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.

Hi all and thanks @SheriffCallie and @LivingInABuildingSite (can I have your name btw when you're done )

I wasn't clear but the architect did the diagrams for planning permission, then more did a more detailed version which has things like lighting and door plans. From that point a structural engineer worked on the structural stuff and gave us one set of plans with high-level calcs and a super long doc for building regs.

The problem is that we don't know what we've to do with anything - do we submit the building regs, does the builder? What do builders need to quote? (I've sent them everything and my noddy doc summarising stuff).

I could get the architect to do the tender docs but he doesn't seem bothered to do the mundane work and takes weeks and much chasing to reply to any query we have.

Basically I'm asking if there's a website explaining how these projects work!!

Re website - I don’t know but there should be!

I feel I’ve been living in a building site for ever now! Started with a loft extension back in maybe 2017? I’ve lost track. Had a ‘temporary’ wooden wall across the back of the original house for nearly 3 years.

But hey, the upstand for the roof lantern is in and the surveyor for that and the bifolds is coming tomorrow morning!
Am a bit stressed about floor levels and bifolds fitting when they finally arrive but builders reassure me it’ll be fine….

Something else is going in today but I’ve forgotten the name, need to find out and find out what it is! Useless knowledge to be ditched when it’s all over apart from crosswords I’m sure.

Back to summerhouse painting!

I remembered - firrings!
Aka Angled wood bits to give the flat roof its fall for rainwater.
Could come in handy one day….😂

Our architect did original plans and also submitted to planning.

We used those for the builder quotes.

Then the structural engineer at the architects did the big document with all the calcs which I sent to the builder.

The builder recommended a building control person (I thin this the same as building regs) and they looked at structural calcs document and have also been the one to sign off stages

The chimney breast in the room of doom is finally finally gone. Steel should come tomorrow and then we might get some joists. I’m absolutely sick of this view

Electrician and plumber are coming tomorrow and it’s Sod’s law that I have to actually go to the office so DH is in charge. I’ve done some seriously detailed plans for him

Scaffolding started going up today. Eeeek! It is starting. Our builder will start sometime end of next week or the week after. Allover a sudden I'm feeling on edge, nervous about the whole process.

Hi @Callmejudith - thanks for that advice. That's exactly what I've been doing so I feel somewhat relieved. Did you get many quotes from the builder?
I hated when we had the temporary supports in - it freaked me out and I was convinced the floor was more bouncy above it

@Notyetthere that's super exciting!

@NewHouseNewMe we had 5 builders to look and 3 gave us quotes.

Please may I ask you all to pray that DH doesn't muck up the meeting with the electrician and plumber today....we spent 2 hours going over it last night. He just has to explain a drawing.

Ok I’m raging. I’ve been in the office yesterday and today and DH has been liaising with the builders. The difference between how they treat me and him is extraordinarily. I’ve been chasing them for weeks and weeks and he says one thing and they jump

@Callmejudith

Ok I’m raging. I’ve been in the office yesterday and today and DH has been liaising with the builders. The difference between how they treat me and him is extraordinarily. I’ve been chasing them for weeks and weeks and he says one thing and they jump

How frustrating @Callmejudith, sexism is alive and well I'm afraid.

I discounted one builder when he kept ignoring me and talking just to DH, despite DH knowing diddly squat about anything. I knew I couldn't work with anyone like that!

@NewHouseNewMe

Hi all and thanks *@SheriffCallie and @LivingInABuildingSite* (can I have your name btw when you're done )

I wasn't clear but the architect did the diagrams for planning permission, then more did a more detailed version which has things like lighting and door plans. From that point a structural engineer worked on the structural stuff and gave us one set of plans with high-level calcs and a super long doc for building regs.

The problem is that we don't know what we've to do with anything - do we submit the building regs, does the builder? What do builders need to quote? (I've sent them everything and my noddy doc summarising stuff).

I could get the architect to do the tender docs but he doesn't seem bothered to do the mundane work and takes weeks and much chasing to reply to any query we have.

With building regs, whoever submits them, you as the owner are ultimately responsible so look into the options. You have two options, council or private. You can get your entire plans signed off at the start, then get BC to check as you go to sign off certain stages (foundations etc) - called full plans approval. Pros and cons to council vs private, research and see what you prefer. Your architect should also suggest some structural engineers who will provide calculations for things like steels.

