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

Thanks for the article missfliss, very interesting.

We have walls to first floor now so getting a feel for the size of the space.

We have no builders about until the end of the week. They can't do anything more until the roof trusses arrive and there was a longer lead time 😫

We've had an appointment through for our daughters surgery in September which means a routine 14 day isolation prior. The builders need to get a wiggle on or we'll be moving out (somewhere; who knows where 🙈) for about 3 weeks as we can't afford to stop them for 3 weeks.

Thought you on-going builders could do with a laugh...
(Remember I'm the one who took the piss out of my builder for complaining that the new window I'd supplied didn't fit the gap left after they bricked up the bottom half of the old back door...He was trying to put it in Portrait instead of Landscape)

Six months on, my only regret about new kitchen is that I didn't choose a fancy pull out swishy rinsing tap. Our new sinks are very square and flat bottom so tea dregs and grot doesn't drain away.
I'd just about decided to bite the bullet and shell out for a new fancy swishy tap and installation costs...

Bloke come round today to do regular 6 month filter change of water softener. I ask him to check that builder installed it correctly (Hint - he didn't)
He's about to leave and pours the remainder of his tea into sink and then RINSES THE SINK BY PULLING OUT THE END OF THE TAP AND SWISHING THE SINK!
Turns out I had a fancy pull out swishy tap all along...

@WhereDoesThisToiletGo this is hilarious... though now I'm worried we don't have a fancy pull out swishy tap!

@bez91 ah that's really tough and sounds stressful. Hope the builder and the supplies get a move on.

Thanks for the carpet guide @missfliss!

@birdbrained I spent so long debating double sinks... 50/50 or 30/70 etc that when the designer asked what type of tap I wanted I just said You choose and he recommended one that the manufacturer had on special offer.
Unfortunately muppet plumber installed the hidden hose bit of tap wrapped round the undersink pipework so it only pulls out about 3 inches. Water softener man is coming back to sort that out when he has more time

Ahh, I missed this. We finally moved in a couple of weeks ago and instantly lost internet for a week! Still haven't finished unpacking (office is stacked like the final scene in Raider of the lost Ark), there still hardboard covering most of the floor and we only got a front door a few days ago. Bifolds have been taken out, switched round and replaced, this time with glass, we have no worktops to the kitchen which was also only completed over the weekend. Our builders have basically got most of it done and now fucked off to another job leaving the finishing to be done at some point. In the meantime we can't unpack or finish decorating. On that front I have 'decorators claw' lol been oiling interior doors recently, but got the big lounge done bar the door frames so we at least can relax a bit in there.
Good to be in, better to be finished at some point...

Mind if I join in this thread? I wish I’d known about it earlier! Everyone’s projects look amazing - much more glam than ours but I don’t know anyone else who’s doing works really at the moment so it’d be nice to ask some questions as they arise.

We are in a 3 bed detached bungalow, it’s got a large footprint And the whole of the loft space is useable, so we are doing the whole shebang - long shed dormer on The back for the landing, raising a bit of the roof at the front for an extra bedroom and doing a hip to gable. No dormers at the front as planning permission was denied and what they offered us would have lost us a bedroom. So we can fit 4 doubles up there with one en-suite and then a family bathroom as well as a good sized, if slightly wonky shaped storage cupboard. We were shocked at the price (90k) But similar across different builders so have saved up our pennies And just going for it. We have no money for anything “nice” or fancy features, I’d have love to have put in fancy veluxes (what is the plural?!) But alas, just happy to be gaining the space. We’re a family of 5 so really feel like we need it!

My husband seems to think that there won’t be much dust because they’re doing it all upstairs and they won’t knock through for ages. Is he in cloud cookoo land?!

Jeb your husband is definitely delusional! It gets everywhere. We have first batch of plasterboard on ceiling and the outside rendered. Bi-folds are being fitted tomorrow!!!

@loofah01 I've been waiting for you to sashay back in triumphantly with your paintbrush held aloft! Sorry that you're not quite finished, but sure it won't be far off.

Sounds like quite an impressive project @Jeb86, welcome! But yes 😂 to the thought of no dust...

Whoop, great progress @Pashazade!

Plasterers making progress here... but still holding our breath for windows...

Dust gets everywhere. I could even taste it some days!

Really slow progress here. Feel like we have only seen our builder for a day and a half over the last 2 weeks!
But flooring and our sliding doors should be fitted/started tomorrow.

