Anyone starting an extension imminently?

[Karcheer]

Ours has been a long time coming, planning permission was granted 18months ago, but our builders finally start on Tuesday.
Would be great to have some build buddies

The plaster boarding continues. Hell's teeth it is dusty. The sofa is covered with dusty doggy foot prints.

Bought curtains today. Very neutral cream.

Hi everyone.

This week was a slow one. Just finished plastering upstairs and electrician completed first fix.

Flat roof now has covering and I am not happy with it. The cut out round the roof lantern is not done neatly and from our bedroom window we look out onto it. Starting to hate our contractor, feel like he just wants to make more money and do a quick job without checking on quality of his subbies. Electrician and Plumber seem very good but Windows and Roof men have just come in and thrown it together.

Big day will be on Wednesday when finally the Bi-folds are put in. They are sourced independently so confident with fitters. Although the contractor is charging us £250 for attendance. After they have been fitted they are being locked and nobody will be using the rear for access just the front which means we are going to get messy again when the screed is poured for UFH.

The good news is we have found the very best Tilers, they are reasonably priced (Contractor wanted to charge £60 m2 just for fitting!!) Went to see their work and it is flawless. They are charging us £25m2 which for the amount of tiling we are having is saving us £3k - See what I mean about being ripped off by builder?

Bit of a downer as you can tell at the moment - off out today for lunch with DH and friends so will no doubt feel cheered up by the time they rock up tomorrow.

Gnome Dusty Doggy footprints,are very 2016 in soft furnishing designs I am told

Wowee Aesop! I am not surprised you aren't happy with you contractor. What is he going to do for the bifold door fitting? Applaud at the end I suppose.

Hi all, just checking in. Our extension is up - we have the roof on! Had a week from hell last week whilst all the electrics were going in, trying to nurse our sick cat and manage everything on my own whilst DH was away!

I'm wondering what to do about cavity wall insulation... Obviously, we have it in the extension, but there is nothing in the older part of the house. I have been trying to get a quote for it, but the timing is quite difficult... the builders need to knock through the wall (so we didn't want it installed before that, and falling out!). Then the whole house is due to be rendered.

I've also been reading about cold spots and potential problems with installation. If the company has to come back to fix any problems, this would disrupt our newly rendered walls. I'm tempted to give up on the idea... The house isn't that cold, and we have new loft insulation.

Aesop, sorry your builder is being a nightmare. Surely being in attendance for overseeing the project is part of the job!

Hi all - Just checking in, all structural work has now been completed, single and double extension, front porch and loft conversion and a massive outbuilding. Roof on, windows and doors in. electrical work about 40% done, plumbing almost finished, wet ufh in and screeded. its all looking good :) hoping for it all to be finished early april...

Aesops that sounds very frustrating. That's a fortune just to attend - can he do anything productive whilst on site?

Gnome how is the dust going?

Currer can't say I know anything helpful about insulation, we can't have cavity wall insulation given our location

We're finally less dusty in the house, ended up buying a DIY canister vacuum as the poor Dyson was not happy.

The upstairs on the house has taken a battering in the weather though which keeps making me nervous. New electrics go in next week downstairs ready for the plasterers, then we can paint. We are thinking we might have to cope with our horrid flooring for a little longer to save up to replace them as so many unexpected costs have arisen.

Hi Madblondedog, still dusty. Most of the room is now plasterboarded. As you would expect it is the last few bits which are fiddly which take the most time.

It is amazing how much difference the plasterboarding is making. Suddenly the room looks light and more like a room than a building site. Next step will be to seam all the joints and cover up the screw holes (it looks like the national screw museum at the moment). We are going to try and avoid skimming for the time being as funds wont stretch.

Hi all,
The bricky built the arch window which will be in our ensuite today. It looks so nice.
The tiles came off the garage today, so the rest of that roof will come off shortly...

Mad the attendance charge was for joiner who is already on site Saying that, today they were fitted and they look great. Having the whole house completely closed now with windows will make all the difference. And yes, having builder on site was needed as fitters were questioning their own measurements against FFL.

Ground worker back on site for last 2 days sorting out side path and drain covers in addition to digging for soak away in middle of the garden.

Had various decorators around for last few days sorting out quotes for painting. DH refuses to even consider doing it (nor me for that matter) but think once quotes come in that decision may change.

Next week the new downstairs room is being plaster boarded(we are nearly there, sigh) Main thing now is taking up the dining room floor to accommodate UFH to match kitchen and family room then laying pipes and screed to all 3 areas.

Started painting A4 cards with the ubiquitous 50 shades of grey/greige as need to sort out kitchen cabinet and room colours. Anyone got ideas on this? Feel too exhausted from all of it to make anymore decisions. North'West facing room and want bright in day but cosy in evening?

Still feel exhausted from it all and DH is grumpy, he is NEVER grumpy.

The old roof of the garage came off today.
Bricky finished the soldiers on the carport and the end wall (which looks great).

