Home Extension Thread 2019

[4yearsnosleep]

Time to start another extension thread. 2019 for lots of newcomers and hopefully lots of finishers too!

We're Day 5 of builders on site and have a roof framed. V excited about the big velux

@mum2015 the builders should not need payment in advance as they have accounts with each supplier with at least a 28 day credit period. If they are asking for payment in advance it may indicate cash flow issues

Thank you, I had no idea about credit ac. This is very helpful.

Hi all

Loving seeing everyone's progress and hints and tips! I need to pick your brains about layout. We had some plans drawn to do a double story extension on our 3 bed semi. Initially I thought that I wanted to make it 5 bed with an open plan kitchen living space and this is what the plans are currently of. However I'm worried that by putting in 5 beds this could make all the rooms a little on the small side and the en-suites and main bathroom quite small. In the plans they have drawn a double size bed to scale but concerned you could not get an awful lot of furniture in there. Also we would want at least a king size in bedroom 1. So my question is do I go for 5 bed that could end up very underwhelming or do I go for 4 bed and have larger rooms and an impressive master with larger en-suite and possibly walk through wardrobe. And also have a larger family bathroom? I'm also worried the downstairs hallway is going to be very narrow. Any suggestions of what a 4 bed plan could look like within the outline of the attached plans?

For background our requirements were to have a large open plan kitchen-diner-living space, a separate lounge area, a study as both me and my husband work from home. We wanted to move our staircase as it is currently along the attached wall (red dotted line) in the room currently marked lounge but it is very steep. So where you see it in the plans attached is where the architect has currently suggested but this could be moved elsewhere. I thought about possibly having the stairs coming directly off the open plan area? But will this mean a lot of noise travels upstairs? We also have 3 DC so originally I wanted to have 5 beds so they would have a room each and we would also have a spare. We have family visit once a month so I wanted there to be minimal disruption each time they visited I.e not having to turf one of the kids out of their room or have them taking up the lounge. But now I'm wondering if that compromises the overall space too much.

In the plans attached the walls highlighted green are the outline of our current house and are the walls that need to stay structurally. We also needed to stage the extension backwards in order to make enough car parking spaces at the front as per council requirements.

I'd be so grateful if anyone has any thoughts or suggestions? TIA

I would definitely go for four. I think a lot of people probably make the mistake of just wanting to up the number of bedrooms but then it all ends up a bit off.

Ours is going to end up a four bed but with only one bathroom and one en suite.

I do think that the bedrooms look squeezed in a bit. I'd go 4 beds (with a fab master suite for you) and either plan to kick dc out or put a sofa bed in the living room. Great plans though!

hello everyone. can I join in ?

We've given up trying to move so will extend the kitchen. By god it's expensive. We're in London.
3x5m single storey extension and estimates so far:
£180,000 - excluding kitchen and flooring but inc. fitting and all finishing -5 month build!!!
£80,000 - just to build the shell, ready for kitchen and flooring. 5 week build!
We've looked at getting an architect then a builder as separates but I have a very full-on job and not much time to organise that.

questions:

1. anyone recommend a decent company that's not wildly expensive in SW London?
2. solar panels - anyone included these in the build?
3. underfloor heating and parquet flooring - anyone done this?

lovely to see the progress of all your builds!

@cuddles I'd consider either
a) losing one of the ensuites between bedrooms 3 and 4 - remove the shower room from bedroom 4 - you can then use the corridor space as well -that's all wasted at the moment. OR
b) make bedroom 5 smaller and move the family bathroom along a bit. that would mean you could move the ensuite for bed 4 along a bit too and make the bedroom 4 bit bigger. same comment re using that corridor space alongside bed 4.

Cuddles whatbwould be the size in feet of your Bedroom 1? I agree about losing ensuite to bed 3 and use that plus the hall to make bigger bedroom. I’m just wondering how much room you will have in main bedroom with Kingsize and wardrobes, easier to Tel, with actual measurements.

Depending on your life style a shower in the utility room is really handy. I use it for early morning showers when don’t want to wake people or when back from muddy gardening, the dog gets chucked in sometimes, teen uses it as prefers to sleep downstairs but would be very handy for muddy sport loving children and gives maximum flexibility as relatives get older and less able to manage stairs. Just a thought.

For anyone fparruggling a bit in the middle of the mess hang in there. I’m having a lovely morning so far. Dad and partner are back, they opted to sleep in living room for whatever reason. We have an L shaped hall now with a door which shuts off DS’s room , living room ,utility and toilet into one bit so shut that off having sneaked in for a shower in utility as ensuite awaiting builder on Monday to fix leak.

Could then make as much noise in kitchen as wanted . My Dad and partner coming later nad do7nf Cream tea for her birthday. Everything on side ready in utility room ready for later and shut away from animals. I think that’s the lovely thing about it, you make it to work for you. I love our internal glass door that forms inner lobby, no yanking dog out of way when postman comes, no eating the post.

Our old cupboard in kitchen built to house washing machine and dryer is now a pantry which holds loads and has power so microwave now in there, works really well. Think about how your family works and if children are young imagine them older and with partners on the scene and coming in at different times. Keep things flexible and build in plenty of storage.

Sorry to ramble on , am hoping little snippets might just be helpful to someone when they are planning. If you’re starting from scratch it’s easy to get things built in as go along. Just though of another, we have sloping roof in extension so space behind ensuite shower is cupboard in eaves for suitcase storage .

Thanks so much for all your thoughts so far! Having a shower in the utility makes a lot of sense, thanks for the tip!