Oh dear. I feared as much. What are your top tips for managing it? Did you tape up cupboards etc? Or are you all sensible enough to not be living in at the same time?!😵🙈

Yup dust... There will be lots, we currently have much dust. My new kitchen and coat store is taking shape...

@Jeb86 If you care about it, put it in a bag and seal it up with duck tape

www.amazon.co.uk/Plastic-Polythene-Protector-Removal-Storage/dp/B013I3YWHM/ref=mp_s_a_1_11?dchild=1&keywords=furniture+bags&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&qid=1595370192&sr=8-11

We put two sofas and a piano in bags when we took the back of the house off.

a) never underestimate the pervasiveness of dust
b) never underestimate how oblivious builders are to dust and mess.

Even if you have brilliant builders, you need to take on the responsibility of protecting the rest of the house and belongings. There was one poster here who spent the weekend with her husband cleaning the first and second floors of their house, then on Monday the builders sanded down all the kitchen paintwork or plaster or something and left the kitchen door open so that the house was full of dust!

@birdbrained, oh to sashay! It's basically still a building site and getting ever more acrimonious with the builders. We just want a few jobs finished off but they couldn't give a toss. After finally getting him to answer a call, I've organised a small job today that means we can decorate and unpack into the hallways - it's only a small (and I mean tiny) bit of plasterboard and plastering around the new front door.
Another company is coming today to fit the worktops!!
Just had a call that an engineer is coming at same time to look at the fridge which is making weird noises... Busy days.
Might post pics if I get anything finished off

Oh dear oh dear oh dear. I shall invest heavily in some duct tape and plastic sheeting I think, give the children one box of toys to play with at a time etc. We’re such a messy family, just stuff everywhere, now it’ll be dusty stuff everywhere. And looks like it will be up to me to do it as I told DH about packing books away and he just rolled his eyes! Argh! Ah well. Still excited to get on with it (I’m sure I’ll join the fed up ranks eventually)

@Loofah01 have you kept back final payment until you’re 100% happy? I remember doing this with a kitchen and bathroom refit and I was dog jar I did because of all the snags and I don’t think they’d have bothered if we didn’t owe him 10k!

*so glad I did.., (dog jar?!? Wtf?!)

@jeb86 zip up dust doors are surprisingly effective considering how cheap they are. An experienced poster recommended them to my enduring gratitude. I think she was having a loft conversion done and she put them on all the first floor bedrooms and posted a picture describing it as her "CSI set up"

@Jeb86 yep, we owe him around 30k so you'd think he'd be quick to finish the project off with these small jobs. Really just want the messier trades finished up, which they almost are...

@Loofah01 sorry to hear your builders are being awful. Why do they do it to themselves?! You’ll never recommend them now, a total own goal.

We now have all the steels in on the ground floor. I can at least see what it’s going to be like, well kind of.

CN (crazy neighbour) has been causing a few issues, but not as bad as a friend. They got an ASBO on theirs!

@Jeb86
I’m afraid dust gets into sealed rooms. Goodness knows how, but it does. Your husband’s optimism is sweet, but delusional

So just inspected the doors, they are fabulous! Also discovered my builder has been stashing plaster in his shed! So we're sorted for the rest of our build at least. Is anyone still having plaster acquisition issues?

@Pashazade that's good news and forward thinking! I've been pushing my builder about ordering plaster. He said he's waiting as they'll be nowhere to store it (as roof yet to go on) I've told him it can stay in my bedroom if it means we'll have some 😂

Howdy all. Not a lot happening here. We now have electricity up there. Yay!
Decorator starts next week. There's a huge amount to paint. Woodwork, skirting as, bannisters 2 flights of stairs, hallway, landing, ceilings, 8 doors, bathroom and bedroom.

After that we have flooring to go down and then plumbing to finish - then furniture and curtains

We started our extension last Wednesday.
We are building a double storey side extension and knocking down an existing garage and rebuilding it as a 3rd reception room.

So far the builders have been amazing, they’ve already poured the foundations and are starting the walls tomorrow hopefully. We already went over to the contingency fund as the existing clay drain has a small crack so they decided to just replace it as it would be a bitch to replace once the new floors are installed.

Have just had a chap round to do some more work around the front door - we can finally get that bit plastered (no idea when!) and the hallways decorated... lots of tiny jobs impacting others