Home extension 2019 the Third thread- Drowning in Dust

[WhereDoesThisToiletGo]

And we're off again

Just checking in to see how everyone is getting on! We have the building inspector coming tomorrow for final inspection so fingers crossed! New carpet is ordered for the study. Utility room is now pretty much kitted out (by dh) so just waiting for a worktop.

@ladybird69 we had a 12 x 12 conservatory built a good few years ago and it took 4 days!

I was all for living in during but my builder offered me a bit off the price if I moved out. I'm glad we did tbh. You mustn't underestimate the chaos and mess. Our house had no boiler for a bit...no kitchen...no heat (as the roof was open it was seriously cold at night.) And they really need the space to work so they dont want to be working around your possessions and furniture.

@Noroof you are right, it would be much easier all round and if we could afford to move out we would! I have never heard of a builder dropping the price to encourage you to move out, was it enough to cover the rent somewhere else or do you have family nearby?

It was 1k. It was handy. I had a holiday cottage booked anyway. I stayed with family and I also had a week in a caravan

I have booked an airbnb locally for a week and told him I want the messy stuff done while we are out of the house.

As discussed earlier, I have started a Hints and tips thread /Things I wished I'd known thread separately

Love the hints and tips @WhereDoesThisToiletGo and I'm watching as I'm certain they will be worth their weight in gold (or tiles/cement/worktop).

@Noroof sounds perfect and from what I can see from your previous posts, v organised!! Our build is likely to take about 6 months (ha ha) and we are hoping to stay with family for a few weeks whilst the worst bits are underway but can't afford to rent nearby!

@Italianna its actually quite draining being away from home after a while. Staying at my dads was like being 16 again😂
My in laws very kindly put us up as well.
I live in a tourist destination so any rentals or holiday flats were through the roof on price!

ive Just lost long post! After talking to few more people they’ve said theirs took 1-2 weeks! Well I’m getting excited it’s our 3 month anniversary on wed im expecting a ring! On the 2nd of June I had a nice little bungalow with a pretty back garden. Now on the 2nd Sept I have a sort of conservatory (no heating in conservatory or my bedroom) that’s had its connecting wall knocked down between it for months so my bedroom has been filled with dust and crap and my lungs too. The garden is unrecognisable it’s just a mud bath that I haven’t been able to use all summer. They couldn’t get enough skips to get the soil way.
I wish I knew how to post pics just to show you. Oh and my front garden is full of half bags of sand and scalpings wheel barrows and rubbish. Where they have been using it to mix concrete and cement for other nearby job.
My advice to anyone now, is don’t believe anyone and get contract with finishing date. I’m sort of covered but I will have to speak to someone but who I don’t know.
If anyone is in Gloucestershire and is looking for a builder stay away from this one!

I briefly dipped in on the the last thread all excited as work had commenced but it's been slooooow going and almost ground to a halt at times!
We are a good 4/5 weeks delayed ... raft foundation rather than strip founds set us back as has structural walls that weren't expected to be.
Today has been a good day though, a hive of activity. Some of the steel has arrived, think the house will be more steel than brick in the end!

I do get the moving out argument but literally we are coming home lmost every day and finding that something has been done wrong - today a door has been refitted upstairs and the architrave is too big, so there's a piece of timber in front of the door that's visible from the outside (hard to explain but basically it looks wrong). The worst mistakes have all happened when I haven't been there. So I'd always recommend regular checks!

I think it would have been good to move out but still be close enough to check in at the beginning and end of day. At the end of the day, only you really know exactly what you have in your mind and the builders are only interpreting. What they consider ok might not be ok...

It feels like we are going at snails pace now. The progress for a full day today is a waterfall edge to bbar. But I'm not 100% happy with the join. New Dad is going to try sanding some more but has spent literally hours on this today. While I appreciate it cannot be invisible I thought it would look less like a line than this. What do others think?

