Just about to start an extension... what did you spend your contingency on?!

[ixos]

I'll probably regret asking.... but hit me with it!

Foundations had to be about 2 foot deeper than expected
Steels worked out a bit more
Relocating the service boxes was stupidly expensive (and took British gas all of 30 min the fuckers)

I also bought a completely unbudgeted for beautiful designer tap .. Which I lovingly polish whist avoiding checking my bank balance.

Bits I had forgotten like coping stones on the parapet wall (ours is a flat roof), more bricks and sand than expected, paying someone to adjust UPVC french doors after a rushed fit by builders, more skips and grabs than expected, bit more labour for extra help when short on time.

But we have projected managed it ourselves using different contractors and buying materials ourselves. Still saved us a lot of money even with the overspends.

Ours is still ongoing but the watertight shell is up. Good luck - it is messy but good fun and exciting to see progress :)

We had a project manager which whilst costing more meant that they shouldered (reluctantly) the cost of extra skips and I didn't have the stress of organising it!
There were still extras (ours finished a year ago) we paid for steels to be raised after realising it was worth the cost - there's always something that's been overlooked - until they were in doing the work I couldn't invisage how it would look.so being on site REALLY helps .. I grew to dread the "errr could we have a word" chats

So far unforeseen costs on a total build cost of £110k (excl VAT) for approx 170sqm extn:

• £16k on piling the foundations instead of traditional strip foundation
• £5k on additional steel work as a result of the piling
• £1k Structural Engineer to design piles / steel work
• £750 Ground survey / test bore holes for the piling
• £2k pumped sewerage tank as the ground fall wasn't good enough

Things that we should have foreseen but didn't:

• £4k on a large retaining wall and block paving path

My original contingency of £15k was blown away and we're only just putting the rafters up for the roof so I suspect there's still plenty more to come!

Writing this lot down has depressed me - we started June 2014, stopped in July due to the poor ground conditions, piled in Nov / December (very messy!) and restarted the build in Feb 2015, due to finish end June...hopefully...

Massiveaggressive - I very much fear the 'designer-tap' eating of the contingency too - I've got form!

Thanks for your positivity Nikki1978 - I am looking forward to seeing some progress, its been a long time coming this project.

And Loumate666 - ouch, just ouch

The extortionate price of the tiler (£2300).

An additional 5 steels for our fabled roof that the designer forgot to let us know about.

The amount we have spent on takeaways and microwave meals in the absence of a cooker

Feel for you Louloumate666

A few extra hundreds on steels as structural engineer had not realised thickness of wall

About £1000 on electrical light fittings - didn't just want bog standard

£1200 on decorating - forgot to budget this

£500 on upgrading decking wood to Thermawood

£400 on over boarding a knackered ceiling

£500 on designer radiator

£500 on new path and gate

Not too bad really I didn't think.

I think once I look for a kitchen it will end up on that.. We broke ground Sunday for a 2 storey side extension, we are projected managed it ourselves and most of the work apart from brick laying, electrics, roofer, plumber, using different contractors and buying materials ourselves. At the moment we have only spent 1472.40 for the architect, submit our plans to the council and building regs, also £86 to hire a jack hammer for a week, but OH managed to do it in 3 days then dig footings (mini digger) I just can't wait to see the brick laying start as my money seams to be going underground...

Excellent question!

We finished a kitchen extension last year. My figures are approximate:

£2,000 changing spec of doors from upvc to aluminium

£3,000 on a plumbing debarcle

£900 on tiler to fit herringbone tiles

All the best.

We are in the middle of a 2 storey extension and so far extra for steel as the structural engineer forgot a beam. £1k extra for a nicer brick and I really underestimated the kitting out of 2 bathrooms. I'm sure there will be something else before we finish.

Rewiring the whole house. Replacing some rotten joists in the existing house. Finishing basically, I absolutely did not allow enough money for the bathrooms and kitchen. And floor.

And a deck across the back to cover the rubble that was what remained of my patio.

We didn't have a contingency. We had our budget and that was it. Builders didn't go a penny over what they quoted and there was no unforeseen issues. Thank fuck.

Great question. A bit on replacing old guttering and fascia on main house to match extension, a bit on unforeseen excavation for foundations (demolished garage had been very enthusiastically underpinned at some point in the past) and another bit still sitting in the bank 6 months later. Only the extra work on the foundations was unavoidable, other than that like down our builders didn't go a penny over.

Not so much contingency but stuff we forgot/deemed unnecessary and I wish we had found the money for:

• integrated blinds with our bifold doors, so you can block the sun out of your eyes when it comes round in the afternoon but not shut out all the light.
• relocating a light switch which is in the wrong place and is a pain in the arse.
• having a light fitting properly repaired which flickers slightly - we are going to have to get this dealt with as it drives me mad.

Thanks, so useful. Keep them coming!

vienaa I love the fact you know how much you have spent to the pence. I bow down to your mastery of your budget!

Vienaa - do you have any idea what your expecting your build cost to come in at and how big it is? we're also planning a two storey side extension and hoping to keep costs down.

Hi I'm place marking. Our extension should hopefully be started by the end if the month. This is all really useful stuff.

LOL still early days, ask me at the end of the build and I would not have a clue... just have a spread sheet and just started writing down how much everything cost and total in every stage... (that is my plan anyway)

EssexMummy12 The extension is 13 x 18ft (side extension ) garage at the front then bathroom in the middle with a velux window with a shower then in the back kids living room.... Then a bedroom on top, we did get rejected with our first plan as we had to go 3 meters back from the original house, not our extended porch as they don't want the terrace affect where I live, if everyone decided to do an extension, so we could not have an en suite... I also changed the layout of the inside as we were going to knock down the wall between the old kitchen and new extension for the kitchen but as I was going to take out a corner of the wall, with the structural engenier, plans beams and they charge £50 an hour it was going to cost just 4K on that, so we decided to take the wall between the sec living room/dinning room and kitchen, which at the end of the day make my kitchen munch bigger.... OH went around to see where the cheapest places to get materials and costal had better prices, so talking about 9k for materials and brick layer has quoted us 4k and roofer another 3k, OH is doing the first floor joists and floors and putting the lintels and beams, and windows and a door we were quoted 1 1/2k ...... Also another thing when working out what we wanted is access to the garden from the front as I did not want bring bins threw my kitchen... Put it this way, we put our plans in November and I the go a head end of March, only because I change my plans and had to start the whole thing over again, so make sure you are happy with your layout...

We've spent an extra £1000 of our contingency already on more skips and we are just at the demolition phase! Oh dear!!

Foundations needed to be deeper than expected.

Roof tiles turned out to be more expensive because of pitch of roof.

Can't remember anything else!

You won't want to hear this but we ended up spending roughly nine times the original estimate. Structural disaster after structural disaster.