Extensions

[monkeyblonde]

Just after some advice.

We moved into our home 3 years ago, it was built in 1963 and has had very little done to it in the past 50 odd years. We have grand plans as to what we could do to it - to make it what we need/want it needs a garage conversion, kitchen single storey extension and extension on top of the garage.

The issue we have is money! I don't really know who is the best person/profession to speak to to give us the best advice on this in terms of partial work vs the whole job, true ideas on costs etc.

I currently don't work as I look after my children full time, I'd rather not work full time but the house gets us down every day and we at least want a plan to aim at.

Anyone else been in a similar position and how have you approached it? We own at least 75% of our home so not doing too badly on that front. Our mortgage as it stands will be repaid in under 9 years and it's always been our target to stick with to this.

In the first instance, you might want to get plans drawn up, with part of your design brief being that you want the work split into separate, discrete elements, where possible.

This might dictate some of the order in which the work is done; for example, there would be no point in doing the garage conversion, only to fins that when you do the 1st floor extension above, a couple of years later, you need to strip the ceiling off to install a floor above, and (perhaps) do additional structural work to take the new floor loads down to the foundations.

Once you have drawings that give you some idea of any technical constraints on the order in which the work can be done, you can get cost estimates for each element that will help you decide on how to manage the stages financially.

Thanks @Sensus. I assume you mean with an architect? Roughly how much should we expect to pay? Will they do full on plans or just 'rough' ideas to give some guidance on cost? As you can tell we are new to all this!!

I would suggest that you just get initial design drawings done at first; sufficient to establish the design, seek Planning Permission, where required, and work out preliminary cost estimates.

These would later be developed into 'Building Regulations' drawings suitable for construction purposes.

How much you will pay depends on the amount of work involved, of course, so I wouldn't want to quote a figure with so little information, but most architectural practices (including my own) will do an initial visit free of charge, to see the property and discuss your requirements, and we would then prepare a fully structured and itemised quote for all design costs, not just our own.

Where in the country are you?

We tried to do a similar extension on our 1930s semi in the last couple of years. The architect and project managers all said it should be about £80-90k - after 11 quotes, the average price was £160k!! Adding to that it needed a new roof which was another £35k we were nearly up to £200k.

This isn't in the SE but in an area where prices are rising and there are so many new builds that tradespeople have more than enough work. They all told us they don't need to be competitive, especially over 'small' jobs!

So my point is the price is completely dependent on what's going on in your area at the moment. Architects coming to give you a quote will probably give you a rough price but it's not until you've got plans that you'll know properly. We spent nearly £10k before deciding the extension wasn't worth it and we've now sold the house.

Perfectly true; in fact even if you prepare fully detailed drawings and get a QS to do a take-off, it's not at all unusual to go out to tender and find you get prices back that vary by 25% between contractors, so you won't know properly even when you've got detailed plans.

You won't really know until you've got tenders back for the work (indeed some would say that you won't really know until you've paid the final bill).

But the solution I suggested is the best compromise, I think, between initial outlay and accuracy of information.

And if you are breaking the project down into a number of stages, it has the advantage that if costs start running ahead of themselves, you can curtail or postpone the later elements of work.

Agree with others - spend money on developing a "master-plan" - even if you never get round to doing all of it you can be sure that your initial investment in plans were not wasted.

Put together your ultimate wish list for the master plan, and then break it down in to chucks - firstly what you NEED now and WANT later. Then you can cost the whole project and each of the chunks.

Also need to consider if this is your forever home - so everything you plan is for your personal benefit - or if you plan to move on and if it is necessary that the improvements will add value to the property.

You could post a floor plan on here and a list of your needs and wants so that you get ideas for free.

There are probably many simple things that will improve how your home works with young kids - and I would not give my financial security or go back to work full time just so that we had "nice to haves" such en-suites and guest bedrooms - but essential for my personal sanity are utility, eat in kitchen, good storage and separate TV family room.

teaandbiscuits that £10K was money well spent as you could have found yourself massively over spent, with no contingencies and the work then not being a return on investment....nightmare scenario......

Thanks for all the advice, it sounds as I suspected that we need to speculate a reasonable amount in order to accumulate. As suggested here is the plan of our home, we made a minor adjustment between the bathroom and bedroom 2 when we moved in - the lack of a downstairs loo is a big bugbear of mine with two young children, also the fact that they have to eat in the lounge when I prepare food in the kitchen (with fridge in the utility), so a 3 room meal preparation/consumption area!!

@Sensus @teaandbiscuitsforme @another20 any ideas at all?

There's lots of potential, and lots of possible solutions. You need to sit down with and architect or architectural designer, to discuss your priorities, budget and programme for the work.

I agree. Definitely get an architect to draw up some plans and see what they come up with. It would be well worth the money.

There are definitely a lot of possibilities- I think my priorities would be the big kitchen /diner, downstairs loo and bedroom 2 (but that might work better than it looks on the plan). Then long term I'd go over the garage for a master with ensuite.