Is there a 2021 extension thread?

[Yellownotblue]

Just that really, I found it very informative (and exhilarating and at times heart breaking!) to read the 2020 extension threads. I couldn’t find a 2021 extension thread. Please can you direct me, or if there isn’t one, let’s start it! All welcome.

As for us - we’re awaiting PP for our extension and our architect said the work might start as early as March (ha! I’ll believe it when I see it). It’s a large extension and we will need to move out for about 9 months so I’m a bit flustered at the thought of moving out in 7 weeks’ time. We’re extending over the garage, in the garden and in the loft, and doing a shedload of other stuff from electrics to roofing and redecorating everything. We’re in SW London.

@Callmejudith The builder we are thinking of booking is a one man band who will bring in people to assist where required so I doubt he has spare materials knocking about. We do have a covered 3m wide yard to the full length to the side of our house so we could definitely use to store materials if we started ordering them now though. Even his roofer mentioned ordering tiles now if we wanted them in 16 weeks.

@newyorky09 they're from Plank Hardware they are lush

Hope everyone's projects are progressing. I'm finalising the list of things we need to consider ready for builders quotes. One thing was deciding on flooring throughout the downstairs. Was going to ask for a quote for underfloor heating throughout with the aim to fit LVT on top. I got curious, and lifted up the carpet in the living room to find this! Hoping it's still all there and we can save it! Changes the plan somewhat.

@Notyetthere

We have just saved ourselves a nightmare of a builder! He came highly recommended by our designer who also built his loft conversion across the road so we even had sight of his work.

Anyway, I wanted to send dh a link to his website as he wanted to check out other builders including this one who had only responded well with quotes and even completed a site visit. His website wasn't working so I decided to do a little more digging. I checked his personal Facebook and something told me to look at his brothers page. Turns out he seems to have fallen out with his brother and they worked together. His brother has outed him out on Facebook on the local selling pages that he rips people off, and generally a nasty character. Several people then shared their stories too of others being ripped off or of poor workmanship. This was all just last month. He was in the front running with me as I rather liked him when I met him but whether any of this is true or not, we aren't taking any chances.

This has now made me very nervous about which one to pick. Are they all rip off merchants. Aaaahhhhh.

This is my worst nightmare. Thankfully you found out before work started!

@Sewfrickinamazeballs that is gorgeous flooring! Keeping my fingers crossed for you that it covers the rest of the floor. Lots of houses in my road have gorgeous 1960s parquet floors.

We have some walls down and steels in. My son's old room and the playroom have now been knocked through, two more walls to go.

I'm now busy looking at the things we need to buy. I've ordered the Polyflor (like Karndean) for the utility and the cloakroom- our builder will fit so one less thing to organise! Tomorrow I'm going to order the radiators, don't need them yet but there are so many supply issues at the moment that I just want to make sure we have them! Tomorrow I'm going to look at tiles for the new ensuite- we've decided to go for a wet room after the plumber told me they aren't as expensive as I'd feared! Ordered sample doors from DIY Kitchens too so I can decide on the colour for the utility room, then I can get that ordered.

Good luck to everyone going through it, whatever stage you're at.

Hi! Long time lurker, just jumping in for some advice - we had quotes for a (much needed) loft extension in Feb 2020, we decided to put it on hold when the first lockdown kicked in because we were worried about our job security. Thankfully jobs were fine so in November 2020 I went back to our preferred company to pay the deposit, they said fine but costs had increased 3% due to increased costs of materials. We agreed it and paid the deposit, and used the time in the interim to save the extra 3% plus what we budgeted for new bathroom and bedroom furniture. Work was due to start this week but I couldn't get a firm answer on the start date which made me nervous. Yesterday I got an email saying they were having huge issues with the cost of materials, were working at an unsustainable loss on jobs due to honouring quotes from last year, and would have to adjust our cost by an amount 'tbc' - they said additional costs were in the 4k region but they would absorb some of that. I have tried to ring a few times today and can't get through.
The way I see it, if we pull out, we're going to go on someone else's waiting list and costs will keep increasing anyway, so I want to proceed as we're so close to starting, but I feel a bit held over a barrel. Also the job length is 6-8 weeks and I can't save another £4k in 8 weeks so I'll have to put it on credit which is a further cost.
Feel a bit lost!

