Kitchen extension dilemma

[Summerloving15]

We are in the process of planning a new kitchen which would add a 10ft by 30ft extension to the back of our house to double the size of our kitchen and create a large open plan kitchen/diner/living space. The work would also involve knocking through an internal wall to make use of an underused back room.

We currently have about £55k in savings for the work which I've have been told is (rather frustratingly) not enough to carry out the work. We live in the north.

Our dilemma is do we either put the work on hold until we can afford to do the whole thing (should be 2-3 years), or do we knock through to the back room now and extend the current kitchen to create a 10x30ft space and then add the extension on in a couple of years?

In your experience, if we did the second option would we waste a ton of money and add a lot of disruption by overhauling the house twice or, would it be a sensible stopgap to get more space and get some of the building work out of the way before we embark on the full extension? Also would a 30x10ft kitchen space look odd and corridor like compared to the proposed 30x20f space?

Have you tried an online plan eg ikea so you can see what the 30' x 10' space would look like?
I personally wouldn't want to do the work twice so if you are sure you want the bigger space i'd wait.

What does your current quotation include? Could you be more specific? Is there anything that could be cut out just to get the shell of the building built? Does it have a complex roof or huge bifolds? Also does the price include or exclude the kitchen? Curious as we're having similar work but price is slightly less than your budget.

That's a good idea about idea, thanks.
I think you are right about waiting so I just need to step away from the kitchen brochures......

I would get some more quotes from other builders. Your budget seems fine to me unless you're going high spec. on fixtures and fittings.

Hi MaryLou, our architect has said that the extension with bi-fold doors, flooring, electrics, plumbing, and a separate utility space would be around £50k. A kitchen and required garden landscaping would be ontop of that which we think would be another £20k. I am sure there are a lot of savings that we could make, but not enough (I think) to get the whole thing within our current budget.

That's promising deardeidre, I might make some enquiries.
It's not a complicated space as it is essentially just going to be a box on the end of the house but obviously we don't know if there will be any issues with foundations etc.

I'd get more quotes. Near us a single storey extension like that would be more like £50k maybe less, depending on what included

We are in an expensive area of the NW and I think you need to get some quotes from builders. We had an architect give us an idea of price after he had drawn up provisional plans and his estimate was much higher than the builder quotes that we received. I think architects will look at a completely finished price, to quite a high spec (sweeping generalisation, only my experience) whereas builders are not so much bothered about the "wow" factor finish. We have quotes for a bigger extension than yours, double storey, for a similar figure, so if you are only going single storey then it should be achievable within your budget.

Having said that, we were in a similar position in that we couldn't afford the extension we wanted and knocked through between the kitchen and the dining room last year. It was quite a lot of disruption at the time, and we'll have to go through all of that again when the extension starts, probably with only about 18 months in between, and the overall cost will be more than if we had waited, but the combined kitchen diner is SO much better than the smallish kitchen and separate dining / play room that we had that it was definitely worth doing even if it came at a price.

Thanks Mandy. I will ask a couple of builders to come out and have a look at the house.

The thread about kitchen extension costs seems to suggest a budget of around £1,500 psm is reasonable. If so, we should be able to manage that even if vat is added on top.
Right, back to the kitchen brochures ??

We too are a very expensive NW area. The trick round here is to use trades people from a cheaper side of town. Some try and add 10-20% to the price because of our expensive postcode too... Look at which rated builders and similar.

Mopmay I think we might be in the same area . You have hit the nail on the head.

Yes I suspect we do

We are in the NW and had a 5x4m two story extension and the old kitchen turned into a utility and WC for about £60k last year.

I think you can do it quite a lot cheaper than your architects suggest, provided that you are creative and prepared to compromise a bit on the basics, and perhaps if you look at builders from a different area.

I am also in the north, but in a cheap city. I'm planning a 3mx5m extension with kitchen for around £35-40k including a wall of glass with doors and a kitchen (which, obvs, is not bespoke for that price!).

Can anyone recommend a builder in the north/Yorkshire?
I am really pleased to hear that we can probably do it within budget and we are more than happy to make compromises.
When we talked to the architect we explained that we wanted to get the space right then put in a more basic kitchen which we could upgrade at some point in the future. The architect may well have got carried away!

I would definitely get more quotes from actual builders. I am probably on that other kitchen extension thread as I had one done 2 years ago.

Mine came in at £1600 psqm but if I told you that the full height glass door just normal pvc and a 2 pane 1m wide window were £1200 I could have got it a lot cheaper. They are german made and solid as hell but I am sure I could have bought one ready made and had the brickwork built to accommodate it rather than made to measure. The same goes for the door. I researched it afterwards. They were included in my quote.

Also I didn't want a brick pillar sticking out of the wall where they knocked out the back wall so I had a vertical steel. Everyone kept telling me that a structural engineer would bankrupt me. Cost less than £300.

I am in Leeds but my amazing builder has now moved onto conversions as he has been building for 20 years and wants a change.

Shop around for products especially ready made bi-fold doors. If you know what you want and convey that to the builder then their quote should be firmer rather than a wishy washy guess.