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.

Making steady progress this week, roof finished and sliding doors going in next week. Have decided to put an additional shower in our ground floor WC which is making better use of space. Money starting to feel tight and still a long way to go...

Glad things are going well @Whattodowithaminute We have rafters and ceiling joists. The roof goes on next week and then it will be time for windows. Still feels like so much to do!! Our builder still reckons we will be back in by the end of November, but I fear that is optimistic!!

Eeeeeeek @whattodo and @threesocks you’re a step ahead of us. We’ve got 1 possiy2 days left of walls and then the roof starts going on! We’ve ordered our roof lantern and going to look at slidea d stack/pivot doors on Wednesday and hopefully place an order asap afterwards. I’ve been super impressed with our builders work so far 😊

Just had PP granted for my two storey side extension. Couldn’t believe how many neighbours they had to notify! But according to the planning portal had no issues with neighbours. Phew. Quite liked reading the report about it online :)

Our extension will add a big master bedroom and en suite upstairs and a family bathroom downstairs as well as what was originally supposed to be a bedroom and a smaller study but the architect made the two rooms the same size so essentially a fourth and fifth bedroom. My worry is that our living room just isn’t big enough for a 4/5 bedroom house. At the moment we aren’t touching the kitchen and once the extension is complete we will knock what is currently the bathroom and kitchen (strange layout currently) into a bigger kitchen. Other than ending up with a galley style kitchen there is no way at all to make the living room bigger. The only option would seem to be a second smaller extension out the back. Maybe just 1.5m our across the width of the current house (only around 5m). Is that ridiculous? I’m just worried about going to sell in future and it not being sellable because the living room is too small for number of bedrooms.

We've got to the stage where I'm just crossing my fingers and hoping that trades will turn up. They've been like Willo-the-Wisp! Hopefully tomorrow the plasterers will turn up to start in three completed rooms and the electrician will finish first fix so the builder can board out the final room.

Knock through might be happening in the next couple of weeks and I've got dust sheets covering everything. Thankfully there is only one wall to come down, the other openings just need windows to be taken out.

Hello! I have been stalking this board as I am at the very beginning of my extension process. I am looking at architects etc and mine has quoted our extension at £2000 per squared metre. We live in Scotland but not in a city. Is this very expensive? Can you remember what your was? I don't think this includes anything other than the bones of the build - or do these quotes include windows? I have emailed him o ask also but was hoping he is being a bit expensive and the builders may come in cheaper........aaargh.

Hambo im Scotland too and have been hearing more £1500 per sq m x

That would save me thousands! It's so much money, am going off an extension.…...thank you catmatrat😊

Hello! Our project is starting to feel real now, movers are here today (we are moving in with parents ), demolition starts on Monday, and some hefty cheques being paid...

We have ordered our extension glazing and signed up with a kitchen company, got a working kitchen layout and chosen most of our bathroom stuff... Still need to actually order the bathroom stuff, choose tiles and wood floors, and finalise electrics layout... and that's just the urgent decisions! Argh.

Anyone else keep finding that what they wanted isn't actually possible and/or is super expensive?

Yes minipie I found I have very good expensive taste. Was hunting down radiators with a high BTU output as our rooms need between 8000-12000 BTU and I didn't want to use up all the wall space for them. All the ones I loved were £2k apiece! Found a much cheaper range by scouring the internet, including eBay, and using every discount code I can find.

As far as the cost per square metre is concerned, I think it probably depends on what you're having built hambo. If there's a kitchen and bathroom, the price could be influenced dramatically by your choice of fittings. We are having a large extension with large rooms built against the existing house so for the most part it's just foundations, 2 outside walls and a roof. Make sure you understand how much the builder has allowed for windows, doors, lighting, decorating etc, and give your electrical plan as much thought as you possibly can based on how you expect to live in the extension. I thought I had and, even so, I've added extra sockets, data cables and lights.

Doors going in tomorrow-excited, bit terrified!!

I hope they've gone in and you love them Whattodowithaminute.

We have been promised that our patio doors will be fitted on Monday, so that the builder can finish boarding out to let the plasterers work on Tuesday. Fingers crossed!

Lets see the doors please!!

Wss^ !

Good news they went in (and here they are in all their splendour!)-bad news they have some scratches-waiting for feedback on how they might resolve!

Boo to the scratches but they look amazing

Ahhh thanks -4years I haven’t seen them properly yet-itching to go to the house all day to look at them but it didn’t coordinate well with toddler-tomorrow-very excited. Really feeling like it might be a home now!

Lovely!

I still look on here and every now and then, those doors are beautiful! Serious door envy!
Hope everyone is coping well especially with the colder weather approaching.
Just remember, it's worth it in the end (god I don't miss that phrase!)

I think I'll be repeating that phrase a lot in the coming months Baxdream, hope you're enjoying your lovely home!

Whattodowithaminute those doors look fab! Hope the scratches can be easily resolved.

Minipie think we're starting at the same time, our project starts on Tuesday, still trying to make decisions about tiles etc though! It's really hard to rein in the costs without risking things looking rubbish... Good luck!

So we're all set for foundation digging to start on Tuesday, then I randomly thought yesterday 'did we tell the mortgage company?' Oops! Quick phone call and all fine, but is there anything else I might have forgotten?? Insurance company know, party wall stuff sorted, builder is notifying building control... Need to stock up on tea and biscuits.... Think that's about it!

Oh and I've changed my mind about the floor tiles AGAIN. Starting to annoy myself now, never mind DH

Hello! I have been in hiding as it has all been way to depressing and I couldn't face another post of me saying "yeah we are not finished". So, after two months of drama over the extension roof that is the dullest drama ever, we FINALLY have the roof on and the velux in. Honestly it was a comedy of errors with materials and an appalling roofing company until finally our builders just fitted the damn velux themselves.

So, now the roof is on it hopefully won't take too long to do the internal walls and floors. We don't have a lot of wall to plaster, or floor to lay. Our builders have had to start another proper job to avoid going bankrupt, so we have them 3 days a week and possibly in the other 2 days depending on what needs to be done at the other house. I am ok with this as at least we know what is happening. Rather than never being sure if someone is coming or not.

Those doors look amazing whattodowithaminute. So much glass! I'd hoped for big massive panes like that but we had to shrink ours due to the pesky drains. I still love ours though.

Our patio doors arrived for our dining room today, and the builder managed to finish boarding the room out for the plasterers. Next step, breakthrough (but not till after we've been on holiday as I don't want our cat sitter to be living in a building site).

You can't see it but we have a Velux window just above where I took the photo and I'm so pleased with the amount of light it lets in. This is a north east facing room at 5pm.

Looking like a really good space homes really light and airy, so nice to have light coming in from different angles too! Very considerate for your cat sitter!

DustandRubble,
Nice to see message from you. Post some pictures. I love to see progress of how everything is coming along.
For us one builder is hopefully giving quote by end of this week, the other one is not well and may not give quote.

Homes,
Such a lovely bright space.

Thanks What and Mum. It is much lighter than I'd been expecting, which I'm very grateful for as it means the adjoining room from the house isn't in complete gloom.

Getting quotes out of trades is like pulling teeth at times. The guy who did the roof for our extension has been here about 10 times now and I've asked on every occasion for him to give us a price to replace some of the existing roof and he keeps putting me off. I'd prefer them to be honest and say they don't want to quote.