Sew - that floor is so beautiful - what a find!

Wejammin - did you sign a contract when you put down the deposit? I'm not sure what I would do tbh though I'd probably end up paying the excess just to get the job started.

I bought a box file today for all my samples - exciting!

We’ve just commissioned a structural engineer for our ground floor extension and loft conversion. He has said we need a tree survey for the foundation design showing all trees within 30m. Has anyone else had to do this? There are no trees larger than an apple tree in the vicinity so hoping to avoid needing to pay a professional arborist to tell us what we already know. However I haven’t been able to find much information about what’s required, and whether we can practically do it ourselves.

We didn't have to do that for either our loft or extension, and there are quite a few trees in the vicinity.

I have spent at least four hours looking at pendant lamps today

Sew, what a find. That floor is gorgeous. And hopefully saves you a few £££ in flooring.
Wejammin, it sounds like building prices are going up and up. Going elsewhere may not be any cheaper? I’d probably just bite the bullet and pay the increase, though my husband would be on the side of shopping around. I anticipate many frustrating discussions around this issue once we start our build 😳.
Ice, we have a few trees close to our house and no one has mentioned a tree survey, and it didn’t come up when we did a lift extension a few years ago either.

I’m still lurking. Our plans finally got passed after we amended them to take away the upstairs lounge. Architect is currently working on detailed plans for the rear (infill) extension and removal of some internal walls to make a larger open plan space, once we have these we can start to get quotes. Am both excited and nervous 😬.

I received my planning permission yesterday - woo hoo. I was worried because the neighbours had objected but the planners are happy.

I've booked an appt with Magnet next week to kick start the kitchen planning.

Due to finances, I think I want the builder to do the foundations, build the box, do 1st fix for all utilities and plaster. I can then buy and get the kitchen fitted then source the flooring. Does that sound right or should I be doing it differently?

@wejammin I'm afraid prices are mental!

I also locked in a fixed price contract with my builder in November (though no deposit) and he had the foresight to order most of the timber etc before Christmas.

He has had to ask for extra money for the roof and the timber cladding which he would never normally do, but he couldn't order them in advance (the larch would warp) and to be fair I've verified 3rd party that timber and steel have both increased at least 30%. Luckily our increased costs are only £1k (on a £150k job) so far and there are very few things where we are left exposed.

We persinally ordered a steel joist the other day, was virtually no money and they would only hold the quote for 24 hours because the market is that mental. I am currently eternally grateful that despite massive delays there was no increased costs on my steel stilts and that my windows (even though they have been ordered over a year after my first quote) haven't changed much in price.

I don't think its reasonable to hold your builder to their quote in November (and that is not something I would ever normally say) but I do think you have to both absorb some of the costs and I'd be asking for a very detailed breakdown of the increase.

I don't know if yoy initially tendered, but if you did and the current builder was reasonable then I can't imagine a brand new quote will be cheaper as everyone will be increasing mark up to cover themselves against further increases. Also can't imagine you'll even start the work for another year!

Structural engineer is popping round on Friday to complete his site visit of the loft before he submits his calculations and beam sizes for BR.

At the moment the designer has put two steels in with a small one over the hallway and another along the back supporting the dormer and the rest of the roof above. We are not having a ridge beam since we have enough structural walls downstairs to take the load transfer from the joist. I had a chat with our builder earlier in the week and he mentioned that we might not even need the large steel under the dormer. We will, however, need this steel when we get to do the downstairs extension in a few years time. I think our designer felt that we can get it done now whilst the loft is being converted and get it out of the way but our builder said what if life happens and you never get round to doing the downstairs extension? We will have spent a fair few thousands getting this beam installed and the mess downstairs that will require a lot of making good since no walls are getting knocked down downstairs. Our builder was in the mind that once you come to doing the downstairs, we can then worry about how we support the upstairs depending on which walls we knock down. Definitely a chat to be had with our structural engineer and designer. Might invite the builder as he only lives 2 minutes away.

