Tips on getting an extension built

[Rupster]

We're thinking of having a two-storey extension built on the side of our house.

We've had an architect draw up plans, and they've just been submitted to the Planning dept of the council.

I hear so many horror stories of builders doing shoddy work or of the costs escalating.

Does anyone have any wise words of advice to help us avoid as much stress and aggravation as possible?

Thanks.

My tip is - use my builder! Of course, that will only work if you live in my area (NW London). They were fab and I highly recommend them. Other than that, just realise it will be a very stressful experience no matter what. Even with good builders.

And mine is - don't use mine because he's absolutely useless! I'm in Bucks!

Who is your builder wiifitmama? Struggle so much to find someone good in NW London?

Our builder was Byoot Developments. Headed by Marwan Field. Totally and completely recommend them. They did massive project for us this year - two extensions, complete reworking of inside of our flat as well. Lots of structural work. Very very happy.

Thank you very much for the recommendation

We had a pretty bad experience, and ended up firing our builder due to him basically not doing any work (took him a year to do about half of it, when the whole project was intially estimated to be -5 months). And then finding out that there were several issues with it which required remedial works. We managed to find a new builder (although this was difficult - not many builders want to take on a half finished job), but it cost us something like £30k extra.

From experience I would say the following. 1. Don't pay any money up front. 2. Make sure your quote/contract has a breakdown of costs eg. £x for foundations, £y for roof. 3. Keep contact with the building inspectors rather than just letting the builder deal with it. Otherwise you will not know if problems come up unless your builder is honest enough to tell you. 4. Check your builder's background by looking him up on Companies House. You can also check whether there are any CCJs against him, although will cost I think.

Good luck!

Thank you everyone for your comments. I'm going to ask the architect for builders he can recommend. I'm also plan spending a lot of time up front working out as much detail as possible of what we want the builder to do.

If I asked a builder why costs escalate so much, I wonder whether they'd say: "Well the customers never tell us exactly what they want, and then they go for something expensive and expect the cost to stay the same?"

Don't expect an architect to have the first idea about costs. I know SO many cases where an extension has ended up costing twice as much as the architect suggested.

Be aware that the price to second fix can be considerably higher than the price to first fix.

Talk to a builder early on in the process and get a realistic costing of the design to second fix.

My main one would be for you to to visualise yourself in each of the rooms impacted by the build and ask yourself what do you expect too see when the work is completed then write it down as a bulleted list, Then agree with the builder what's in / out of their quote.

Electrics - Give yourself wriggle room. ie. specify x stainless steel finish double plugs in y room, exact location to be agreed onsite. New fuse board?

Woodwork - Think of matching current in terms of doors, skirting, coving, architrave etc.

Plumbing - what sort of heating control to you want e.g. separate zones. TRVs? Water softner? Upgraded supply?

Outside - consider sockets, taps, paths, retaining walls, lighting, making good of drives

Other - If you supply things for them to fit, be there when they open the boxes (or open them yourself). Our claimed that stuff had come damaged but I think they were bull-shitting me but couldn't prove either way

Payment - pay by outcome / stage, not by time or 'I need to pay the lads something this week'. Keep a reserve pending final building, gas safe, electric, hot water tank certificates. Also any guarantees where they've subbed out the work - rendering, windows, external doors

Agree what happens to stuff they're stripping our - theirs to sell or yours (we had some copper roofing that they thought they could sell)?

Most of all, keep on top of them about progress - I found daily meetings good idea if only as a set time to discuss things - what's next, what decisions do I need to make (and make then quickly!)? Be reasonable, things change or crop up that's unexpected and can sometimes give rise to additional cost. When they give you a price for these, have a sense of what the right day rate is for the skill in your area (e.g. carpenter £150, plumber & mate £300 etc)

It will be stressful, it will take longer than you think, it will (probably) cost more than you think, they will be messier than you think, they will be inconsiderate of you and your neighbours and they wont turn up when you're expecting them (Saturdays especially). But, once they've been and gone and some time has gone by, it'll have been worth it and you'll soon forget the negatives!

HTH! (I had a really crappy build by the way, partly down to the builder, partly as things cropped up that no-one could have foreseen)

Thanks. That's really useful info.