House extention

[hhsa]

We are having our house extended at the rear double storey and front single storey. We cannot move out as cant afford 6 months rent. Can anyone share their experience how to survive building work whilst living in the house. Thank you.

@HasaDigaEebowai

Has anyone lived in during a build. What's it like? I have 4 kids uni college secondary and primary school age

As I said, we are currently doing it. It’s awful. We will move out next week for a few weeks over the worst of it. Everything is filthy already and until yesterday they weren’t inside. Tomorrow they’re taking down a solid wall. I’m not looking forward to it at all.

It's very difficult to move out for few weeks as no one would rent out for short term.

We survived 3 months last year without a kitchen. It helped that it was in the summer and we had a lot of BBQs and made good use of the eat out to help out. We completely sealed off the extension so the dust was not too bad and had normal use of our living room, downstairs cloakroom and playroom. We made the playroom into a temporary kitchen and had a combi oven, toaster, kettle and coffee machine. We kept our American fridge freezer in the hall in front of the door to the extension that was sealed off.

Washing up was done in the downstairs cloakroom. We still had a utility with washing machine but had to access it from the outside through the building site so only tended to use it at the weekend. It was repurposed during the week as the builders refreshment area.

@Africa2go

Hi we did a double storey extension and quite a bit of refiguring of the space - we had a front sitting room, 1 main bedroom and 1 single room that weren't touched - everything else was included in the building works.

Family of 5 (3 primary school children at them time). Ours took about 6 months and we lived here throughout. If we could have rented somewhere locally cheaply, I would have done that - but we were looking at in excess of £10k plus a 2nd lot of bills and it was just too much. I don't think living here slowed the build down at all, I was usually on hand to ask questions / check things / point out issues that could be solved quickly. I think as long as you have good builders, it shouldn't matter.

Kitchen - we had a slow cooker / George Foreman / microwave for meals, had made & frozen lots of meals beforehand (plus takeaways, obviously!). Also had one of those little plug in single rings which was very handy. Just had to be organised and a bit more inventive! Washing up in the bath wasn't as much fun!!

Yes to the dirt and dust, it will get everywhere even if you have dust sheets taped to doors etc. Include a new hoover in your budget, you'll wreck the one you have. We also rented a storage unit - so all our furniture, other than the essentials went into storage to protect it, along with lots of kitchen stuff etc.

It was worth it in the end!

This is what I was thinking its difficult to rent as not affordable with already building expense. Thanks for your suggestions. We have a storage unit within a mile so was thinking of that option. Also kitchen essentials like fridge. Microwave toaster kettle can be set in living room.

It's a total pain but you can do it.

We put on a double storey side extension when I had twins aged 1 and a DD aged 2!! We didn't move out.

All kinds of dust, portable kitchen in lounge while other one was ripped out, washed up in the bath, made do with a bucket for a toilet for a few days

Oh happy days...

@HasaDigaEebowai

Has anyone lived in during a build. What's it like? I have 4 kids uni college secondary and primary school age

As I said, we are currently doing it. It’s awful. We will move out next week for a few weeks over the worst of it. Everything is filthy already and until yesterday they weren’t inside. Tomorrow they’re taking down a solid wall. I’m not looking forward to it at all.

I hope it goes well for you. We will be having all rear wall removed. Have they built your new wall and done the roof before taking down the old wall?

@BouquetsAndBalls

It's a total pain but you can do it.

We put on a double storey side extension when I had twins aged 1 and a DD aged 2!! We didn't move out.

All kinds of dust, portable kitchen in lounge while other one was ripped out, washed up in the bath, made do with a bucket for a toilet for a few days

Oh happy days...

That's given me abit of hope.

We did a side extension over a garage July to September last year all 3 kids at home and 2 office workers who had to WFH throughout. Worst day was when it rained inside our internal garage. We live it was stressful but we managed for 8 weeks.

