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

Are you guys living in the house while you extend?

Yes, we are! 6 of us. 4 small kids. It’s goung to be.....interesting.

We will be. I’m hoping that we can have the current kitchen door blocked up early to avoid the dust, but that also means having limited kitchen space for longer.

Finished the schematic stage and architect is now moving to draw up the plans for the planning permission. I think that 8 weeks will be very long!! Although with Storm Gareth today I was pleased we didn’t have a tarpaulin roof...

Hi Rhica. We're in the packing up stage. Builders hopefully start on Monday, but the lead builder's wife just had a baby 3 weeks early so may postpone for a week! Am terrified by the amount if stuff still to sort out and imminent disruption.

Also finalising kitchen plans. We had wanted a concrete floor but think it may be too pricey so are considering resin as an alternative.

And had a designer help with the kitchen but she's covered one side of the island with metal which looks cool, but am now not sure where my glasses are going to go! So many decisions.

We have a digger on site here again today starting on the garden! Really excited to get this bit going; the garden was completely destroyed during our build to a compacted boggy mess so hoping this will all be repaired and the garden will be useable in time for the spring. It’s worth it in the long run, good luck all.

Hi all
I was wondering whether anyone could give me a rough idea of current price per square metre for an extension? We're thinking of offering on a house, but we'd want to put a 2-story extension on (footprint is roughly 4mx2m) and I have no idea what to factor in. I've seen prices from £1k to £4k per m2 mentioned on threads on here!

I believe it is generally around £1.5-2k plus fittings (kitchen/bathroom) on top for a single story. And then 1.5x that for a double.

Hope this helps!

Stokey- how exciting (and frustrating-although at least the delay is for a nice reason 😊). Please keep us updated with how it goes

Whattodo- I am so jealous. I feel a little sad at the thought of losing my garden for the summer. Any tips for those of us starting out?

The only tip I can give you is to keep holding out for what you want-builders here made some silly mistakes which I think they were hoping I wouldn’t notice (doorway 10cm out etc) but I did and got them to change them. The house works so well now as I paid attention to loads of small details and thought really hard about how I would use the space. I measured everything-linen baskets, toy boxes, shoe storage, current and future space required for hanging etc. It has paid off. I also knew really early things like which dining table, sofa etc I was going to get which made putting the rooms together much easier and I used the sketch function on Houzz a lot to help with that.

Just a little tip that i learned of. A common scenario is people with semis having a side extension/side return extension. It is very common in such houses that the gas meter may be inside/under the stairs etc. The gas main that feeds the house enters from outiside and into the understairs cupboard/whatever. A lot of builders just build over this so essentially they are enclosing a live gas main. This is not allowed. They must ensure that it is removed and resited elsewhere so that it remains outside.

That's good to know. I have been meticulously planning every inch of the room and wasn't sure if I was being ott with it. I just can't see how you can make decisions though if everything's not thought through to this detail though

Arnoldthecat- I assume this applies to gas meters in the garage? We are having half our garage converted to a utility room and that is where the gas meter is. Should be looking to move this outside then? I haven't spoken to the builder about this yet. Trying to space out the questions I have for him 🤣

I believe so. If the incoming gas main is being enclosed as a result of building work and converted into habitable space,i would certainly make further enquiries about it. For further info you could always contact your local gas network operator who owns the supply pipe.This is known as your "gas transporter" ,,see here..

www.findmysupplier.energy/webapp/index.html

Closetlibrarian an architect friend explained the discrepancy to me like this. If you're doing a while house, you may average around £2k/m2 but that would include some rooms like bedrooms or living rooms that are relatively low cost. For rooms like kitchens or bathrooms, you're looking at more like £3k because there's so much more work to do. Also rebuilding costs more than building from scratch, and obviously if you're living in the southeast during Brexit, you can expect to pay even more Hope that helps!

Sorry should say a whole house, blumin predictive text.

That's interesting thank you @Arnoldthecat , we will have that issue with the gas and I didn't know that, I figured we'd just leave it where it is but I didn't realise that wasn't allowed.
Our builder pointed out the the way our electricity comes in is through a cable up the side of the house, apparently this is the main cable that supplies electricity for all the houses on our row . He said that it'd be fine to leave that where it is and "put it inside the wall".. this would mean it'd be in an internal wall after the build, do you know if this is ok?

For context we are early planning stages, had a few builders out for rough prices, got architect coming next week. We live in a semi, hoping for a double on the side and a single on the back.

On the bricks topic, I live in an old warehouse with original exposed brick walls. Never thought about it before seeing your photo but all of the windows have a single row of vertical bricks below, like in your photo.

Oh and they don’t have any cills, just the bricks

For us, it helped that I was around during the week a bit in the early days - we're trying to keep costs down, so a few changes have been made along the way and I was able to be available to make decisions.
Definitely speak up if you aren't happy with something - my exposed brick wall was done differently to how I had planned and I got them to change it - I'm so glad I did.

We're now 2 months in - all external walls, windows and doors are in place and today we lost the kitchen (relocated to the hallway 😬). Only 4 more weeks to go 😅

Here's the exposed brick wall in some lovely sunshine and with the glass fitted above.

elasticfantastic not sure but again,i'd take guidance from your electric distribution company.

We're on week 3, Day 3. Knocked through completely today. Mild panic about how low the big beam is, but we're going to keep it exposed to avoid losing any more height. I'd plotted everything but the beam and the larger skylights than we'd originally specified means I'm having to redesign the kitchen.

First fix electrics this weekend, bifolds and window Monday, plasterboard Tuesday, plastering Wed/Thurs, UFH Thursday then screed Friday. 4 weeks of build and we should then just be waiting for the screed to dry before flooring/kitchen fit. Our builders are fast but efficient and tidy. Fingers crossed that they stay that way!

Costs wise for a 30sqm single storey extension + boiler, kitchen, flooring and furniture we'll be around £3k per sqm

Just to add that you should really inform your buildings insurer before work starts.

Wow so quick 4years. Ours started on Thursday as it was too windy to take down scaffolding on the other job they were finishing. It's been terrifyingly quick as I was expecting to have the weekend to finish getting ready. But they've already unplugged the cooker, built a shed in the garden & set us up a temporary kitchen. At present we've only got microwave & toaster but portable induction hob should be arriving tomorrow.

Still lots of clearing out to do and need to finalise kitchen plan & buy everything!