Extension thread 2022 part II...demolition, delays and decisions, decisions, decisions

[Sewfrickinamazeballs]

Hi! New thread!

That was the original light shade but I'm being asked to swap it for a Pokémon one and after all the change the kids have endured, we will be decorating a Pokémon themed bedroom first!

Yes kitchen or floor conundrum, people seem to do both so I think either is fine. We are putting the kitchen in first for 2 reasons. 1. We need to get the house habitable so we can borrow more on our mortgage to finish the renovation. 2. Our screed floor takes 75 days to dry.
Another consideration is the type of floor you are having. We are having herringbone pattern so only the wall cabinets will go in before floor, then the island after the floor.

So exciting you are so close to being finished!

I have to pay my final window installment today.

My pm doesn't add anything to the process and just forwards on invoices for payment.

Tiles haven't been laid yet so it is really difficult to know if the bifolds etc are right and as the scaffolding is still up I can't properly open anything as the poles are in the way.

I haven't been given any paperwork at all. Does anyone know what i should have been given?

We do have a private building inspector so maybe he signs them off
for regs?

Really grateful for any comments!

@nomoneytreehere , our PM is exactly the same. Completely useless. Feel like I’m shouting into a void. Interestingly, he has been away this week and the director has been much more responsive! I generally feel as though I’m project managing the PM….

We have been a hive of activity with plumbing, electrics and plasterboard this week. They are making great progress, actually. Doors and window due to arrive this week.

I’m at Peak Sick Of It. I’m sick of having no kitchen, no running water, everything being filthy and ruined, and haemorrhaging money. My builder seems to think we are made of money and everything is an extra. The price they’re charging us for fitting the kitchen and utility is astronomical but didn’t include fitting or refitting appliances. I mean, honestly. Maybe that’s standard practice but what did he think we’d want to do with the dishwasher and washing machine that are just sitting there waiting to be plumbed in?!

I don’t mind stuff being extra when it’s an extra on top of what’s been allowed for - but I do mind when it’s stuff that is fundamentally part of the job (in my opinion).

We have big progress this week with the tiles being laid on the floor. We also had the tiles vs kitchen first discussion but in the end it was me who said tiles first. In my head that at least means that if we ever want to reconfigure the kitchen then we will still have a floor under the current cabinets and won’t have to faff trying to match it. Not that I anticipate that it will ever need reconfiguring, but then I didn’t anticipate having a kitchen extension done this time last year either so probably best I er on the side of caution with that one 😂.

Joiner has spent the last week moaning about how much spraying our kitchen is taking and how it’s bunging up his workshop so I’m hoping this tile next week we should be seeing some actual parts of the kitchen in situ. Electrician needs to come back to fit the lights and to live most things up as they fit the kitchen too so I’m hoping that in a week it may well look considerably more like a kitchen than a building site (although I will say having a nice floor FINALLY is definitely helping!). I need to make contact with the worktops lot to get them organised to pick a date to template- think we are aiming for 2/3 weeks time then 10-14 days lead on machining it up and delivery/fitting. I can’t wait. It all feels very very close now but simultaneously so far away and also still cutting it fine with baby 4’s due date being 4 weeks time 😬😬

Oh and our boiler has broken. Well it’s not entirely dead, but it is leaking quite drastically and it turns out that something is cracked inside and it’s “behind economical repair”. So that’s excellent. To be fair the thing has an installation plate on it from the 70s so it’s done well, I just wish it had done it when we talked about the possibility of it maybe doing it back when the underfloor heating went in. Would have made a tidier job in the utility with the UFH pipe work but there you go. Another £8k bill just for a laugh 😫😫😫

£8k bill?! Oh God. I’ll stop moaning. That’s horrendous. We simply don’t have a spare £8k at this stage….