We did kitchen/ living room extension off the back of our bungalow. 2 preschool children and I was taking the last module of my OU degree.

I wrote my last essay wearing ear defenders in the kitchen/diner while they took the back wall of the room off. Ear defenders will be essential.

Remember it is temporary. Afterwards you will have more room, but in the middle there will be so much less.

We ripped the kitchen out and put most of it in the garage so we still had somewhere to put the plates, cutlery, pots and pans and we had some worktop space.

We had a bucket under the sink and had to empty it out each day as there is no drainage in the garage.

We bought a cheap plug in over and hob and put the fridge freezer in there.

We had a big old kitchen table which was also very helpful.

I even made the Christmas cakes in the garage.

I had to completely clean it before cooking each meal but it worked well.

The washing machine went in the garden with a massive timber board and some tarpaulin over it. The drain went straight into a manhole in the garage. I couldn't manage without that.

Good luck.

@SkiingIsHeaven

We ripped the kitchen out and put most of it in the garage so we still had somewhere to put the plates, cutlery, pots and pans and we had some worktop space.

We had a bucket under the sink and had to empty it out each day as there is no drainage in the garage.

We bought a cheap plug in over and hob and put the fridge freezer in there.

We had a big old kitchen table which was also very helpful.

I even made the Christmas cakes in the garage.

I had to completely clean it before cooking each meal but it worked well.

The washing machine went in the garden with a massive timber board and some tarpaulin over it. The drain went straight into a manhole in the garage. I couldn't manage without that.

Good luck.

Thanks lots of good tips here.

Quick question.

We have a garden room / annexe with a shower room and kitchenette, and then space for a bed, wall mounted electric radiators...

Am I mad for thinking we could live there for three months?! Or until whenever they worst of the side extension is done?

So we are having a full width single story rear extension. Our original small extension was demolished at the very start and that was our kitchen. We have had not kitchen since just after Xmas and it's be no where're near as bad as I expected. There's me and my husband and a 4 and 8 year old. We've probably haven't had the most nutritious meals but we're surviving. I have a makeshift 'kitchen' in my hallway with kettle, microwave air fryer and sang which toaster. It's been noisy at times but nothing horrendous. I think my builders singing is worse.

Every build is different. We had a side return and stayed in the house for the 4 months the work took. We had heating and water as the boiler was located in the loft. The builders sealed everything very well so no dust upstairs. No washing machine was a pain and we setup one of those 7 in 1 multi cookers in another room. We survived.

When we got our bathroom done a few months ago the builders were super messy with the whole house caked in dust every single day!

How sealable will the extension be to the rooms you will use?

I hope it goes well for you. We will be having all rear wall removed. Have they built your new wall and done the roof before taking down the old wall?

This is just an internal wall but it was at one stage an external wall of the house and so it’s solid and double skinned. It’s coming down to make a corridor. The back wall will come out when they’ve finished the extension but that won’t be for a few weeks yet. A ceiling came out today which was incredibly messy and dirty.

We have a garden room / annexe with a shower room and kitchenette, and then space for a bed, wall mounted electric radiators.

Ideal IMO

@roses2

Every build is different. We had a side return and stayed in the house for the 4 months the work took. We had heating and water as the boiler was located in the loft. The builders sealed everything very well so no dust upstairs. No washing machine was a pain and we setup one of those 7 in 1 multi cookers in another room. We survived.

When we got our bathroom done a few months ago the builders were super messy with the whole house caked in dust every single day!

How sealable will the extension be to the rooms you will use?

We will be able to seal the kitchen from the living room. The builders can use the back entrance.

@HasaDigaEebowai thanks

And to OP, if there is any way you can live out then do. Money dies mean a lot and when its just adults I say yes you can do it. But children in the mix changes that. I did it and I still wonder whether it what impact all that dust had. Not good.

But if you really can't afford it, that's that.

OP could you not find an air bnb type place for a fortnight just to get you through the worst of it? That shouldn't be expensive, particularly since there are very few reasons why they can be hired out at the moment and so theyre all competing for that business.

