Extension cost insanity!

[FManc]

We’re looking at doing an 18m2 (6x3m) single storey rear extension based in the Stockport, just outside Manchester. We want to go down the Design & Build route just for simplicity and the fact that materials/prices are changing that often a builder will be more aware of what’s going on. We’ve just had one company refuse to come out to have an initial visit/meeting as basically we can’t afford afford their prices; she was extremely rude and condescending which didn’t help either. She said for the most basic build you’d be looking at £75k and that’s WITHOUT a kitchen so we’re touching the £4k+ per sq!!! If this is really where we’re at now then with prices then jeeeeeez! We had in our mind around the £50-£60k mark but ideally that included a kitchen. Either we’re really out of touch with what we were expecting or we need to save a lot more! Anyone got any recent experience of pricing etc just to get an idea?

I just got two quotes for a single storey extension to remove a conservatory and replace with an extension. Around 16 sqm. Took around 4 months to get quotes back, one was £67K but just the shell- no electrics, plumbing, plaster. Second quote included everything- £95K. Basically I’d be looking at £100K easy and then having to buy a kitchen. Insane.

We're having 40m2 rear extension, no kitchen, and room above a single garage for £125k. Yorkshire.
It's a local and trusted builder with excellent reputation. He was the only one who would quote. Couldn't get a single other builder out for a quote. And we tried everyone. Architect said 80k should be enough when he drew up plans in May'21. Obviously prices have gone crazy.

Exactly it’s just madness! What we want isn’t extravagant so it’s hard to get our heads around it all. Where are you roughly based out of interest?

That’s the other issues we’re facing - actually getting some quotes! As we’re going down the design and build route we haven’t got a set of plans yet! We’ve had a reputable local company get back to us and for £300 they’ll come over for an initial site visit, produce a set of CAD floor plans and estimate. We’ll most likely commit to that as then we’ve got an idea of where we’re at. There’s no point in us paying an architect £££ for a set of plans if realistically it’s pushing £100k for a 18sqm extension.

Good lord. It would be much cheaper to move. Those are insane prices.

Just had a 4x3m kitchen extension and we're about 90k in all told.......I am in the wrong job, EVERYONE has been so eye-watering expensive and have had to listen to the builder moaning, that due to some errors that needed rectifying (entirely his fault) that he is making no money.

Still had enough to go to Thailand for 2 weeks though.

We are in the same part of the world and had an 18m extension in 2017, we had to wait eighteen months for that and paid around £2.5k per sqm then for a basic finish. The prices now seem so much worse!

@FManc I'm based in Stockport area too and just coming to the end of a single storey plus double height extension and the cost has been eye watering. It's been 3x our architect's estimate plus taken a 2 years for the whole process.
I think you'd probably looking at £3000 per sq. metre.

It's the price of materials mainly. Our utility room kitchen which was priced at £5000 2 years ago is now £10000. Our joiner who was so busy he couldn't come out to price for us a year ago is now actively looking for work as everyone is not going ahead once they've had the quote.

@Starlitexpress our resort in Majorca was full of builders and plasterers and plumbers discussing their 3rd or 4th holiday of the year. They are all on the make and thanks to Brexit there's a workforce shortage so can charge whatever and know someone will pay it. Also with regards to Brexit a lot of materials come from EU- bricks in particular !

Why on earth do this now? Why not wait for 3-6 months when the work dries up, demand for materials fall and builders lower their prices.

I can see why companies are screening before quoting, prices have risen probably 50% and its not worth their time quoting for people with 2020 prices in mind.

I'd wait if I were you OP.

I agree Nadia job quotes 2 years ago pre lockdown has now trebled. We are waiting it out .

I had one recently not a million miles from you - same size plus internal adaption works for £40k plus VAT

We are waiting on a garage conversion and wet room conversion and its about 50K but worse they can't start until next spring. Waiting 3 months already.

We’re planning to extend because we can’t find anything to buy. Well we can find them but we can’t offer enough to secure them. That was our first choice, this is the second choice.

We are going to wait a bit longer and save as much as we can in the hope that prices come down in the meantime. How can they not with the cost of living crisis we are facing? Even if it’s just builders accepting less profit.

By the time that happens maybe house prices will have calmed down too though!

Even at £2k per sqm we wouldn’t be able to go ahead. I am jealous of these people who are quite handy or married to a tradesman so can get these things done a bit cheaper!

We're having one starting next month - planning permission in place, and builder lined up.

It's a side extension approx 7.5x2.25m, so not vastly different in size to yours. Flat roof with tiled mock front, roof lantern, single story, housing extended kitchen, utility and downstairs loo.

Several quotes all came in around the same ball park. Total cost is coming in at around £75k total inclusive of everything (kitchen, utility, toilet, flooring, moving gas meter, BC - we've had to arrange/purchase some of this ourselves, but I have an ongoing s/sheet keeping track of total costs). I'm allowing 10% contingency on top of this figure.

I'm in Surrey. TBH costs were inline with my expectations, and only about 10-15% more than when I made initial enquiries pre Covid.

East mids.

also, the quotes we got were only 3 week price guarantee which is pointless. Architect and building regs estimated our build at £50K so it’s double basically. I also know someone who started work recently and the builder said the costs had increased for steels etc, the customer said he wanted the builder to honour the original quote so the builder went bankrupt instead! So he’s now stuck with a hole in his house and can’t find someone else to continue the build! Another reason I don’t want to go into structural work right now- too worried about costs spiralling and things going wrong with material shortages etc

unfortunately for me the kitchen is falling apart so I can’t wait and the current space isn’t workable really, so got to come up with some sort of plan b if I can’t extend

2015 I paid about 2k per sq m

We got quoted the same in 2019 for a similar sized extension. We live in a mid-terrace cottage. Got our garden professionally done and a fancy shed/office installed for a fraction of the price.

Exactly @LimboLass ! We are heading to a recession and building work will dry up first, loads of builders will go under, and that's when you get your extension done. That's what we are waiting for. I work in the building trade, and many are greedy, unreliable and rude.

That’s what we’re hoping for 😄 will just be the natural timing of our build but hoping everyone is desperate for work by then 🤞🏻🤞🏻 No-one seems to be halting their builds around here though! We’re doing a 2-storey garage conversion and really really penny pinching to keep under £200k. To move to the size house we’ll end up with is impossible round here - they’re around £500k more. And we love our location. So build is worth it for us.

We're going to be spending about £160k on a 30m2 extension, plus kitchen and some extras. The extras do include putting a heat pump in to replace the boiler, underfloor heating in the new extension and air conditioning in the south facing rooms. The architects estimate a few months ago was £125k, and when we started thinking about it pre-covid we were estimating about £80k! I think the building work on it's own is coming in around £110k before our add ons and the kitchen.

We think it's unlikely given everything going on in the world that material prices will come down much so we're going for it so we have it to enjoy for longer.

We had similar for just over 55k in 2019 (DIY Kitchens kitchen, quartz worktops, painting, furnishing etc included). Our neighbours have recently had quotes based on our plans and the lowest was 80k, just for the building work. They'd have the kitchen and all the stuff to make it lovely to pay for on top of that.

I think a lot of it is heavily based on material costs and they are through the roof atm. Trades still need to make a profit at the end of the day. Only thing you can hope is that with work drying up they reduce their markup. I work in commercial projects so new builds and refurbs and the prices I would say now for Some things are close to double pre covid/war/brexit etc we work on a 10-15% mark up with contractors so I think that will be the only way costs come down if they reduce to a 5% mark up for example I can’t see materials coming down unless there is an abundance and at the moment we are being quoted long lead times too so i dont even think stock has started to become readily available yet