Home Extensions 2017 - come along on the journey

[RedRobin1]

Hi just wondered if anyone has recently started or about to start a home extension. Haven’t seen a 2017 thread so starting one here.

Our two-storey extension is due to start on 1st March and we have just started packing boxes. The planning and research has been ongoing for 2-3 years. Had planning permission approved a few years back and completed all the research around what we would like in our new extended and how we would like to design it all - extending the kitchen / dining area downstairs to create an open plan living, dining and kitchen space and an extra bedroom upstairs.

Have two DCs under 4 and need help / advice / tips and general hand holding.

Is anyone else starting theirs soon?

Back garden last week

Monkey I hope I've stopped swearing by then! 🙄 Good luck with the Building Regs people let us know how you get on!
Text from him just now
'We will come to a shuddering halt if we can't get sparks done'
Fucking clown! 🤡🤡🤡

Oh and good luck Believeitornot

Hope all goes well!

Thanks Monkey. I'll look to see what we've paid for and give them a call on Monday. Let us know how you get on........

monkey your plan of action sounds about right, and thank goodness for nice builders! I hope they get you out of the spot. You will have no problem winning small claims for 3k against the original builders - was the contract with him, or with the firm? ours was with the roofer as an individual, so the CCJ is against him and he couldn't just fold his company.

I don't have a signed contract. All work discussions have been via his personal email address too. So I'm hoping we can bypass him LTD company and put a charge on his house if needed

or as we paid cash, and I have an email saying he'd been paid, I'll threaten him with HMRC too.

Have you much experience of small claims? My structural engineer has said he will write me a report to use in my claim.

Blimey - it is unbelievable the way some builders are operating. Not helped by the fact I am sure that there is so much work around for them at the moment- they can pick and choose. I know our builder is doing small jobs around ours.

From going slow at the beginning ours has progressed pretty well. Almost feel bad saying that. Our extension is watertight all windows and doors in, first fix electrics done, plastering etc. They are knocking through next week and reckon it will be less than 2 weeks now to the finish.

Way over the original time estimate and we have had a few issues but am pleased with it so far.

Can I come on to vent . We have been doing the longest garage conversion in the World, 6 Months and counting. This is largely the result of being offsite living overseas so have been quite relaxed but have been back in house since June and probably seen the builder 4 times. Problems so far: Having to delay the kitchen twice, kitchen was part fitted then pipe bursting and flooding new kitchen, ridiculous quotes for work and then no delivery of this work (except when we were away on holiday when he billed me for 11 days of painting which quite frankly if I had tied a paintbrush to my dogs tail I could have had a better finish and speaking to the neighbours he was definatley not here 11 days ),The big problem at the moment though is the new boiler they put in while i was away. It has not been registered with Gas safe . I owe the builder over a grand at the moment mainly for the slapdash painting so I spit the dummy out and refused to pay until this was sorted out. After various requests for info , serial numbers etc I was assured it was sorted, just rang up today and guess what the boiler is still not registered I am beyond mad and worried that the most likely explanation for this is that the guy is not Gas safe registered (the builder sub contracted the work) which means the boiler might not be safe. if he was registered it would be a 2 minute job to register it online so can't see why it wouldn't have been done it otherwise. I had British Gas over to service it and they said it seemed fine except for the plug which they have tiled over!!! So you can only access it by limboing a finger over the tiles which apparently is not acceptable!! The british Gas guy didn't didn't check with gas safe or anything on the legalities of it which is just as well. The builder is supposedly coming over to finish off on Monday (I will believe it when I see it we are collecting excuses we have had kids sick, hospitalisation of builder , van breakdown do far) but in the meanwhile I would be right to not pay him a penny until I sort out the boiler do you think? I was also thinking of giving him a cutoff to sort it out (2 weeks) after which I will get another gas safe engineer to come round and deduct the cost from what I owe him does that sound fair. Believe me it will be a long time before I contemplate any more renovation work I can't afford the wine bill from the stress for a start! I am slightly comforted though by the fact I am not alone in this battle!

Hi Tween battle is the right word!
I'm drinking & swearing my way through it! If I make it through without being a full blown alcoholic I'll be lucky!

You're doing the right thing holding back money, it's the only weapon you have!

That's our next step I think we've been paying fortnightly but we're getting to a point where there's about 20% outstanding and we're going to hold that back until it's finished!
We've been 'lucky' the work is good quality it's just so bloody slow and we've had issues with the state of the place in between visits, he seems incapable of organising the removal of every skip we've had!
Well actually he's incapable of organising anything at all! Project manager? Meh!
He hasn't been round to sit & discuss anything with us since the work started and quite frankly he's an absolute twat!

I hope you get it sorted!

Oh and excuses! My builder has been to more funerals in the last 16 weeks than I have in my whole life!