For builders, I would be as explicit as you can. You would not believe what builders don't quote for unless asked (think asking for doors assuming handles and hinges are included except they aren't because you asked for doors only, not hinges and handles!). If you have a tender from the architect that's good but you'll still need to put in a huge amount of input. To save money, you could do this yourself. I basically went around certain rooms listing everything in it (skirting, coving, architrave, radiators, plaster, floor etc) and listed what we wanted them to quote for line by line. Most used this as a template for the quote so I could compare between builders.

I’m amused. DH finally gets why I hate the builder

That's really informative @Sewfrickinamazeballs. You sound so on your game on this one. I find the list of decisions overwhelming at this point. I was sitting looking at B&Q trying to work out the size of skirting board I want for hours..

@Callmejudith Builders are so sexist. The main supervisor annoyed me so much on my last job I gave up talking to him entirely.

Callmejudith- that would have me raging! Luckily our guys know DH knows nothing. They were explicitly told right at the beginning of the loft work not to ask him anything as he didn’t know the answer! And they seem to respect me, I ask lots of questions but learn stuff so they know I’m not useless.

He went off at them once as they were lowering a ceiling for cabling and he thought it would be terrible (old house with high ceilings). They stopped work until I came home and sorted stuff out.
You’d never know now that it’s lower than original.

He comes out to the back like some sort of old gent, looks at things, nods, and goes back indoors 😂

Then asks me what’s happening!

@Sewfrickinamazeballs honestly we have exactly the same kitchen. Fake wooden beams, they've just tiled over the original outside Victorian doors of the kitchen. The light was hooked on one of the fake wooden beams and they had some awful 1970s/1980s picture on the tiles. We had to get the emergency plumber out to sort out the bathroom (dark brown tiles with beige bath!) and he said 'you know someone will buy this when you take it out' 😂

The electrician has disappeared for a few days and hasn't finished. I'm actually not too worried as our light fittings were late anyway but I'm still not 100% convinced that we should have got him so early. I think dp was so freaked out by the electrics he didn't want to take any risks but we will need him to come back when we sort out the rest of the house structurally.

Finally getting the measured survey done next week then we can start talking plans with the architect. It's good that we've had a month in the house as we're starting to get a feel for what we would like where. I am convinced the floors are sloping

Got a quote to refurbish all the sashes - wasn't as bad as I thought but it's all starting to add up!

@Callmejudith sexist builders have no place in this world! Dp is big and builder like so they all love talking to him fgs!

Well this is embarrassing. I cried on the builder this morning. Got there at 9.45 and no one to been seen. Phoned the foreman. No answer.

Then once of the (lovely) labourers turned up with a guy I'd not seen before. This guy told me he was the son of the owner of the whole firm (and nephew of the foreman) and was helping out with the steel. Quickly became clear he had zero clue where the steel was supposed to go and hadn't seen any plans for the house. I completely lost it. I told him that this has been going on for weeks and if this steel isn't in the right place then the entire design is going to fail. I also told him his uncle was completely useless. To be fair he was very good and went straight outside and rung the uncle/foreman who turned up 10 minutes later. I pulled myself together and we have the plan for today and the weekend:

• Put the steel in
• Build the wall for the utility room
• Complete the floor joists for the utility room and kitchen

Then the joiner turned up and we have agreed with him that the upstairs back bedroom where we removed the chimney will be finished by next Thursday so I can start making the kids bedrooms look less like storage warehouses so they can live in them when we come back to the house.

Kitchen fitter is coming at 5pm. I really hope he can do what he needs to do.

If we get to the house later and they haven't done what they've said then DH is going to call the owner of the firm but I'm hoping his son will speak to him in the meantime and tell him how unhappy I am.

I have also realised one of us needs to be at the house at 8am everyday to make sure someone is actually there and working.

I have never had something affect my blood pressure so much.

