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?

hi mind if i join? got pp back in the spring, and due to start works a couple of weeks ago on rear downstairs ext to kitchen and to living room, loft conversion, and bathroom refit/reconfigure. We have a breakdown of costs by works but my builder will not provide a programme of works which i am really worried about, and its also hard to plan things like decorators, when we won't have a kitchen etc, and when the dog needs to stay elsewhere! Did you all get a plan of milestones at least? we are not using an architect.....also they reckon to be finished in 10-12 weeks so now right up against Christmas (the loft ext is a different team). Have already told us they will now need to work saturdays. How do a get a programme out of them??? Have paid quite a chunky deposit,

I am very mindful of the fact that there is nothing worse than a smug, calm completer with fancy photos elbowing into the conversation. But am also aware I am possibly the only calm post-build person on the thread, so fire away monkey , as there by the grace and all that.

......welcome stringchild ......I think there will be more gentle feedback about schedules and programmes of work but for now all I can say, with a hollow laugh and experience, is that builders can impress by providing a schedule but that it will bear f* all resemblance to what actually happens anyway. And I say that when we appear to have had very good builders. Our "12 week schedule" was nearer 20 although apparently that is (still) a matter of interpretation. Just saying.

In your heart of hearts if you know it is tight already you have no room for delays, and delays are part and parcel of building. I would use your common sense and work out when stuff is likely to be required and your own personal milestones and then pin the builder down to agree or not with those or at least be aware of your family priorities. Am sure it will be fine!

Namedy I think I'll be lucky if my liver is unscathed! Am drinking red wine every night to keep warm at the moment!

It's going to take me a while to get over this I think! I've had some rough times in my life but even in the worst days I had a nice safe warm home to retreat to. At the moment if feels as though someone is in my home, sh*tting over it on a weekly basis!

It's absolutely awful!

Teamrick and monkey when this is done I'm going to buy both of you 'I survived a twatchops builder' T-shirt. You have had to put up so much shit it's untrue.

Ps I started a separate thread about this, but if any of you have any ideas about how I can 'dress' my large bay window in the bathroom so DH doesn't end up flashing his cock at passers by, I'd be grateful. They are large windows and low too, so if I went for bottom-up blinds we might prevent silly flashing but someone may end up getting a flash of boob.

*willy flashing

monkey... I thought things were on the up.

We had a week of not much happening here. Tomorrow some bricks are going to be laid.
But massive mistakes from drwings person means lots of redisigning (mean totally runing the design) and lots of extra costs. We're thinking small claims court... i'm dumb at the moment from anger.

Oh no Tika! We're just getting drawings done, what were the issues?

Oh my god tika that's terrible! What sort of mistakes did they make?

Things are going well here. Steel is in and they have been putting the floor joists in today (bit of damage to the kitchen ceiling because of this but so far not as bad as I was expecting!). Builder says the floor will be in and they'll have the frame of the dormer by the end of the week so we can get a proper idea of the space. They keep saying it's a big space but it looks tiny to me! We 're going to go bathroom shopping at the weekend which is the fun part .

monkey - I really hope you have a better day today!

tika - I'm so, so sorry this has happened. It must be very disappointing. I know your plans are changing now and it's gutwrenching when your 'vision' doesn't come right, but on the upside there may be opportunities and positives that come out of the changes. Do look carefully at costs - there may be ways of reducing these by making straightforward changes that don't compromise too much. My builder saved me about £4k by noticing that the architects plans required 2 new steels and new openings that weren't actually necessary with simpler adjustments.

tatlerer - would you consider window film? Some of the modern stuff is very neat.

rick - I looked at your pictures and I kind of registered the mess but I was more and WOW! about the space behind. It looks like it's going to be really light and bright! I know you're facing the most frustrating and awful delays and you just want things finished off, but all this will be worth it.

whatthefox - your advice is VERY welcome. I think I've made a decision on the lighting, with your help. The garden room is open two ways (no doors), to the dining room at the back and to the kitchen at the side. Both of these spaces are well lit. I'm going to go for rebated LEDs in the three treads down, with a soft light (I am not a fan of the bright blue-white LEDs), and then use two LED strips, again in a soft colour, rebated in joinery at either side of the room. One will be hidden in the underside of the kitchen upstand (with a design much like the stair treads), and will wash downwards. On the opposite side of the room, I'm going to have two strips concealed in a very tall bookcase (3.8 metres!), one of which will wash downwards over the books at the front, the other of which will uplight towards the ceiling at the back. I think this will work, though I need to do some (highly amateur) tests with fairy lights to ensure that I still get the benefit of light when it's located that near to the ceiling. I'm designing the bookcase and some storage for the dining room myself then using a CNC manufacturer to fabricate, so I need to make sure!!

4yearsnosleep There was a total lack of knowledge from the drawings person with regards to fire regulations. Mean: she didn’t even specify fire doors to the bedroom. This means we’ll end up with a worse design and add about 10K extra for costs. Also I think it was such a bad submission that BC are now scrutinising every single detail. This person was recommended by a friend.

guilty100 Your light design sounds so well thought out. I never even went into this much detail. We’ll have recessed lights and some hanging ones over the peninsula and this is where my vision ends.

I’ve been teying to comfort myself with designing the kitchen (which had to be altered again and I lost a corner cabinet to house a pump we just found out we’ll need - another mistake by the ‘architect’). And I’ve finally found the colur I would like - it’s green... I don’t even like green and I fell in love with a shade completely. :-)

Tika - that's awful, I'm so sorry this is happening. I know this might be cold comfort right now, but it's good that BC are giving your drawings careful scrutiny. Better that than living in a firetrap and finding out the flaws when (God forbid) everything is ablaze. Have a look online for the firedoors - they vary wildly in price, with some only a few tens of £ over the price of a standard door, while others are hundreds more. (Glazed firedoors seem to cost an arm and a leg).

