Home Extension Thread 2018 - summer edition

[DustandRubble]

A thread to share the highs and lows of all things extension, loft conversion, renovation related. Bring your own dustpan and brush.

Thank you we love it. It cost slightly more than we budgeted for but it has toones of cupboard and all the bits we wanted.
The worktop is just laminate I did initially want real wood but I won't look after it properly I know. Our kitchen is Benchmark.

@Ilovechocolatetoomuch your kitchen is lovely! I admire how you could manage to do it all with being pregnant and newborn.

@threesock,
Thanks for the link on rendering. We are building a new storey to bungalow so I am thinking might as well change the rendering of existing groundfloor. It is a cream pebbledash with bricks at the bottom. So it might need adding insulation :(

Linguaphile, that backsplash looks amazing.

Love the kitchen!!

@mum2015 - we are adding a single storey wrap around to our existing house and are also rerendering the whole house, as it is horrid pebble dash and starting to fall off in places. The building control woman passed comment on it "I am not going to make a formal comment but you do know that if you rerender more that 50% of a house you need to insulate" and my husband just said "we are insulating inside" she seemed happy enough so hopefully there will be no further action .... the building regs inspection is just in relation to the extension - ours is a period Georgian house with no cavity so external insulation would mean we lost all the period features so there is now way we would do it.

Ok. We werent planning on adding any insulation to existing groundfloor. Now this could be another cost

@mum2015 we won't be adding insulation ...

We didn't add insulation to the old part and ours is all signed off by building regs

Well, today we got the last of our steels in place. I think the builder was getting a little anxious about a 350kg length to go over the garage door. He hired in some lifting equipment and an additional labourer. I made myself scarce as I know they had difficulty moving it onto the site and I didn't want my blood pressure to go through the roof.

The site feels like it's going to move quickly now (that's on the assumption that there are no hangovers tomorrow )

👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 homesunderthehammer our builder is so nervous about our steel that we've had to get the steel company to install. I thought we were having a bog standard extension but the nearly 10m opening that supports the rest of the house seems to be causing a headache!

Fingers crossed for speedy progress from now on

Well done homes sure it’s great to have the promise of progress (not that we would know in the worlds slowest extension ever that are currently undertaking...)

Great news homes!

I got home to significant progress, foundations part dug, render on front of house nearly done and a big digger in the back garden 🙈

Since the point that the builder came on site, he's been scratching his head about the amount of steel specified by the structural engineer. We've come to the conclusion that the structural engineer is over specifying.

4yearsnosleep Getting the steel company in sounds serious! We were talking cranes at one point but getting up the lane to our house has been a job and a half for bigger lorries so I'd have hate to have thought we would have needed to do that.

Whattodowithaminute I'm not sure how long you've been in progress, but I know how it feels when you're just itching for something tangible to happen

We started in February homes originally schedule and us in on the 4th June. I think we will be lucky to be in by the 4th October...
Builder tells me the rest of our steels going in this week and brick layer is starting on Saturday so hopefully we too are seeing progress!

I do hope so for you Whattodowithaminute. That's a long time to have work going on.

I'm a bit concerned our builder is off on holiday for 3 weeks at the end of July leaving his son in charge (who's lovely but very laid back) - but the roofer and electrician have been here today and they're supposed to be working whilst the builder's away - and they have their act together.

Well, the positive thing about having a big digger in the garden in this weather is that you won't be getting mud everywhere Threesocks I hope today has been equally constructive.

According to our neighbours we also have the slowest builders in the world - I don't really care as it's given me time to properly sort the kitchen. Just got to decide if we go Howdens fairford or DIY norton. Got to get a final quote from Howdens and then go from there. Our units from DIY ( for norton bespoke on all ) and the top delivery is coming in at £8343. Then we'll have tiles, island worktop, appliances and flooring on top of that. Will be interesting to see how the Howden quote compares.
We have visible progress on the outside...first bits of cladding are on! Yippee!

Bobkate it's looking great!

Bad news here; our builder's partner has been diagnosed with skin cancer and has to be off work for 3 months. This means our builder can't start our extension for 12 weeks. This is going to mean an Autumn/Winter build rather than a Summer build and no kitchen by Christmas

I realized that came across as harsh. It's his business partner & he has to finish a project they were working on solo. Life happens and I've told my builder not to worry about the delay and wished his partner a speedy recovery.

I haven't told him we're disappointed, but obviously we are as it was due to start next week.

Finally we have windows! Fitting is taking place today and tomorrow then hopefully it's full steam ahead. We move in in 3 weeks time and there is alot to do, because of the window issue. Relief, for now.

Ah 4years that’s such a disappointment. I don’t think you sounded harsh, just realistic! I’d be gutted too. :(

Excitement here that tile is starting in two of three bathrooms! Both our master ensuite and the loft shower room are getting started. 🙌🙌

Gosh bobkate your DIY sounds pricey.
We are having Clayton, not bespoke colour but four curved units which are £££, and with one undercounter fridge, and tall units in utility and a double width peninsula with bespoke book cases.. And it £4100, equivalent Howden was 96300

Oops Howden was 9600....not 96300

Constructive chat with our builder today, hoping to have extension shell up in the next two weeks. Last if the steels going in over the next couple of days-bricklayer starts tomorrow.

4years that really hard for both you and your builder-so close to starting...

Ah 4years - that really is a bummer and I don't think you sounded harsh. I think I would have felt exactly the same. Good news for you Humpty and Lingua and will keep fingers crossed for you whattodo.
Thered - we're not definitely going for the norton. Is the clayton a similar door? Going off to have another check out of the website!!