Yeah it’s not ideal. We have to move from an internal floor standing boiler to an external one which means lots of new pipe work, oil lines etc. plus new oil boilers are flipping expensive it turns out 🙈. But moan away! I find a good old moan helps immensely to stave off the rocking in a corner swearing at anyone who comes near stage 😂

So sorry to hear of everyone's woes! What a pain to get a new boiler now @NoParticularPattern . These things always happen at the worst time!

So we are a few weeks into a 6 months minimum build and we've had our first complaint letter. The neighbours WFH and want a 'compromise' about how much noise we make. Unfortunately there isn't one - the builders are following the considerate constructor hours. I know it's disruptive but there isn't much we can do! Rather annoyingly all the issues we are having with the walls are on their side - we've had to stop the build again as they've found a chimney taken out with inadequate support in the adjoining wall so building work has stopped while they get the structural surveyors back in. Argh.

The additional costs are now the roof, extra supports downstairs and extra party wall costs/surveyors and we are delayed and have only just begun! Surely it has to get better from here!

We had a brilliant PM on our last project but our one this time is also crap. She's totally reactive rather than proactive and I'm kicking myself that we didn't use the same people. It really makes such a difference. Grrr for all of you too, it's so annoying

@SpotOnMyBot never rains but it pours does it?! I hope the discovery doesn’t put things too get off track for you. Neighbours sound difficult- like you say there’s not really anything you can do other than warn them when the really noisy stuff will be happening and give them a hopeful end date?! Although I would try not to be too specific about a date- inevitably stuff gets found like you’ve already discovered and various things mean delays, but maybe the promise of X weeks and regular updates would placate them. It’s so hard as you’re not doing anything wrong, but they’re also not unreasonable to be annoyed. It’s very frustrating but I guess all you can do is apologise and buy chocolate/wine/flowers when it’s all over 🤞.

we now have a fully tiled and grouted kitchen floor. I’ve never been so thrilled about tiles in my life but I can now MOP THE FLOOR!!!!! I might actually have a dusty footprint free house one day 🙏🙏

Our neighbours complained about noise too as if they expect you to wave a magic wand and do it quieter! In our case the neighbours do get over it but very tricky and upsetting at the time.

We've had a productive week - new external doors and all new windows. Ducting in for the mechanical ventilation and more plasterboarding. It's looking great and I'm starting to love the house again. I also ordered the worktops and a new sink. We will be pissing the builders off this week by asking them why they haven't followed the architects drawings in the garage! Oh well, I'm off to Milan tomorrow!

Sorry to hear about the neighbors adding to the woes. We have an interesting situation with ours, they objected to planning and, when their points were overruled, complained to the council and then hunted down our architect to complain to him. All whilst never mentioning a thing to us! When we heard all this I approached them and offered to have them over to hear them out. Since then we have been super / over the top consultative as our new building is right up against the side of their house and we have offered to do stuff for them like replace their guttering. Mind you no noise to complain about here, 7 of the last 10 days no one has been here. Foundations are supposed to get started tomorrow. We’ll see.

gardens - what a space! Love those doors! It’s really starting to shape up.

Sorry to all those with rubbish PMs, delays, costs and intolerant neighbours. I found neighbour issues to be one of the most stressful aspects of our project. The worst bit was during the drilling stage and while the scaffolding went up, as it’s a really noisy job and scaffolders are not always the easiest to work with.

@GardensandGrandDesigns , great doors! Ours also went up this week, along with the first skylight. It’s pretty momentous as it’s a first step toward weatherproofing and eventually doing the interiors.

Tomorrow the screed goes down in the kitchen. Meanwhile, our new brick work needs repointing. The mortar isn’t the right colour.

Looking good!!!

I’m loving seeing the newly constructed places now - gorgeous glazing @Yellownotblue and @GardensandGrandDesigns

Here we are struggling a bit. No PM other than our (fab) builder and we’ve messed up a few things besides the kitchen. We’re just too busy with jobs and kids, and things are falling through the cracks.

Does anyone know how the place will ever get clean again? Is there a deep clean service? I’m aware we are installing carpets before the whole thing is done but it’s too big a job to wait for everything to be perfect.