I love your idea of a green kitchen! Do share your ideas if it would cheer you up!

So sorry monkey for your troubles. If we can help in any way, please do post. Adding another to the table.

stringchild I would put money on you not being done by Christmas. Builders' schedules are not to be trusted. The ones who don't give you detailed pricing are to be avoided, they will end up claiming x, y and z was not included and you will have no recourse. Make sure you get a proper pricing and contract e.g. a JCT contract

Tika that's outrageous! Are the fire doors ruining the flow of your space? If it's a large open space, have you considered a sprinkler system? They are not cheap but will allow the doors to be omitted. Still need to check with BC first. When you say drawings person, was this not an architect? Architects ime run their work past BC early on to avoid this sort of thing. Can you post a plan and let us see if we can suggest an acceptable change?

whatashower lighting sounds all good. Choose warm white light if you don't want the clinical look. The LED at the front of the bookcase: do you want to light the entire front? Just be aware that if you put the light on the inside of the top, it will only reach up to the first shelf, which will then block any light going past. Only glass shelves will let the light partially penetrate. If you light each shelf, you will get the full wash of colour to the bottom.

tatler if you use window film test it out under both daylight and night time conditions. I have used a lot of shutters (shhhh...in plastic!) in bathrooms, both because they are easy to keep clean of mould and you can angle the louvres for privacy and still let in a bit of light. Plus when closed they give total privacy with no chance of any glimpsing from the side.

Namedy happy to help with lighting. Please plan this well in advance or you'll be chasing wires through walls and having to make good later. Posting photos always helps. Lighting is very important and can make or break a scheme. There are lighting designers who make a handsome living from this! But with a bit of forethought and Pinterest you too can make it look super.

Ahem

Hopefully your SCRIPT for the build is going better today, monkey, and that you BREAKEVEN with karma.

See what I did there? Geddit? Geddit?

I'll get me coat.

Ah sorry I meant guilty when I said whatashower who is finished already and needs no help whatsoever!

It's fine whatthefox! I knew you meant me!

No work here today - builders haven't shown up due to a "delivery at the workshop" . Ah well. I'll send a text later on and see where we are. I'm quite glad for a day of relative peace as it's DH's birthday and BIL's wedding next week, so I'm rushed off my feet for both events.

monkey.
Thanks for your comments re blind suggestions! whatthefox I love shutters but the handles on the opening panes of windows protrude beyond the timber frame if that makes sense (they are currently steel openers within timber and we're having them replaced with aluminium replicas, but I think we'll still have our handle issue). Therefore I'm not sure shutters could be fitted. Currently thinking fabric roller/Romans left halfway down during the day, with window film applied to the bottom halves. Then at night, drop the blinds completely.

thanks for the feedback - yes i am now resigned to a v messy Christmas; we pushed the builder and he pretty much said he expects to go over, and offered some ideas of how to make it less a problem. Our kitchen will be entirely in the existing space, so the fitter can go ahead (except the island) without all the rest being finished and delay knocking through. We will see but the builder has now offered a weekly sit down meeting to track progress and enable me to manage other parts of the work. don't think i am going to enjoy this at all but has been hugely helpful to read this thread. Will stay with you all now!

I realise the pressure for Christmas, but I'd be worried about knocking through with a kitchen in place if it's open plan and close to the space where the knock through is happening. It's a really messy, horrible job. The dust goes everywhere in close proximity - even closed cupboards. (I used to work in a museum on construction projects and the amount of effort we had to go to in order to reduce dust spread over a really wide area was huge - galleries that were quite a distance away had to be considered). If the kitchen's the opposite end of the house to the build, though, you might get away with it.

I know I'm not going to be finished til January either - I'm 3 weeks in now and I know there will be a concertina effect in December with postage and delivery services getting a bit overwhelmed. For me, it's fine - I don't mind waiting as long as the end result is what I want.

Abit more positive here tonight!
A lot has happened today, plasterboard nearly complete & remedial brickwork completed above the steel!

Monkey make a change from gin!

Tika, we had quite a bit of to and fro with BC and at one point I nearly lost faith in the structural engineers. In our case it was the BC being extra cautious but I was happy with that as rather have a safe house than not. But it was hard because it delayed things.

We are at the stage now where we can order a kitchen 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉 plumber is going to do his bit today and tomorrow, to see if they can tidy up the plumbing to give us more space. I spent last night looking st tall larder units and debating what kind to get. Very exciting.

We have an installation date for our sliding doors - in one month. So another month and we are properly weather tight instead of plywood 😍

TeamRick that's great! Bonus that a) work is happening and b) your £2k is safe...? Although will your builder still try and claim anyway 😬

Well DH says if he contacts him and asks for extension to next week he might still pay it, problems with building Regs that he is putting right.

He's not contacting him to offer it though! I think his money safe!

believeit - hooray for the kitchen order! I can't wait to get to that point, I'm v jealous!

rick - hooray for forward movement!

Blockwork is going up today. I'm trying to get my head around levels (v slopey site) with the transition to the garden. I'm running the same tiles that I have in my garden room outdoors, then there is going to be a rectangular pond with a walkway across (see picture for the kind of idea - my materials are a bit different to this). This is currently in breeze block, and I need to make a decision about how I'm going to face it. I was going to use the same tiles (nice and sleek) but I want an overhang, and the builder says that they will break. I'm not sure what to do - I really don't want to see the pond liner.