We're staying at a local holiday let for a couple of weeks. We do actually have an annexe but that's being worked on too (new roof) and we're using it for furniture storage.

@HasaDigaEebowai

OP could you not find an air bnb type place for a fortnight just to get you through the worst of it? That shouldn't be expensive, particularly since there are very few reasons why they can be hired out at the moment and so theyre all competing for that business.

We're staying at a local holiday let for a couple of weeks. We do actually have an annexe but that's being worked on too (new roof) and we're using it for furniture storage.

I live in an area that is not really where people would holiday so no air bnb around unfortunately.

Gosh that's surprising. I live close to a large, not very nice city and there are hundreds, particularly flats.

I guess there's no option then, you just brace yourself. Carve out an area for a kitchen set up. Pack up everything possible, only keeping out the essentials. Remove all soft furnishings (curtains and blinds in particular). Tape off as much as you can and prepare for periods without wifi, electricity, water, heating. Buy or borrow things like an air fryer/instant pot etc. If you can, get hold of a secondhand hoover which you use just for building dust. Don't use your normal hoover and don't let the builders get their hands on your hoover. If you have pets, see if you can get them into kennels/staying with friends. Buy your neighbours a nice pot plant/bottle of wine now to say sorry about the noise and mess that is about to come. Prepare to have to drive off in your car to take work calls etc (if you work) due to noise. Clean every night to keep on top of the dust a bit (this makes a massive difference). Keep your windows open as much as possible so minimise dust inhalation (although sometimes this can make it worse since it blows around).

Obviously some building work is less disruptive than others but your project affects front and back and presumably the main roof since its double storey.

Good luck. Last time we did it we moved out for the worst of it for 4 weeks but that was pre DC. This time we've muddled through so far but the DC are teens and old enough to be sensible and our house is very large so one side of the house is further away from the mess and dirt. Plus our builder is a friend and so he's hot on making sure the guys are as clean and tidy as possible. Even so I'm fed up with it already.

We've done a double storey extension previously and we lived in.
It was hellish. In fairness, having no kitchen isn't that bad. I think we were without one for about 6 weeks.

The desk gets everything, you can taste it in the air! Box up as much stuff as you can.

My worst part was having different temperatures in different rooms. So upstairs was heated but then downstairs was absolutely freezing, except the lounge that was boiling.
It played havoc with my asthma.

We're going to be doing it again soon and we won't be moving out. I'm hoping as our house is bigger this time it won't be so bad. I've clearly blocked it out 😂

Baxdream just reminded me that despite not being an asthmatic I ended up on steroid inhalers. I would suddenly cough until I blacked out and had to give up driving for the summer. Turns out I am allergic to the mould spores in the ground which were disturbed during the build. As soon as the work finished my cough started settling and has never returned.

Watch out for coughs and don't ignore them. If I had started on antihistamines/inhalers sooner I might not have become so unwell.

This is it. I regret putting my little ones through that.

We had a loft conversion done using a specialist company so the build only took a month. It was hell. The dust got everywhere, the water was switched off at inopportune times (we had a new boiler installed, and then an ensuite fitted). There are no quiet times in the build, and it is impossible to 'go for a walk' during noisy works. I think also the lack of privacy made it worse. We had to be up and dressed and finished in the bathroom by 7.30 every day, although sometimes no one would be there until 8.30 (pre covid so they used our bathroom rather than getting a portaloo installed). One day a builder came into the kitchen and found me sitting cross legged on the worktop on my laptop, as it was the cleanest and quietest place in the house to work from. One night we had no heating or electricity as they had put a nail through a cable without realising, had reset the fuse box when the power went out and had left, as soon as we came in and turned on a light it blew again. I would definitely move out if we did something like that again!

Thanks for all your replies. Really appreciate learning about everyone's experiences. I am getting anxious and nervous now.