@NewHouseNewMe , yes you can book a specialist “post build” clean (if that’s not included in your building contract - worth checking with your builder first?). We’re so far off that stage, I can’t even imagine what it’s going to be like…

Morning! Our first unforeseen problem yesterday, drains that weren’t on the drawings were discovered underwater where we will be building extension. So that needs moved and rerouted.

Not underwater! Under where….

@Littlemissweepy oh no, that sucks. I remember when we started digging, back in February, everyone was worried about drains but we were lucky that they were not in the way. I hope this doesn’t delay you too much.

Things are progressing here, we have screed in the kitchen, the cladding is nearing completion, our windows are in production, and we’re starting to make progress with the joinery and lighting. We had 15 builders on site on Saturday 😱, they are clearly working hard to keep to the schedule.

After a very quiet couple of weeks there is action today.

2 guys repairing the original fireplace - some query as to whether they need to put in an air vent somewhere so they will light the fire later/tomorrow to test air flow. May mean a hole in the new back wall somewhere.

2 guys tiling the steps from the patio down to the garden, allowing a weeks worth of work as v fiddly.

one carpenter doing various bits of dado rail and architrave around the new understairs opened up area.

one character who’s a plaster expert getting profiles of original ceiling roses to make me some matching ones, plus doing the same for coving.

(Have just added a rose, dado rail and coving to the small area I opened up from the hall to the downstairs loo.
And added moving a socket down to allow for the dado rail 🙄)

an electrician moving the socket - he’s also in charge of the rest of them I think.

I’m thinking I might go out for lunch, and find some outside jobs to do! Although they keep coming with questions so maybe not…

TO DO:

The hallway; change the wall into open shelves for shoes and school bags and sort flooring and hooks; Being worked on

The original old sash window halfway up the stairs - waiting for the glass

Fireplace repair - Happening now

last electrics - New Ethernet cable for DS1’s Xbox upstairs and maybe some other internetty type wiring to finish - think they may have done this? Haven’t checked with the electrician Done ✅

stripping back the old front door and oiling

oiling 3 new doors

security cameras - waiting for alarm company advice - going to ask around a bit more

patio steps to be tiled - started

patio glass balustrade put in (not ordered yet)

decide on loo roll holder, towel rail, mirror for downstairs loo. Long bare walls atm - maybe lots of artwork as have loads of framed stuff to put somewhere?

+last bit of bespoke coving to match original - ordered - coming when the coving guy comes back, not sure on timings

Broken tile in upstairs bathroom to be repaired

Snagging list of tiny things - already started on

deep clean post build, need to find a company

whatever else I haven’t thought of yet…

We found the same thing when we had a new kitchen recently. We paid for a Wren fitted kitchen using Wren approved fitters. We expected to pay for any extras of course, but didn’t realise we would have to pay extra for the fitters to plumb in the washing machine & dishwasher etc. This was not made clear until after we had paid a sizeable deposit.

@Twiglets1 , it’s mad, isn’t it? And we are not paying peanuts for the fitting of the kitchen either. Another builder included a quote at a similar level as part of the quote process but I am sure we could source a decent fitter to do it for less. However, for convenience, we’ve gone with our builder.

But to me “fit the kitchen” means “fit units and appliances, so it is ready to use bar the worktops which need to be templated for”. Not “fit the units to the walls”.

I mean, it’s partly my fault for not asking precisely what is included in the additional quote. But if I’m honest, I kind of expect to be told - eg How much will it cost to fit the kitchen? It will cost X and this is what’s included: list. Again, I think some of this is the PM.

@GardensandGrandDesigns and @Yellownotblue those are fab doors! Can I ask where you got them from? I'm overwhelmed with the options and various prices

@A1b2c3d4e5f6g7 ours is from Maxlight. It’s very good - it glides so smooth you can push it with a single finger. And all three panels recede into the wall, so they disappear completely when it’s open.