Is building an extension now impossibly expensive?

[speedtalker]

We've engaged an architect for a long-awaited extension. But I was chatting to a friend about it who told me that prices for basic materials have rocketed post- Brexit, and finding contractors now is very very difficult. She knew two people who were in advanced stages of building a house or extension and they've abandoned plans because of prices doubling from what was budgeted a year or so ago.
Is this people's current experience?

We're about to start a build that was quoted for last year. The quote has gone up about 20% but some of that is because of changes to the original plans. I'd say 15% is material costs.

Shortages are the biggest problem but our builder is bulk buying now. Roof tiles are on a 12 week lead time but to be fair it'll be that long till we need them.

No idea about how hard it would be to find a builder now though as we booked ours in the autumn. But if you're only at the architect phase then you're about four months off building anyway once you have planning and building control etc so you might be ok

I can't comment on recent prices but do have friends that are putting off work due to the current increases. We found that we saw a huge increase in quotes we obtained even prior to covid. We had a quotes for a small single storey extension in 2016 then had 3 more for the exact same work at start of 2019 and the quotes were coming back at 40k minimum which was well over 10k more than the original quotes and quite frankly ridiculous for the very straight forward small mid budget extension we were after

@Jmaho

I can't comment on recent prices but do have friends that are putting off work due to the current increases. We found that we saw a huge increase in quotes we obtained even prior to covid. We had a quotes for a small single storey extension in 2016 then had 3 more for the exact same work at start of 2019 and the quotes were coming back at 40k minimum which was well over 10k more than the original quotes and quite frankly ridiculous for the very straight forward small mid budget extension we were after

Sorry the original quotes we had were mid 2017 not 2016

Oh, so maybe not as bad as suggested but pretty tough.
We live in a period property around a conservation area and so planning maybe be a lengthy iterative process, so I was hoping things might smooth over in the time interval.

We didn’t see any price changes to what we had planned and are in the advanced stages too (started 8 weeks ago). I think it helps to be flexible though. There were shortages of the bricks / tiles that matched our house and because we were only doing the back of the house it didn’t matter if the colour was slightly different. There was an issue with aggregates (for concrete) and steel beams so my builder ordered them as soon as we met, because we would have needed them no matter which builder we used.

If you’re going for kitchens / furniture then the places that have always sold ‘made in the UK’ like Howdens don’t have any delays except 2-3 weeks for worktop fitting and only if you opt for natural stone / marble.

We are in the middle of it and it’s horrendous. Labour is hard to get. Prices are rocketing and lead times are crazy. We’re now at a standstill waiting on a steel, windows and doors, roof tiles are also tricky snd cement, plaster and timber.

In the meantime we are living in chaos.

I would wait unless you have an extremely healthy contingency pot which you’re happy to spend (and some). Our budgeted costs have gone up by tens of thousands (big project though)

We would have to use stone for part of it, which I would think would be as local as possible, but the steel, windows etc....hmm, it sounds awful.

Our small extension is about 3m by 2m...built it ourselves using mostly reclaimed stuff or from skips and our amazing second hand building shop close by for doors and windows....materials came in at £800 !

That’s clearly not the norm though

We've given up with our extension and are going to move instead. The price we were quoted before Covid was almost half what it is now. And we'd have to move out and rent whilst it's done - with waiting times, materials hard to get hold of - labour shortages due to Brexit ... the list goes on and on - we could be renting for a year or more. Who knows?

It's not worth the stress.

It's not worth it now in most cases post-brexit. Could you move?

I think where we live, and love living, if we were to move, the price increases we've seen locally would far eclipse any cost of an extension. So we'd stay put and not extend.

We'd investigated not extending- we want another shower (have one for the family, which is young just now but soon both kids will prob want showers in the morning), but with building requirements for eg loos now compared to when this old town house was converted, we might end up with less space to accommodate the rooms we want to create!

Every thing/trade/supplier etc in my experience is now either booked up for months or out of stock or low stock.

Those in demand seem to have upped their prices. (only one exception that I've come across and that was the concept planner/ designer, but she's busy so you have to book ahead and expect longer than the normal, one month, lead time)
I've had two builders drop me first larger projects and several quotes for works that now have doubled in price ( I thought a quote was binding? Asked for quotes not estimates! ) the whole industry seems to have gone crazy busy.
In my honest opinion, I'd not start a project this year. Wait until things settle a bit.

I've been trying to do several upgrades to two properties at once and it's just too much. I'm doing the essentials and will now edit for everything else.

@speedtalker you're right at the beginning of the process though and these things take time. Who knows what will be going on in 4/6 months when you're ready to build. I would start the process, talk to some builders and get rough estimates based on the plans, and then decide after you have planning whether to do it now or to wait a bit. Your planning will be good for three years.

We have just done an extension with just landscaping left to finish.
Price wise, the builder couldn’t get the windows at the price surveyor quoted us for last year as it has gone up by 20 percent but the other materials were fine.
Trades are busy now but they also think things will quiet down.
It’s hard to find the perfect time to start building work. We started applying for planning permission during the first lockdown and we were working from home while the work went on. Might as well get plans and see how things are.

Just discovered our roofing tiles are on a 16 week lead time. Its crazy.

And these materials- am I right in thinking that only some can be ordered in advance of the project starting? Because, instinctively, you would think you could order eg windows two months ahead, but actually, do you have to start and then get precise measurements?

You do have to get precise measurements for windows yes.

Some could in theory be ordered in advance if it's been fully listed out. You'd obviously need to store them though and building materials take up a lot of space.

there are standard sized windows and doors, so i guess you just build to fit that size? non-standard sizes take longer to make and are more expensive as they will be labelled 'bespoke'. So depending on your window size.
we ordered our roof lantern before the roof was made but our patio doors are higher than standard so we ordered after the opening was formed.