Planning an extension - what order to do things?

[Sunshine13632]

We’re planning to add a 2 story extension to our home. Have got some designs done and about to start planning permission (designer will be doing this).
Very likely to be approved due to area and other houses having done the same.

At what point do we approach the mortgage company about more borrowing? We’ve got about 120k equity on 300k house.

When do I start talking to builders?

Thanks

Do you have an estimate on what you need to borrow? It would probably be best to approach a couple of builders to tender and then approach the bank once you know around how much you need to borrow.

Get a builder secured as soon as possible. We are in construction and know that around here (Midlands) and most likely nationwide builders are booked up for a good 8 or 9 months or more in advance.

DO NOT use Trust A Trader for anything! They are known to be used by rogue builders and write fake reviews for each other.

Your architect should have knowledge on good builders in your area that they have worked with before.

You also need to decide if you want an all-in-one building company to take care of EVERYTHING for you, or if you will project manage the whole thing yourself and get all the different trades in one by one, which is considerably cheaper, but bloody hard work and takes much longer.

Try to organise trades, expect a substantial wait, as good ones are really booked up at the moment. Unfortunately cost of building have risen sharply due to the rise in materials, so get an idea of how much you need to borrow, and allow a healthy contingency fund. Good luck with your project.

I had to wait 9 months for my builder - don't plan on having everything done when you want it. Everybody wants work done during the warmer months! Ours took 6 months, September to February (2 story side extension, single storey front extension, total refurb).
I would find out how much it's going to cost first, before you start spending on other things. Do you have an idea of the size of the extension? A very rough estimate is to allow 2k per square metre finished (this was what the rough guide was a few years ago, it might be higher now). Don't forget that ground and first floor are 2 X square metres.

Doing the 2k x square footage it’s about 140k. mostly we’d need a builder to put the shell up, and we’ll organise the rest/do stuff like kitchens and bathrooms ourselves.

Time wise we’re planning for end 2022/mid 2023.
We’d have to move out to do it due to the house layout at the moment.

We’ve got some savings too, but mortgage wise are planning to pretty much use all of our equity (minus a deposit) if that makes sense.

OP if you're working on £2k per square metre (which I think is on the low side now, and then you've got the kitchen / bathroom / flooring / decoration on top, how are you going to finance it? Your lender will only take the current value of your house into consideration when releasing equity - so even if you were allowed 80 or 90% of value, you'd only be able to get a mortgage of £240k -£270k.

If you have £120k equity in the property now, your mortgage is currently £180k, so on the figures above, you'll only be able to release a further £60-90k. Are your savings enough to make up the difference?