@Notyetthere

Structural engineer is popping round on Friday to complete his site visit of the loft before he submits his calculations and beam sizes for BR.

At the moment the designer has put two steels in with a small one over the hallway and another along the back supporting the dormer and the rest of the roof above. We are not having a ridge beam since we have enough structural walls downstairs to take the load transfer from the joist. I had a chat with our builder earlier in the week and he mentioned that we might not even need the large steel under the dormer. We will, however, need this steel when we get to do the downstairs extension in a few years time. I think our designer felt that we can get it done now whilst the loft is being converted and get it out of the way but our builder said what if life happens and you never get round to doing the downstairs extension? We will have spent a fair few thousands getting this beam installed and the mess downstairs that will require a lot of making good since no walls are getting knocked down downstairs. Our builder was in the mind that once you come to doing the downstairs, we can then worry about how we support the upstairs depending on which walls we knock down. Definitely a chat to be had with our structural engineer and designer. Might invite the builder as he only lives 2 minutes away.

Sounds like a tricky decision. I can see the logic both ways. Personally, I'd get as much messy stuff done as quickly as possible. You might be thankful for having this but done later on. Would this benefit outweigh the mess now?

Our SE calculations are all back. One annoying thing is we are ending up with a beam across the stairs at the bottom. This is opposite a double height window. Not the end of the world, as it supports the bathroom in the extended bit but not what I had in my head. SE says it will be at ceiling height so should be fine to walk under.

At this point, I just want to get a builder lined up and have something starting.

Our house is 1960, and not much has been done to it since then. It's really getting to me now. Any improvements will be amazing to what it currently is.

I’m not sure where all these shortages are ? I’ve just spent a few thousand getting materials timber, cladding ,cedar, pvc fascia etc , blocks,sand cement , aluminium gutting and so on and just went to all my usual places and had no issues getting any of it.
The prices of some may have increased slightly but it always does ( except sand and cement that never changes ) Definitely not by 30% though.

@Chumleymouse

I’m not sure where all these shortages are ? I’ve just spent a few thousand getting materials timber, cladding ,cedar, pvc fascia etc , blocks,sand cement , aluminium gutting and so on and just went to all my usual places and had no issues getting any of it. The prices of some may have increased slightly but it always does ( except sand and cement that never changes ) Definitely not by 30% though.

You sound like my builder . I talked to him about this and he was like you are ok, we can still get hold of materials, slightly pricier but they are available.

He lives in the road next to ours and he is currently converting his loft so I asked him why he used the charcoal coloured cladding instead of tile hung to match the roof on his dormers. He said the cladding was cheaper and the lead time wasn't long. We plan to use the concrete roof tiles for our dormer as we are going down the permitted development route and he we ought to order these asap to meet the lead times. So it looks like it could be the concrete related materials that might be difficult to procure.

@Sewfrickinamazeballs Ideally we would have wanted to do both loft and downstairs at the same time but we really can't afford to do both. We do however need more bedrooms so we are going for loft conversion first.

When the designer suggested we get the beam in with the loft conversion, he did not indicate the disruption it would create but the builder pointed out the areas that would be broken out to fit it and it does look very disruptive in the livingroom, diningroom and our only bathroom at the moment. Also our budget is already tight so cutting out items that aren't actually required for the loft itself will help our budget tremendously.

We have in the past actually uttered the words of as long as we have enough bedrooms, if we never get to do the downstairs then it won't be too bad. The work we want to do downstairs is mostly wants than need - turn our kitchen into an ensuite and dressing room for the master bedroom and an extension for the kitchen diner.

Just thought I'd update since it's all gone a bit quiet now!

The extension is up, roof is on, soffits, fascia and guttering on. All walls that need to be knocked down are down and steels/lintels in as required. Boiler has been moved to the new utility room and all the plasterboard has been done upstairs and a new airing cupboard has been built up in the new spare room (never had one in this house as it was removed to make a new entrance into a room). Screed for the downstairs is going in next week and the builder says it should be a lot quieter from now on.

