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?

Sushi That's amazing! Looks fab!
We had about 4 skips for the ground work, one stayed in exactly the same state as that one until about June when I phoned him up and played merry hell!
Then we had a new one which has been there ever since! 😡😡😡. 🤡

That's terrible TeamRick, what is going on!

Love your extension Sushi. Getting envy.

Things have slowed down here. Two days this week with not a sign of the builders. Finally popped in today to put up someplywood in preparation for knocking out the back wall. But fuck me it's slow. Honestly.

Ive slowed down on thinking about kitchens now because it doesn't seem so urgent anymore 🤔

We've had a garden designer around though and she is going to design us a new patio area as I didn't want to have just a plain rectangle with some pots. She did say however our budget of £5k was unrealistic

So he's let us down again!
The only thing he has consistently done is let us down and submit his invoices!

The plumber is starting the pipes for the underfloor heating on Monday, our builder still hasn't put down the insulation. Says he'll do it first thing Monday!

I don't know why I'm surprised! He's such a twat! 😞

We are still not finished. 22 weeks. The roof went on over 2 months ago...

Admittedly we can use the new kitchen, but it's still got plenty of bits needing finishing, as has utility. Bathroom not even boarded and plastered yet.

Screed floor in kitchen failed and u/f heating came up so that had to be fixed. Now the drains are stinking.... they have been signed off by BC, so should be ok but they stink, outside and inside since we don't have anything in the utility or bathroom connected to them yet, just open pipes. Sighs...

Hello Spy I was wondering how you were getting on the other day! Sorry to hear not so well!

Just looking back on thread, and think we both started at the same time... sorry to hear you are still having issues TRick

I've been following everyone's progress for a while but not posted. We've just finished week 16 of a single storey flat roofed kitchen extension and reconfigured ground floor to add utility, shower room and study. It's gone quite well apart from a 5 week delay for the roof trusses. We're now at the plastering phase which will apparently take the whole of next week. After that its flooring insulation, under floor heating and screed. Does anyone know how long it is before we can lay the wooden floor on top? Our builder is not saying which makes me very suspicious as he doesn't like giving me bad news...
I've spent this afternoon sweeping up dust and cleaning the bi fold doors. DH spotted some damage to one which I suppose was always inevitable with people coming and going through them. Just wish whichever tradesman did it had owned up and said sorry.

Enjoy your builder and noise free weekends everyone!

Spy yes we did.
I might hunt out the Extensions 16 thread, see if people were having the same sort of problems or if we've just been unlucky!

Emma it depends on what kind of screed is used and to what thickness it is laid. My friend told me about this earlier today- her builder used a commercial-grade screed and it took 6 weeks to dry!! So definitely pin your builder down on what he's using!

Emma our screed was laid over a week ago - it is the normal screed rather than the fast drying version. We are laying engineered wood on top of it - and are hoping we can lay it around the end of Nov.
It depends on the thickness and the drying conditions. They say to work on a week for each cm then an extra 28 days for each cm over that. You can get humidity measures that tell you the moisture levels. We have to wait until it is between 2 and 4% to guarantee there is no problems with the wood.
We asked about the quick drying version but our builder said they don't tend to use it unless they are doing a large area, especially as it costs around £500 a day to hire the machine, before the cost of the screed.
You can walk on the screed after a day or so but just don't put anything on it.

Oh god these posts about screed are scaring the life out of me!
I've been awake since 4.00am anyway seething over this bloody extension & now the thought that it will be weeks before we can lay the floor & do the kitchen......

We're not going to be done before fking Christmas at this rate!

You are not the only one- I have a "completed" extension which I can't use.

Looks nice - but now have to wait until the decorator is back from hols to sort out a date for him coming in. So not worth getting and putting up the blinds yet!
Then we gave to wait for the flooring to be laid.
After that they can put the skirting boards on ( so we don't have to have beading around the edges). Then those can be decorated!

They reckon we should be fine for Christmas. We better be, as I am fed up of living with the bare minimum of furniture in a room that echos and is still dusty.

I was so fed up I booked a holiday yesterday for next year - even though we said we wouldn't have one due to cost of the work!

This screed talk is worrying me too! We have the concrete floor done but will need the insulation and screen on top - is that what takes the time?! That will hold up kitchen fitting, floor laying, decorating??? I need a chat with my builder I think

*screed

Sushi a holiday sounds very appealing but if I went away anywhere at the moment I don't think I could make myself come back!

