and whether they have any ideas. Some play it very close and won't give any ideas away - but these are the ones that I avoided, especially one who just shook his head all teh time and never bothered to send me any information afterwards! They should be able to give an indication of price. You could also get some builders round to get an idea of cost etc
Last year there was an 'architect in the house' scheme run by RIBA that was for Shelter. Basically a top architect came round, discussed all possibilities, even drew us some suggestions and we donated some money to Shelter (£25 they ask for). Worth looking out for - check the RIBA website.
here

We are just waiting for planning permission through for our extension, and then will go to tender with as many builders as we can.

No it will move horizontally and vertically
Actually will prob want to add upsatirs shower room and keep an existing element downstairs too
How long do these things take? Assuming a builder can start when you want of course.

Thanks for all the responses by the way..I am so rude.

we are having a 2 storey extension (bedroom, bathroom, downstairs hallway, utility, downstairs loo, lots of cupboards) and they started in November and are still hard at it - and they have been working hard and quickly. They did have to build the exterior walls with natural stone so that took a long time to get right.

We have an architect managing the project and it has been a godsend (an expensive godsend ) - you pay an architect roughly 14% of the cost of the project. But it does mean if you have any problems you ring them and they sort it, rather than having to deal with the builders yourself. Actually in retrospect dh could have done it all himself as he is demonstrating a real talent for building/project management. But I wanted nothing to do with it as I couldn't be less interesting in building/houses so the architect has been great.

So I am guessing that it will be a year in total given planning permission will need to be obtained too?
How much does planning permission cost?
I am so simple
Not sure I can live for a year with a grubby bathroom

Our planning permission cost £120 I think, and should be through within 8 weeks.

planning permission took us 3 years to get but we live in a conservation area/outstanding natural beauty blah blah. It should take a couple of months if others nearby have had similar extensions to you. I would give it a year in total. Planning costs around 120 to submit, then you need building regs which cost around ?? £500? I think. You also need to factor in the cost of the building inspector who comes out to inspect the work is compliant with all current guidelines. also the builder you may want may not be able to start when you want him to.

Can you get any personal recommendations?

I am new to the area so I was hoping that an architect might be able to recommend a builder

planning permission for us was £110, takes about 2 months assuming no problems. Also building control costs depending on the size of the building work, and then building inspector fees.

You can also have a architectural technician rather than an architect - a bit cheaper but just as competent.

Building timescale depends on how big the work is, how difficult and whether the builder is a one-man band or has a team.

dillydally, the architect should have some preferred builders that he asks to tender for the project.

OK Last question
Do I get the architect on board first then go for planning permission after the drawings are done and then get a builder?
That is what it sounds like so far.

yes. good luck

yep - unless you are very sure of what you want and good at the technical things and then you can do the planning permission yourself and just get the architect to do the building control. But normally it is best but a bit more expensive to have the architect/technician do it all for you.

Ta
I am buying house and gardens for the very first time but am drawing the line at tommy Walshs DIY kitchens

Also look at BuildIt and homebuidling & renovating mags. They have a lot more proactical stuff on the building aspects, and less on the design. One of them (or maybe both) also shows breakdowns of costs. Don't expect to be finished in a year if you're having a lot of work done. It took us 20 months to get all workmen out of the house - from originally talking to architect that it. Still got LOADS of decorating to do, but we did have a lot or work done (doubled size of house nearly)

Sorry about the typos!
BTW, we had a new bathroom built at the front of the house (all existing plumbing at the back). Difficulty is siting soil pipes, but we managed to drop ours down so it came out in the garage and hooked up to existing drains - not too big a problem (not in the scale fo things anyway)