Extension / loft conversion thread 2020

[missfliss]

Hello,

Thought I'd start a thread for 2020 extenders and converters.

Might be good for us each time say a bit about what works we have planned / are in the midst of if folks are happy to share some / al details.

Current house:
1970s semi with 2.5 (!) bedrooms on South Coast ( Sussex).
Single storey extension ( large kitchen / diner with bifolds) was completed in 2013.

Planned works
Loft conversion with full width rear dormer and small front dormer to create a new master bedroom with large bathroom.

Stage
Planning permission received, builder appointed to start in March

Costs
Build is £60k including VAT. Bathroom / decor extra.
It is a double dormer with aluminium sliding doors to rear and lots of pipe work due to siting the new bathroom at the opposite end to the existing bathroom below.
It's more than expected but we have non-standard plans and are doing the work to stay in the house for years as opposed to maximising profit to sell.

Reasons for doing work
An adult space to hide away and relax!
Also our son has additional needs and we may need to use au pairs in the future ( new room needed). As our son gets older he may need to live with us into adulthood

Plans
Attached

Next steps
Party wall agreement
Deciding on bathroom fittings / flooring within budget

..."we" had a hole in the tub.

Looking at the picture, it actually doesn't look too bad. But when you stood on the wet patch, you were sinking in.
Before and after picture. I absolutely love our bathroom. Between the tub and the sink is space for a changing table which is so handy. Currently I'm washing my dishes there as well

Have some minor collateral damage - water marks to the ceiling in my sons room and some cracks in the rooms below at the wall / ceiling line.

Other than that good progress here - here's our new dormer

We start on Monday!! Excited and a bit nervous at what will be revealed with the demolition portion of events!

We have a start date of 20th April for our extension and I'm wondering whether to push it back to the Autumn in light of the coronavirus. Am really worried about not having a home (we will be living in the house with temp kitchen) if we are ill or if the builders get ill. Is anyone else with an extension due to start having similar concerns?

Hi, bit of a lurker here looking for some advice! We have had planning permission granted for a two storey extension and garage conversion. We used quite ‘premium’ architects as we had previous relationship with them and live in an conservation area they specialise in.
Anyway, we are now getting ready for the next stage of building regs plans. We have structural engineers ready to go. I have gone back to the architect to quote for the building reg plans and have been quoted £6.5k!!!! Plus £2.5k for sanitation plans. Plus an extra £1k for the CDM principal designer role.

From my research this seems massively expensive and so we will need to look at other architects for this stage. Does anyone have experience of changing architects?
And what is the usual way to handle the principal designer role of CDM?
Feeling totally out of my depth to be honest and any friendly feedback would be amazing! Xx

Wow yes very pricey

Hi @Vigorouspigeon my brother is an architect and he did the original plans for ours. But was not based in the U.K. and wasn't well placed to do the building regs. We found a local firm that did them for about £1.5k for a two storey extension. You do need the permission of the original architect normally to use the drawings/files.

That’s much more what I had in mind! Was the building regs architect also your cdm principal architect?

Sorry posted too soon, I think our architect for design, planning drawings, building regs drawings and builders pack was £3k in total + £600 for some extra structural calculations. We have a lot of steel going in. No experience of changing company mind sorry.

@Vigorouspigeon I'm afraid I have no idea what a cdm principal architect is! I don't think we have one?

Thanks! Neither do I
I think we are going to start quotes with builders and then take their advice on how to get from where we are now to the start of building work

@newyorky09 we're worried about that too. Groundworks going on at the moment and due to knock through external walls in maybe 3-4 weeks. All it takes us for a couple of their guys to have to self-isolate and we could be left very exposed. Not to mention the supply chain for building materials potentially collapsing.

I'm not sure what option we have though except offering to pay them to do nothing! Have to just bash on.

Yes, I'm worried.
It would be good to at least close the house off (roof, windows, close all the holes in the floor) before a forced break.

We have an (almost) completed block and beam floor. Our builder thinks we will be at knock through stage and losing the use of my kitchen in 2 weeks.
I think we will just take it week by week and hope to keep going as long as possible. We are doing staged payments so not worried about losing money but being open to the elements if our builder or anyone that works for him has to self isolate.

Good builders will design the process in a way that allows the project to be sealed to the elements daily at the end of each working day and probably best to ask builders upfront what plans they would make should a project have to pause at any stage.

I'm accepting that there will be delays to goods and services but just plodding along until then.

@newyorky09. We are worried too. We have walls going up atm and should be at knock through stage in 4 weeks. To be honest I would have delayed starting if I had known originally. We are just taking it day by day and hoping to get the extrnsion water tight. Another concern is that our new kitchen is coming from germany and we don't want to risk taking our old one out when the new one might not arrive.

We are thinking we might move out and rent somewhere at knock through stage now as children will be at home and it will be hard to isolate from the builders.

How are all the folks doing? Our builders still working away and have made amazing progress. They have assured us that if a lock down happens the site will be watertight and secured - I'm actually glad to have them around as I'm WAH and it's getting a bit weird being here all day on my own .
My son has SEN and my husband teaches in a SEN school and so we don't know if today's announcement applies yet - fun times eh:

@missfliss
We are taking it day by day too. We are going to try and get to knock through stage then take it from there.
I also have a child with SEN and working in a SEN school so waiting to hear what applies to us.
My husband is a self employed painter so is very quiet at the moment so childcare might fall on him if I'm still required to go in!

We’ve just started - it might be rather bad timing, but we’ve been planning for nearly 2 years.

So far I think the builders have mainly devalued it. It’s quite scary as putting it all back together is a big job. We’re in a rental so really don’t want it to drag on. Our builder is optimistic though which at least helps my mood.

@minniemooblue sounds so similiar ! Best of luck all the builders and renovators on this thread. What weird times eh!

We're due to start next week, parts of the house have been cleared and put into storage and half of the kitchen will be knocked down giving us a box room of a kitchen... not heard from the builders. They're only round the corner and will want to get stuck in I imagine. It's just materials I presume may be the problem when places close

They have started this morning, I can hear chipping and knocking about as I type! Skip arriving soon and mini digger on Monday. Hope they get this bit done....fortunately we can be secured pretty easily....ho hum, even more dramatic than a normal build. I've no idea when to order the new appliances either...

We are very much in the thick of it. Steels going in and soon to knock through. I have my fingers crossed builders stay healthy and supply chains ok. We are in a rental but the owners (who live in New Zealand) are putting it on the market - while I think it's unlikely to sell it makes me a bit anxious if the build gets delayed much!

So we are plodding along, foundations signed off and it's starting to get out the ground. Worried it looks really small but my husband assures me this is normal . Hope you are all well.

hello everyone! We are fingers crossed getting the big sliding glass doors up into the loft on monday - they are 3.5m wide so a tricky job for the builders...fingers crossed all goes ahead as planned