Live at home through building work or move out?

[Bubbinsmakesthree]

We are planning a loft conversion and single storey rear extension to our house - the work will happen whilst I'm on maternity leave with a toddler and a baby.

We were planning on staying in the house and living through the works but our builder is recommending we try to move out (which seems to be motivated by concern for us rather than making his life easier).

I'm torn about what to do. We have three main choices.

1. stay at home and live through the work. My plan was to complete the loft first and use this as our main living area for the duration of the ground floor work, so we can escape the worst of the noise and dust. We'll probably be without a kitchen for at least a month.

2. Throw ourselves at the mercy of friends and relatives during the worst of the work - we could probably do a few weeks staying with others but it'll be living out of a suitcase and a fair bit of travelling round

3. rent somewhere else to live locally for 1-2months, which will probably cost £2k-£5k - costs we could absorb in the overall project cost but still a lot of money.

WWYD?

savage you should go for a 12 month contract with a six month break clause, after which time it becomes a rolling contract with a month's notice period on either side. I told prospective landlords/agents that building would take a min of 12 months (and who knows, it might!) but a six month break is quite normal in all sorts of tenancy arrangements. If you fess up to only needing somewhere for six months it's going to reduce your options drastically.

Is there a compromise?
Or is that what you are already thinking?
I mean, the work won't be done in 1 - 2 months, so are you thinking about just moving out for the worst bit or it all ?
It would depend, for me, on what options you have - family near by, etc... or even house sitting whilst friend is on holiday, as renting for 4 months would seem a LOT of money you could do without spending. If you could go and lodge for 4 days now and then with someone it might be a compromise?
Of course, lot easier to move out for all,but it's the cost!

Backforgood - yes we're already thinking about staying put for part of the work - they can do most of the loft work and the foundations and external walls of the ground floor extension without breaking through into the existing internal space.

Jassy I think it's inevitable that at least the main structural work would be consecutive rather than concurrent as scaffolds needed for loft work would need to be removed before the rear ground floor extension can be built - but I've been assuming we'd have the loft as a livable space before work started on the ground - need to discuss all this with the builder.

We lived through it. 7 months work - double storey extension, moving staircase and various layout rejigging. Was without the kitchen for 3 weeks and survived with a microwave and one of those portabld 2 ring hobs! Had four dc at school plus an 18 mth old.
Good fun to be around as the house took shape. They were great with my children -especially when I accidentally left one behind on the school run- .Would definitely do it that way again but I am quite unfazed by dust and chaos on the whole. I always compared it favourably to camping!

My hubby and I had to move out of our property to have the building treated for dry rot (nightmare!), have a new roof and kitchen. We lived on site for 2 months in an american RV. This was the perfect solution for us as we needed to stay close to home for the kids - having one car meant travelling elsewhere wouldve been difficult anyway. Im very happy to recommend the company we got ours from as they were so helpful (I dealt mostly with Avril) - hire and rv Worth consideration if you are having work done!

Personally I'd stay put - you will then know when they are on site, when they are working and when not. It may seem like concern for you but in my experience some of them are very good at not turning up, being late and this results in escalating costs. I'd stay there and monitor them!

Please move out go for an Airbnb if you can. We began renovating when I was pregnant we were asked to move out for a month it took six we moved back in and in that time I've had the baby who is now 7 months old and I am still having workmen on site every bloody day of my mat leave it's been horrendous I would not recommend it.

We stayed at home for our 2 storey extension. It was fine while they built it outside, they didn't break through until the end. There was one particularly awful day when DD came back from nursery midday and there was an electrician, plasterer and builders here and the noise and dirt and open doors and..... I had to escape to a soft play cafe (which i try to avoid at all costs!) Perhaps see how much they can do without breaking through (for the single storey extension) and then decamp for a few weeks when they break through. Not so easy with the loft conversion though. We definitely didn't have the money to move out so wasn't an option for us, and I do work from home part time, part time SAHM. One thing I found annoying was the builders turning up at 7.45am every day which meant getting up, dressed and breakfasted by this time so they didn't catch me in my towel. But got me in a good routine which I'm still in now!

You can def easily live through a loft conversion but have heard the single story rear extension are the real killers- especially with kids in tow as dangerous/messy/you have nowhere downstairs to spend time in all day. Saying that it is so expensive to rent somewhere else for that amount of time, no way we could've afforded it (and didn't with our loft, as it was pretty much fine)

Move out and don’t look back. The work will take much longer than you think in all likelihood.

We had several months of building work at ours, but (due to a quirk of previous owners) we actually had a second kitchen upstairs which was the one we used when moving it as the downstairs one was ancient.

People kept telling us we had to move out and it would be terrible, but we figured we'd be OK. We basically lived upstairs for 3 months, having only use one downstairs room on a day-to-day basis in the 18 months we'd lived there. But as we had a useable kitchen, and downstairs was separated off with heavy plastic, it was OK. Our kids were 5 and 8 at the time as well, so not babies.

In a way it's what you feel you can face... kitchens help a lot. One set of friends had the builders jury-rig a connection for a sink and oven in another part of their downstairs for the duration of their building work, so they could have an approximate kitchen set up. Ikea, IIRC, also do a really basic £500 kitchen on a metal frame that incorporates a sink and hot plates - if you'd have somewhere to put that, it could help?

Reading with interest...I'm considering a garage conversion and rear extension, possibly rewiring, probably lots of light fittings etc beongoved throughout house. We have 3 under 5 and am currently also on mat leave.

I think you need to talk to the builders about how much it would add to the time and cost if you were to stay put. They do have to spend longer if you are in the house, not just because of staggering the works to give you liveable space but also as they have to do more cleaning up, making safe etc. It definitely adds to the cost.

You may find that the extra builders' cost is as almost as much as the rental cost.

We are weighing up the same question at the moment but our DC are 5 and 3 and at school and nursery a lot, plus my parents are nearby so can camp out at theirs easily. With a toddler and small baby I would definitely be moving out.

Ah just noticed this is an old thread!

@Bubbinsmakesthree what did you do in the end?

You don't need to move out for a loft conversion - we were absolutely fine during ours in our old flat and our DC was only four (they're now eight). Yes, there's dust, but if you have decent builders they should clean up as much as possible at the end of every day.
Right now we living through a major house refurb - reconfiguring and knocking through downstairs, new kitchen, new bathroom, walls and ceilings re-plastered, new flooring, rewire and new plumbing throughout. At times it's been grim - there are few things more likely to make you wish you'd never started than doing your washing up in the bathroom sink – and the dust was horrendous at first, but we've coped. I imagine an extension is easier in the earlier stages because it's all done outside until the breakthrough.
We did go away in half term for a much needed break from it all though, so maybe factor in some budget for a holiday in the middle, or nights in a hotel/air bnb.
One thing I will say is that being on site constantly (I also work from home) has been brilliant in terms of overseeing what's being done and making sure it's being done properly and answering the zillions of questions the workmen have. It must be tricky fielding those calls when you're at work!

Whoops, zombie thread!