Windows haven't arrived yet, builders ordered them from 7 day windows about three weeks ago so builders are still accessing the extension from the outside- all the doors from the rest of the house have been boarded over and they board over the windows and door in the extension each night (they haven't done the floor upstairs so they can use a ladder or the scaffolding to go between floors). That means it hasn't been too disruptive really for us so far and very little dust in the house other than cat footprints!

We shouldn't have too many extra costs. We've added a couple of extra things to the spec over the quote (cladding the edge of the balcony and rendering the porch) so there will be extra costs there. The plumber the builders are using is going to do our ensuite and we've decided to go for a wet room style. So we're really pleased with how it's all going so far.

Builders have said we chose a good time to build- he ordered all the materials back in Jan/Feb and costs have rocketed since then. He said some of the wood has gone up 50%, lintels up 30%, steels are up too and concrete has increased in price too. He's had to go to the next job and say that he needs to increase the price as costs have gone up so much- first time he's ever had to do it.

Good to hear your progress! We've paused on ours due to the fact increase in price. We've decided to switch our plans, decorate the parts of the house not affected by the extension first. Thankfully we're in a 4 bed detached so plenty of space, we just can't do the kitchen/lounge and bathroom until post extension.

Sorry you've had to pause things Baxdream, costs are indeed going crazy at the moment.

We went upstairs into the knocked through rooms for the first time yesterday, it's amazing to see the rooms as they are going to be. Windows arrived finally, plumber has put the pipe work in for the radiators and the electrician has been moving sockets and adding spotlights etc.

Rooms should be plastered next week, really feels like it's all starting to come together and is on track to be finished by mid July.

@Baxdream

Good to hear your progress! We've paused on ours due to the fact increase in price. We've decided to switch our plans, decorate the parts of the house not affected by the extension first. Thankfully we're in a 4 bed detached so plenty of space, we just can't do the kitchen/lounge and bathroom until post extension.

Sorry to hear you are paused. We are in a 2 bed bungalow and our plans were for a loft conversion to give us 4 beds and a downstairs kitchen diner utility extension. Our finances, at a push will only enable us to do loft or the downstairs. We picked loft as we need more bedrooms. Loft is more of a need and the downstairs is a 'want'. We can live with the current kitchen dining space.

Like you we have already decorated the spaces that wont be affected by the building work.

We too have some progress here but still at the quoting stage.

Our mortgage application is still with the bank. They did tell us it would take 10-12 weeks for application, we are in week 6 so we shall leave that to tick along quietly in the background.

We have our builder's quote. He is just finishing off his own loft round the corner from us. We will be using his scaffolder (waiting for quote) and his roofer (waiting for quote). Scaffolder was here earlier this week and roofer is popping round tomorrow to have a look and hopefully quote next week.

We plan to also use our own plumber as he has done a few jobs here for us. It also happened to be that our hot water tank developed a fault last week so we are working off the immersion heater for now. We are having the tank replaced in August with unvented one which doesn't need the cold water tanks currently in the way in the loft. We are waiting for a quote on plumbing the rest of the loft with radiators and bathroom fit out.

One thing I have found that because our main builder is actually a carpenter whose work we have seen on several loft conversions, we have had to bring in all the separate trades and a couple of them are small self employed that they don't turnover the £85k required for VAT so a small saving there but also need to be careful with small business that they have the liquidity to not go under before they finish a job. Some items will definitely be put on credit card to ensure if that business goes under we can recoup some of the costs.

And lastly, whilst we are converting the loft under permitted development, today we applied for a Certificate of Lawful Development just to cover our arses.

Excited Notyetthere!

We are 4 weeks away from starting. Our neighbours (renting) are refusing to let the party wall surveyor in - sigh. They have also asked to keep dust to a minimum but I have no idea how that is possible!

I have also just hired a skip for the week before we start so we can have a huge clear our.

Our latest kitchen render is very pleasing to me right now