Measurements for the current plans for the upstairs are:

Bed 1 approx 4.5m x 3m
En-suite 2m x 1.5m

Bed 2 4.2m x 2.8m (3.2m max)

Bed 3 3m x 3.6m
En-suite 1.2m x 2.5m

Bed 4 4m x 2.7m

Bed 5 4m x 2.3m

Bathroom 1.8m x 2.5m

I would concur re suggestions to date; lose an en suite, downstairs shower room (this is working well for us so far) move the doorway back for bedroom you may be able to build in wardrobes to have this room as your master suite? A pocket door to the en-suite would give you more floorspace in the bathroom too. See attached. Don’t know whether that will give you enough storage or enough room for a king size bed. I would be reluctant to lose a bedroom. Monthly guests is quite frequent and once the kids are established in their own rooms it’s quite disruptive to turf them out (our DS May be more be reluctant to do this than your DC though!)
FWIW I think your family bathroom size is perfectly adequate. An 1800 bath feels large. 800 bath width, 600mm wc and 600 basin would still give you plenty of space around them.

cuddles, could the study double as a guest room? Maybe if you stole a bit of the lounge. There is a living area in the kitchen too, for bigger gatherings.

I think 4 good sized bedrooms with the master being more luxe is a better idea than 5. Also, kids will have more space in their own rooms for when they are older and don't want to associate with parents!

@lightlypoached, we didn't include solar panels in our build but had them put in Oct last year. The Feed In Tariff ended in March and we didn't want to miss it as it meant we could break even in 20 years rather than 30 years! This is based on how much sun we get in Central Scotland so it might be less in London as I think you get more sun. Were you thinking of including them in the build to minimise impact or to embed them into the roof of the extension?

Although we've only had them a short while, we really like them! I quite enjoy the silent smugness of "free" power. I worry when it's too windy though! :D

@lightlypoached that sounds very expensive for what you're getting. We're in an expensive part of south east and currently getting a 6x6 rear single storey extension and rejigging downstairs to make shower room and utility. We are paying £50k plus vat. This doesn't include kitchen or flooring though. Sorry I can recommend builders in London.

Hi lightlypoached, I’m in SW London and building work is stupidly expensive here. I try not to look at costs from other parts of the UK as it’s too depressing! From what I’ve read £80k for the construction bit sounds about right. Then the rest depends on how expensive your kitchen etc is. Might be worth searching on NappyValley for builder recommendations.

I've been reading the 2017 extension thread. It makes for worrying reading- so many problem builders. Making me nervous about my project 🙈

Eeek!! I am not sure I want to look!

We have finally gotten our building warrant application lodged and chosen a builder. New Dad! LOL! I had to convince DH to meet with new Dad and his bad vibes radar was not triggered so we've gone with him. I'm so glad to be at this point now. I am not sure I want to read the 2017 thread...

Hello extension people!
Newbie here... Need your experienced wisdom

Anybody gone for skirting board heating rather than underfloor /conventional radiators?

Yay @soakedat3 ! I'm SO excited for you!! We're on holiday at the mo but been thinking I think I'm going to bite the bullet with the nice builder when we get back. Still waiting on other quotes but I feel like they're just never getting back to me and I really liked him, has good reviews and a really good quote. Or I can speak to some previous customers then I think I'll be happy.

Skirting board heating sounds AMAZING!! Tell me more!!

Skirting board heating has been around for over 10 years, and depending what articles you read, it's either brilliant or rubbish.
So I'm none the wiser

Building warrant in today. Cannot wait till we are done with this architect. He’s a nightmare.

Spent this morning mapping out where all electric sockets and light switches are in existing space, and where I would like them once we have extension and knocked through, as I have 4 plugs and 2 switches on walls that won't exist one day.
Decided to do it all proper like, and looked up proper symbols that electrical plans should use.
Once I realised that a double socket symbol is a pair of boobs, my plan looked like something that a naughty child would scribble...

I did that recently too! Not properly ... just different coloured sharpie dots

LOL Toilet! They do look like very Madonna like boobs!

I have decided to steal a idea I saw on Instagram where the owner had used office desk grommits (circular hole coverings) to hide leads on things that are alway plugged in like the kettle. I need to discuss it with the kitchen people but builder seemed ok with it. Saves having lots of trailing leads on the countertop.

Avo, I think you do have to like the builder too. He's going to be in your house a lot and I don't like if I don't feel comfortable enough to suggest or question him. We decided and then slept on it to see if we had changed minds overnight before confirming. So far no buyers remorse.

I lost my long post yesterday 🤦‍♀️🙄

I agree you need to like your builder - ours have been here almost daily for 3.5 months now and it has definitely helped that we get on. Lots of conversations, decisions and mind changes have occasionally tested us!

We've had a large kitchen/ dining extension on the back of our house and remodelling of internal walls / doorways which was very messy and dusty. Things are on the up now the kitchen is built (just waiting for the quartz worktop) and utility has been kitted out with our old kitchen.
This week the new shower room was tiled and karndean is down ready for the shower, sink and toilet to be installed.

Other than that, it's just little things like architrave, skirting boards and doors to be fitted now before we get our house back!
This is definitely a tiring stage for us as we are trying to get rooms painted before things go in. So far, I've done the kitchen (ceilings and all!), bathroom and utility but there's still the snug, study and hall, stairs & landing to do as well as floors to sand. We've also started unpacking boxes and everything has needed a clean down before putting away.

I must recommend this Crown paint - it cost £10 for 10L and has been great for the mist coat and ceilings.

Thank you Hoppahouse - we are getting to end stage so now we are thinking of mist coats and screeds. I reckon we have a month more before we move home. I have my priorities all wrong and ordered an Eve mattress this morning.