Your 2 weeks to sort things out sounds perfectly reasonable!

monkey smalls claims is pretty straightforward. For us, we were claiming just under 5k. The guy ignored all the court letters so never even contested and after a certain period of no contact you can ask them to rule in his absence in your favour. They did that and he lost automatically. However, he has been slippery and moved several times in quick succession so a year on we are still pursuing the money through bailiffs. We can put a stop on his bank account but have to pay extra and it would depend on the money actually being in the account we have details for. We also didn't have a contract that was signed, but did have invoices and e-mails which were all in his personal name not with a company. With a company it's a bit trickier as they can just close it down to avoid paying,

As for our own extension... Some busybody reported us to planning saying we were building something twice the size we are! We have had to dig out extra as the ground behind the house rises so we need a patio and retaining wall. I anticipated this so put in very detailed plans and maps for a 'Do I need planning permission' thing so planning came for a visit but were very friendly and are satisfied. The same people also moaned we have taken out a (dead) apple tree, which we had consent to do two years ago! Then our elderly neighbours complained that the builders should be digging it out by hand (!!) and that the footpath between the houses was a muddy state. We have done what we can about the path and it's as good as we and the builders could get it, but it's never going to be pristine while digging is ongoing. And it's only week two. Looking forward to seeing how many more complaints we get

My builder is a local man with a wife and 2 very young children, and a big friendship group so I don't think he would move.

All emails have been from his personal account. I didn't actually ever get a receipt for the cash, until last week when he sent an email saying we've paid ££££ so remain balance is ££££. BINGO!

He won't ignore court proceedings, he'll reply and fight them. But I am like a dog with a bone and won't let it drop. I have emailed going back to May promising to seal the roof. Then saying I'm 'being horrible'. Then saying it'll be finished in 3 weeks (this was end of May). Then emails from me x about 5 saying IT'S LEAKING IT'S RUINING OUR CEILINGS. Reply 'what do you expect me to do at 8pm at night? Cant you go up there and see where it's leaking?' Umm no!

Surely the time span this is over, and that we've been open to those elements for months would make our case pretty obvious that we aren't being unreasonable?

He's not put it through his books, I'm now 99% certain. So reporting to HMRC will land him with a 20% VAT bill won't it? So that's about £5k, and that's before I take him to court. Would be cheaper for him to settle privately I just want £4500, that's £3k for a new roof, £500 to repair my damaged bedroom ceiling, £1000 to repair kids ceilings, loft insulation, incorrect installation of french doors and to replace all plasterboard that has got wet and and crumbled.

Sympathies (and wine glass raised aloft) with monkey and tween and anyone else having a nightmarish time. There have been a few moments where I've been worried about progress but then the team descends (there were about 8 of them there yesterday) and they catch back up. I can only imagine how helpless you must feel to have nobody turn up for days/weeks and worse, to be left with really shoddy workmanship. Mind you, I'm pretty sure that we won't be finished by end of Nov (although the builder is still confident we will). We were naive in that we didn't build any penalty clauses into the contract so we'll be paying extra rent which of course all gets added to the overall budget.

Yes hindsight is a brilliant thing we should create a seperate list of lessons we have learnt from our renovation project. Mine are being offsite and especially out the country gives a builder free rein to do sod all until you are literally on the plane home so just makes the project longer and you still live with the mess
Also insist on seeing the credentials for workmen particularly Gas engineers and check yourself all the paperwork has been submitted
Also and this is my only saving grace always make sure work completed is ahead of your payment schedule so you have some leverage when the s* hits the fan, otherwise you won't see your builder for dust
Oh and make sure your wine rack and chocolate supply is well stocked and prepare to bore you work colleagues to distraction with your woes

Hi
I am thinking about an extension over garage and 2 story extension at back of house in four oaks - any advice on where to start in terms of design and costings?
Thanks in advance
P

Poppy I would speak to a couple of architects, find one that seems to get what you want & then get some plans drawn up! You can then go out for quotes!
And then I'd think very seriously about whether you can deal with the disruption, useless builders taking twice as long as they say they will and whether you really need the extra space!

After my builder's comments about us grinding to a shuddering halt if we can't get the electrics done- the electrician texted DH last night & says he'll be here next Monday! Lol!

Well shit hit the fan this morning.

DH told ex builder that he was off the job. Ex builder hit the roof, has spoken the building control, nothing was wrong with his work. He's confident it all of it. He absolutely destroyed my character to DH and said no wonder we has trouble getting a builder initially. He's been vile and said he is prepping his legal team.

For. Fuck. Sake.

Now what do I do?!

Monkey I'm confused! What did building control say when they came out to you the other day? Didn't they agree with your structural engineer that it wasn't right?
If you have something in writing from the engineer criticising the work then surely that's all you need, if this builder is threatening legal action? And what exactly is he hoping to achieve in the courts anyway?
He sounds really dire with the snide, personal comments. Sorry you're having to go through this.

I'm sorry too Monkey! The nerve of the man!

That sounds awful Monkey. What did Building control say to you? It sounds like he's calling your bluff

Poppy - we're doing extension over the garage, and we first contacted an architect who came round for a look (no fee). He gave us a ball park figure for the work. We subsequently used him to do the drawings and his estimate has been pretty accurate.

That's terrible Monkey

Ours is pretty slow going at the moment. DPC is done, we've chosen sliding doors after visiting a showroom at the weekend (although I'm wondering why it's so difficult to find a showroom - do people expect you to just buy without seeing?!) and have chosen a front door.

Starting to worry about how on earth we pack up the kitchen and dining room for knocking through 🙈

It really does sound like he's calling your bluff. 'Prepping his legal team' - who's that then?! Isn't he effectively a one-man band with subbies? Stick with your plan - if you have the 5k to spare for the new guys it is so worth them in, get it done and have a bit of peace of mind and you'll be in a far better place mentally for reclaiming through small claims.

Thanks TeamRick and MrsOllyMurs! I rang one architect who wants £80 for site visit and Wiukdnt really give a n overall price. I will try ringing another one today