@Callmejudith have a very large glass of something you fancy! . Poor you! It sounds like you have a plan now though? Do you feel a bit better?

we had the gas engineer round to check the ancient gas fire (not switched on but loads of pipes through the lounge!) to make sure it wasn't poisoning us all. Took him 3 seconds to figure out the gas was already capped . We are starting to clock up a lot of engineers who feel sorry for us. The house is in such a state, everyone is really interested in what we are going to do to it. He was another one who said the picture tiles in the kitchen would fetch some money if we don't damage them when we take them off! (they are horrendous!)

I'm not supposed to be drinking but I'm having one today for sure. I'm really glad DH had to deal with them and now gets how frustrating it is. I think he thought I was overreacting previously.

@StrongArm I want to see the picture tiles!

We had our extension in 2020 and we had a dreadful experience! Builders not turning up, lying to us about costs, lying about insulation they hadn't put in, trying to charge us for things we didn't have, changing our design to suit what they wanted to do!! Taking our money for a certain tile we picked and instead putting cheap black slate effect in. Using plastic piping where copper was specified, turning our hot water up so hot it blistered my hand when I put it under the tap..... not to mention damaging loads of our property and helping themselves to things in my cupboard and making off with lots of my husband's tools! What was meant to take sixteen weeks took nine months in the end and we had to live here through all of it. I was so stressed and upset I almost ended up on medication to cope

@Callmejudith

I'm not supposed to be drinking but I'm having one today for sure. I'm really glad DH had to deal with them and now gets how frustrating it is. I think he thought I was overreacting previously.

@StrongArm I want to see the picture tiles!

I know this too well. DH also thought I was overreacting until I absolutely exploded the day they used my pre schoolers toy broom to sweep up their brick dust! Rather than get their own fucking broom out of their van. I said that was it, I couldn't deal with them and their cheeky tea and coffee orders they barked at me several times a day, couldn't deal with them talking bollocks to my kids and all their CF behaviour. I was going out for the day, just to wander about in the woodland with the kids and dog (in august so lockdown partially lifted last year) and then dropping the dog back to take the kids for lunch. He said very well, he'd handle it, blah blah. He came to the car when we returned from a very late lunch, apologising to me, saying he couldn't believe the cheek and incompetence. I told him they were worse to me. DH stayed home from work one day and thought it was me who had walked through the front door. We couldn't lock our door because the builders had broken the lock by knocking it out of its frame with a piece of steel and they hadn't replaced the door yet. He thought it was me anyway, until he heard almighty banging. Ran downstairs to see two workmen who had let themselves in and decided today was the day they were going to knock an external wall through! It was scheduled for the following week so DH and I could put our furniture somewhere else. They obviously hoped to do it while we weren't there. Dust all over our soft furnishings, one STANDING on our sofa!!! They jumped like they'd been caught burgling the place. Dh went mental, told them to go and get sheeting to cover our furniture, move it out of the way and then knock £400 off the bill for the cleaning we'd need to have on our sofa.

Hi, I'm starting a kitchen extention in 4 weeks, I'm excited and dreading it at the same time.
Builder says it will be finished well in time for Christmas so fingers crossed. Any delays and I'm having a microwave Christmas dinner :)

Callmejudith - 💐 for you, such unnecessary stress. I really hope they stick to the plan now!

strongArm - that reminds me of a time we got a gas engineer to talk about putting in a fire in the chimney, only for him to point out the chimney breast was purely decorative and we had no fireplace really 🙄😂

The ply has started going down on the roof, and around the upstand for the roof lantern. The roofer guy is really nice (sorry!) and hopefully will get it all closed in next week. Will feel really dark until the glasswork gets put in.

Which leads me to my frustration of the week (well apart from PIL coming yet again for a visit, sigh) - I asked the windows guy over and over about possible delays, no worries he said, standard 6-8 weeks, made in this country so no problems.

Finally get the surveyor round, approve the survey, different guy rings today and says he’ll let me know when they know how long it’ll be…i query the 6-8wks, he says maybe, could be 12. (4th Dec!)

Christmas is rushing up at me, with a building site still looking likely! Hmph.
Started in April.

Much wine to be had tonight 🍷

On a brighter note, I’ve done enough of the summerhouse painting inside to put a Freecycle armchair in for DD. And ordered more paint to finish the last bits inside, and then the outside to do.