I think that looks like a good job to me , I'm not sure how much better it could be .

It looks amazing Soaked!! Agree I'd want to see less of the line! Hope he can do it today 🤞🏽

Everything is going okay here but I can't shake this feeling that something is about to go completely wrong or I'm going to be left with a shell of a house. I've no reason to think my builders are going to do a runner, but I am just so worried for some reason!! Maybe because I can't quite believe it's happening so can't see the an end point. Is this normal??

Avo I know what you mean! Almost every day I've thought what if they don't want to finish the job?? Even today!

Thanks chicken. I think I'll ask him to give it another hour then move on. Need to get finished!

You could always have a go yourself if it's just sanding. Does anyone follow my London home on Instagram? She made her own terrazzo worktop and it's insane!!

That is crazy! Also her island is super different!

I have a Ring doorbell so I was able to check that they turned up this morning. (before 8am)
I wish I had one inside the build site!

That's a good start wheredoes. Fingers crossed they do your list of noisy work.

My bloody Windows are on the wonk!

Hi can I join please, we are starting to get quotes in and hopefully planning will be approved this week ( only 16 weeks late and there are still no bats in my loft ). We have moved in to a project with 2 little ones and it needs a total overhaul. Planning a 2 story wrap around and starting to panic a little. You all seem to know what you are doing so hopefully it will rub off.

Love your waterfall bb soaked I think get him to keep going with the sanding, if the edge irritates you now it will keep on irritating you!
Oh no wheredoes! That's a pain... can they be sorted out?
We've had a similarly bad day! Last night we had a 4 courses high brick wall which was exciting and looked great(we thought) However, this morning when the bricklayer had done another few layers it became obvious that they were the wrong colour bricks and were much paler than the rest of the house After a lot of toing and froing and trying to get the boss on the phone, someone came to look, agreed with us and told the brickie to take it all down! Bloke went to get new sample bricks which I'm desperately hoping are right... All a bit depressing to be honest, no-one's happy and I could just cry! Aaaaagh!

Oh no to wonky windows and the wrong bricks. It sounds like a bad day for the thread.
We have a roof that's tiled at last but work has stalled inside as the plasterer has taken ill and there's nothing else can be done till they're done.
We are 8 weeks today I think and we should be finished or thereabouts. At the moment I'm thinking it'll be a good 3 weeks longer.

@gleegeek how annoying however good that they agree the bricks need to change. @Noroof progress sounds great, the end is in sight!

In our extension world good news in that we finally signed with the builder we have been negotiating with for 4 weeks. Yay! Bad news in that start date now pushed back 5 weeks as we missed the earlier slot. Boo. Am feeling v downhearted. Disproportionately so. Tell me it won't make any difference in the long run and having over a year between planning permission and build start is fine please!!

@Italianna, the delayed start may mean less rain and mud. The grass might not get damaged as much as it stops growing soon anyway. At least you have a builder now. Enjoy the dust free-ness for an extra 5 weeks!

We've also had a roller coaster day. Good worktop day. They are done. New Dad had another go at the join on bbar and looks better. But not as good as the extra waterfall edge we put in once we realised how much extra Minerva we had. It's practically invisible! I don't know why but we still have quite a lot of Minerva left. Annoying as we have to store it or maybe sell it.

But the down side is we had a leak from boiler on Mon. The builders tried to deny it was their fault but they had told us the night before we had a small leak that was there before. But when I looked in the morning (and I could kick myself for not looking earlier!) it was flooded. And they had put a bucket under this leak they said was small and not to do with them. HMMM!!! Anyway, it was fixed. And I thought it was ok but it seems the water might have been trapped under the worktops that were stored there and as a result our wooden floor has warped and been damaged. ARRRGH!!

OH is going to have a word in the am but it is stressing me out as they had denied it when I spoke to them on Monday.

My re-occurring worry about them not finishing is sky high just now. I have images of them throwing a hissy fit and not returning!!