Bit of a pity party this morning! It's cold & damp, they haven't finished fitting the bifolds so there's gaps sound the edges, the front of the side bit of the extension is just boarded up with no proper window or door and we're completely open plan downstairs. I've had no boiler since mid August, struggling to get washing dry. I could just cry!

We had a stone/concrete(old conservatory base) base laid, then they had to do a waterproof layer, then the insulation, then another waterproof layer (regulations changed recently - used to be only one waterproof layer), then some concrete on top. That was left whilst they did other jobs - such as plastering etc.

Then when all that was done they laid the final screed layer. The thickness of that determines how long you have to wait before flooring can go down. You can decorate with no problems. Just a case if you put the flooring down to early it draws the moisture out of the screed into whatever is on the surface. We put a rug on there overnight to protect a replacement pane of glass from the ground and the rug was damp the next morning from contact. That was a thick rug being put on screed which had been laid for a week.

We do have deep screed though as it had to join up to the existing room - so about 7cms.

TeamRick - I don't blame you. I am finding it depressing enough looking at the completed shell and at least ours is watertight. Yours is dragging on so long.

Even our builder commented that the job had taken longer than he expected!!!!! I wonder why!

I'm actually at breaking point now.

We own another property with a tiny amount of equity (less than £8k), which had been sold SSTC for the last 3 months. Fell through at exchange on Friday. We are now back to having 2 mortgages to pay, chasing losses due to arsehole builder number 1, and we haven't got the cash coming from the sale of the house. It's not an easy sell either as it's a shit flat in a shit area with no movement on price.

If I could run away right now, I would.

Latecomer! I'm in the very early stages of thinking about an extension upper floor only. Anyone else just had an upstairs extension and how much per sqm? I managed to get hold of my neighbours plans and a builder is working out a ballpark figure for me - just want to know whether I will pass out when I receive it lol

Hi Julie, no idea sorry, mine is just ground flloor thank god! I'd probably be looking at a finish date of Christmas 18 if it was 2 stories! !

Oh Monkey that is shit, am sorry! These bloody builders don't realise how bloody stressful it is, it knocks you right down and makes you less able to deal with the rest of the shit life throws at you! I don't know what else to say!
You have a lot on your plate!

Mine came round this am, I told him we were cold and fed up with it all after 5 months! Usual sob story about losing another man (not bloody surprised, think they're nearly as pissed off with him as I am) blah blah!

He didn't move the rubbish on Friday, cos it was raining! Meh!

Monkey I'm so sorry. That is a lot to deal with. We haven't had one iota of the problems you've had and I've still had days when I question why on Earth we took this project on so I can only imagine how you're feeling. Has the EA got any good ideas on how to get your flat back in the game quickly?

I just posted and then lost my message, so apologies if this comes twice.

Thanks everyone for your responses about the screed (and sorry for scaring people with talks of weeks and weeks). The builder said today it is approx. 1 week per cm so that is 7 weeks for us. Sigh. Sushi ours is thick to join with the existing building, too. I've provisionally booked a date in november with the flooring company as I was worried they'd get booked up before Christmas.

The builder did say the kitchen can go in sooner though, mid October. There's a whole thread on whether the floor or kitchen should go in first. I can see the benefits of waiting, but I'm too impatient.

Monkey sorry about your stresses. We're also selling a flat to fund some of this work. We only accepted an offer 3 weeks ago so it's very early days and I'm assuming someone will put a spanner in the works before long. I hope you can get back on track soon.

Thanks all.

Productive day today. I've painted the entire house over the last few days, 60L of paint, and blisters on my hands from the roller. Today I top coated the ceilings downstairs, and wallpapered my son's bedroom.

It's actually looking like a house now.

So, there's a few snap shots. I also had a 'waste' man come and filled his van with a skips worth of shit. My driveway is now clear.

Happy happy days.

Hate to basically jinx it but our extension is actually going.. really well..! After a year of hell renovating the place it's so nice to hand over the reins, let a team of (actually competent! turn up on time! tidy! friendly! know their stuff! aren't pissing us around!) people do it all and not have to worry about anything other than what kind of dried flowers I'm going to hang over the new dining table.

I've definitely just jinxed it, haven't I?

Sorry to hear lots of you are having a shit time. Have been there, it is fucking awful.