Home Extension thread 2018

[Baxdream]

Thought we should get the new thread ready!
Our front door is in. Long story but it arrived damaged 😫 it's in and lovely but it's going to be replaced!
Our fencing has started today, the short ones are new, the others are getting ripped out

Thank you. he's sending us a quote out for that and could come to us tomorrow. Neighbour is in so potentially could be done. It sounds worth it? We are meant to be going away tomorrow eve so I just hope we can get the party wall negotiation letter signed off tomorrow as a minimum!!!

We got a schedule of condition and photos of everything. It’s better to be covered. The other half of our semi detached were happy not to go down the party wall route but then they checked with their insurance company and the insurance insisted.

We also had to get one with the house on the other side because our foundations might have gone deeper than theirs. I am glad it’s all in place as if anything were to go wrong it can be dealt with.

Thank you Dustandrubble that's helpful.

AmazingGrace we used a party wall surveyor - in fact 2 as one of our neighbours wanted to use someone they'd used before. It was worth it. One of neighbours is on her own and was really unsure about what was involved and didn't want to sign the party wall agreement but the surveyor was really good with her, explained everything clearly and what she was and wasn't entitled to ask for. It actually worked in our favour as we were building within our boundary but agreed to build on the boundary instead (we have garden walls, not fences). She also did the condition survey which although cost us some money it was totally worth it.

Agreed fourmagpies

Dust... very similar situation here, builder says he underquoted. Ffs...

Is he trying to charge more Tika? Mine isn’t, he says he has just learnt his lesson for next time. And we don’t even have a contract, just a quote! Lots of progress today, so I am much happier.

Our boiler broke yesterday (but we think fixable, thank god, as we need it to limp on until we extend, as the new boiler will go in a different location). Naturally DC3 got a vomiting bug overnight, so we are boiling water to give her a bath. It struck me how horrendous this sort of thing would be during a build! No boiler and dust ill children AND dust everywhere would probably finish me off.

Haven't been in here in a while as so distracted with the building work, great to see progress being made on these other projects and new ones about to begin.

Our builder has been moving at relentless pace, it's been difficult to keep up but he's just told us he's 3 weeks ahead of schedule, on a 16 week build (other builders were quoting 8/9 months build time initially!). One small snag, kitchen and lots of other bits are prebooked to come at a latter point based on the original estimated build time and they can't be moved.

So far beek super happy with everything my builder has done, all done when he says he will and to a very high standard. Contrast this with the shocking service we have had from a window contractor who didn't turn up on the day they said thru would, then came next day and did about 3 days work when we told them our builder wanted to render a couple of days later. Fast forward a week and it's still not done and scaffolding is going today. And the windows are badly fitted, and half are damaged, and they left tons of mess, just horrific people really.

So our plastering was done last week and finally it's starting to look like a home again, decorators were in last 2 days doing all the mist coat on the fresh plaster and prepping the woodwork. Electrician is in next week to begin 2nd fix electrics, same for plumber, then the fun stuff can happen like kitchen fitting etc. The moving back in date is getting nearer.

humpty...what is mist covering on new plaster ???

theredjellybean when you have walls plastered you put a dilute paint mix on it before painting properly, that is the mist coat. New plaster can suck in paint, so by putting a paint/water mix on it first you save your proper paint.

Thank you for that

Hopefully, that’s horrible, I hope your little one gets better soon. I’ve been there with the warming water for a while without sickness.

Dust, yes, he’s demanding more money. Last time he wanted more for the ‘extra’ bathrooms that were on the original plans when he quoted.

That’s shocking Tika, what have you responded? We had similar when we did our loft, ended up getting the painting etc finished by someone else as we refused to pay any extra.
This time I’ve gone with an architect who insisted on tight contract and a builder she’s worked with many times. We finally start next week but am very apprehensive!

tika that’s my concern too especially as one quote isn’t very detailed and a LOT cheaper albeit still dearer than I’d thought. I keep thinking if we go with him they’ll be surprises! But my other quote must include everything gold plated and diamond encrusted as it’s totally ridiculous. humpty that all sounds fab... can you send your builders over to me please?

This was relatively detailed, we put most things down and rest was meant to be done ‘as per drawings’.
We had another quote that listed numbers of screws etc but still didn’t include everything we wanted.

Ouch Tika, that is not good. We did have our porch added on as it was not in the quote properly and we both realised that. But our additional costs are just where we added more things in.

Oh Tika, what a pain. From talking to friends it seems like getting a reliable in depth quote is a real challenge, so I doubt you're alone.

We have sent a loooonnng list of amendments to the architect, and are now on the count down (four weeks, according the schedule he has now agreed to) to planning permission drawings being issued.

We haven’t had a single invoice yet our builder is hopeless at paper work. It’s bad they can charge you more once they have started, some people have no morals.
How long does it take them to put the roof on does anybody know? Apparantly starting on Wednesday.

Our roof was stripped, new membrane put on and re-tiled in 2 days. You should be watertight in no time.

Day 1. Diggers are in! is it normal to be feeling incredibly nervous?!

Totally normal AmazingGrace, don't worry it'll get worse before it gets better but starting is a big landmark, all that planning and preparation finally coming to a head when you see the builders there for the first day.

You basically have a rollercoaster of nerves, delight, horror and boredom ahead of you!

My builders are laying bricks in between the rain showers, I’m glad they haven’t just written the day off!

We start next week eek I’m with you Amazing Grace, I’m currently trying to pack up the entire downstairs of our house, it’s relentless!