Collaborating with neighbours on building work

[papalazaru]

Has anyone had experience of working with their neighbours on a building project? During a quick conversation with our neighbours recently they mentioned they are planning a loft conversion as are we. Would it be worth getting our architects to talk to each other? And is it crazy to suggest we use the same builders.....? Just throwing this out there to gauge whether we should open a conversation with them about this.

Very good idea, I know someone who did this and saved lots of money this way. You also get all mess and inconvenience over at once. Use same architect too if you can..

We considered doing this - would have saved us scads, but our neighbours weren't ready to proceed at the same time as us, so we had to go it alone. You can do a joint project, just be very clear how costs are being split. Scaffolding would be 50%, but you'd each pay your own plastering for example.

Thanks. We are using separate Architects. I have a
Meeting with mine in a few weeks so I'll talk with her about it and see what she thinks. DH suggested having them over for a glass of wine and chat about how we could make it work with timescales etc. obviously using the same builder would be the best way to go but I assume we'd need a pretty big company to work on two lofts at the same time....

Yes! We did it, we had the lofts done, 1 architect, 1 builder. It worked really well for us and we have smart matching lofts and saved a bit of money, although sadly not as much as you'd think.

And just today we were chatting and we both want an extension at the back but sadly I don't think I can afford it.

My neighbour and I had joint planning permission for a kitchen side return.

We approached the same builder but there were minimal discounts because the way the builder we chose worked was they do one job, finish it then move to the next job. A minimal amount of money was saved on materials but not much since the builder had a good discount anyhow.

Where we got the benefit of joint planning permission was being able to build a considerably bigger extension than normally approved by the council (4m tall ceiling + 7m length).