I've a question, our carport is open there are wall up to about hip height and then pillars up to the ceiling so we have what look like four big windows, two to the back, two to the side. Above this is our bedroom and ensuite. When we were doing the groundwork the builder/plumber put the waste next to one of the pillars inside the carport. Now the carport is erected the builder commented that he thought it might look a bit rubbish (currently the space looks nice), but adding a thick waste pipe is going to ruin it. Would you move the pipe to outside the building, block it in although this can't be done with bricks in case you even had to access it, paint it, leave it as it is...???

gnome are you finding the plastering is dusty?

aesops thats even more cheeky if he was going to be there anyway. Are you happy with the doors?

Has anyone noticed an increase in e ergy bills with the builders being on site? Our bill is huge this month.

Karcheer - if I understood correctly your carport will be to house cars so having a drainpipe in their would look unsightly from where exactly? Just getting in/out vehicle or could you see it viewing from inside?

aesops yes prett much from when you get out of your car :/ from the front of the house it'll be hidden by the brick post. It'll also directly opposite the garage door (for humans) so you'll see it then. You'll also see it from our side garden through the windowy thing in the carport.
I think as long as it's tied to the wall it'll be ok. Might paint it a trendy greige colour ;)

karcheer personally I wouldn't worry, no one else will notice it. It will be one of those things that only you know about and others will be oblivious

karcheer I would tend to agree with Mad, this is something which only you will notice. Unless of course you aim for a Pompidou Centre type approach and paint it in primary colours.

Plasterboarding is now finished so the dust levels have settled (literally!). DH spent yesterday on the final fix for the electrics which he found therapeutic I think.

Next stage is seaming the plasterboard then paint! Going for a feature wall in Johnstones Spice Red and all other walls in magnolia.

AesopsMables I feel your pain re colour choosing. DH has given up and said it is my job and we arent making the decision by committee.

The builders started building the large back dormer that will be our room, I ummed and arred about the size of the bedroom versus the dressing room, but hopefully finally got it right.
You're right about the pipe.
They also started taking up the old floor tiles in the family bathroom.

madblondedog how did you Haley in talking to planning about a smaller extenstion?

I've not had a chat with them yet, I do need to though. Thank you for reminding me McBaby

Hi All

another week down and another week nearer the finish line here.

Bi-folds look fab. We were so undecided between french doors/slide doors and these. Think we made the right choice for the room. They are now locked up and tightly covered with low tack plastic until everything is finished.

Back garden had soil stack and outlet completed this week, along with all side of house now leveled and drains fitted flush.

We have all the gang back on Monday, Joiners/Electrician/Plasterers to finish off the final room and add skirtings/architraves. Then underfloor heating fitting and screeding hopefully week after. Then the best bit...Tiling/Kitchen/Painting. End of March has been the completion date but I think we need to allow for tiling and painting so more like end April when kitchen is fitted.

Karcheer is your dressing room directly off the bedroom? I would love one of those.

Got my girls home for the weekend so it should be fun seeing how they survive without main bathroom and temp kitchen!!

Oh, and I weighed myself today, gained 8lbs since build started all those take-aways/convenience foods and wine starting to take an effect.

aesops I am much heavier than when we started! I've stopped going to the gym and started eating lots and lots of rubbish.

The dressing room is off of the bedroom and the ensuite is off of that, so you walk through the dressing room to get to the ensuite. However, I'm so paranoid about room size/ceiling height that I might take away the right hand side wall of the dressing room and door and therefore it'll be more of a walk in wardrobe than a dressing room... But we will see.

Builders did a lot of tidying today and built the wooden structure for the front elevation of the bedroom.

Hey, I've been lurking and reading with interest. Lots of nerves being wracked, eh? I'm hoping our build is not too stressful as we have a 3 yr old and I'm 18 weeks pregnant.

We are doing a kitchen extension and hopefully a double double extension. We have a good builder but having made it clear to him we are on a tight budget I'm reluctant to ask him about the possibility of going into the loft. Also I don't even know if it's feasible, thread posted about this but no advice unfortunately.

Anyway the question. Has anyone made the loft a useable space (even if it's just a shell) whilst doing a double story extension? I'm thinking all the dirty work is done at the same time, they would have to build the roof anyway so no extra for the scaffold. If it didn't cost you tons more than we would look into begging, stealing or borrowing!! Any suggestions of how to get the best value out of the build is appreciated.

Karcheer I'm very jealous of your master suite. This is main reason why I'd love the loft converted/extended. You probably already mentioned but I'm on a tiny phone, did you use an independent architect or a loft specialist?

peyia ours isn't a loft conversion although it'll feel like it. We are building over our garage and new car port and linking this to our existing house which is/was a chalet bungalow type thing. So we used an architect, but tbh I told them exactly what to do.

Ah I see, well it sounds lovely! I just want to know if my concept is possible. Everyone wants to charge £££ to say yay or nay.