Anyone with work starting soon want a chat thread?

[thenewaveragebear1983]

We were quoted in February, and have been patiently waiting… builder is Dh’s mate so worth waiting for. Finally got the 2-3 weeks call last week, so starting in 2 (ish) and I cannot wait!

we aren’t building any footprint, but are knocking into our garage to make a small living room for the kids/playroom; taking down a stud wall to make a large living room on the back; installing a wall and double doors to split a through room, and having our bathroom split into 2 to make a smaller family bathroom and a separate shower room.

we’ve never done anything like this at all so feel very nervous/excited! I’ve not really allowed myself to get excited yet so as not to be disappointed but it does seem like he’s nearly due to start!

would love a chat thread, estimate our work will take 10-12 weeks.

Can I join?
Builders arrived Wednesday. Smaller renovation than most but combining our toilet and bathroom to one room, and creating a door out to the outdoor shower and hot tub area direct from bathroom.
I work from home and the noise is horrific.
Wall between the rooms is brick, floor is concrete...walls now out and floor is being dug up to move existing pipes.
They estimate 2 weeks, then the window guys before we decorate.
Were currently showering outside and using the kids loo.
Not. Fun.

Our guy is coming tomorrow to have a look with a view to starting Wednesday! Nothing like a bit of notice eh?! He’s got a clear week, then will need to finish something in his current job that’s been delayed, then back to us, so realistically we might get a week out of him before Christmas. He’s coming round tomorrow to decide where to start to cause us the least disruption. He reckons he can divide our big room with the double doors first which will make a big difference and will stop some of the dust and cold getting in!

i’m so excited!
I popped up b&q today as now i have ordered my sofas I have a colour scheme and picked up some colour cards etc just to allow myself s brief moment to get excited about the end result!

That does sound exciting!!

We're starting works also soon 🤞 just trying to work out how best to lay stuff out. We recently bought it and it was in a worse state than we thought, so we're not living there currently. Planning to replace a conservatory with an extension, move the stairs, change the layout upstairs, rewire, new boiler, new bathrooms and kitchen and some steelwork to repair the terribly laid out extension downstairs 😬 seems a lot when written out like this. Not sure our money will stretch to it.

He came round today, he’ll be letting us know later when he’s likely to be back but it depends on a delivery of a floor to his current job. We’re looking at getting the stud wall in and the sliding/ pocket doors installed before Christmas, with work commencing properly after Christmas. I am very very very excited now! Although I have actual nightmares about spiralling costs… however there are very few things that I am absolutely hell bent dead set on, as in I’m not going to pay £100’s for the exact item, I am very flexible. There’s only a few things my heart is set on and they aren’t the big ticket items, more things like these mid century style wooden light switches I have seen. And I’m quite specific about where I want plugs and light fittings etc- but this doesn’t cost more as such, just needs agreed before they start.

this doesn’t stop me from having palpitations about it all costing millions though…

I’ve done a few before photos today for the records.

Oh how exciting! Our builder asked us to mark up where we wanted the sockets/radiators on the plans. Actually finding a time together on site really helped. Perhaps just keep checking in? Just as an example, we had what looked like a useable alcove but will in practice look really odd so it's better to box it in. We've also had to compromise with spotlights with the new ceiling heights. I don't mind but useful to factor in the cost.

My builder thinks my architects staircase drawings are a rubbish solution- builder thinks the loft stairs should be on top of current stairs whereas the drawings are off centre and currently require the bathroom and 2nd bedroom be made smaller to accommodate.

I obviously prefer the builder's suggestion as this gives us max sizing (he says the loft starts will be comfortable and meet building regs) but my architect is adamant they don't work.

I'm so conflicted! What would you do?

Can the architect tell you why they don't work i.e. the ceiling height won't meet building regs?
If it is something relatively straightforward like that who is doing the building regs and inspections and do either of them know that person? If yes, they may have an idea of the tolerance levels the inspector has. I think I'd be guided by whoever has more experience and the most logical reason as to why the stairs will or won't work in that position.

I don’t know what I’d suggest really. If the stairs will essentially be the same but one means clawing space out of two rooms, it surely seems logical to go with the other provided all other factors are equal? Clawing space from two rooms will create additional work/finishing/materials?

my dbil and sil had a loft extension recently and the stairs are noticeably ‘crammed’ in, they are significantly narrower than their normal stairs and this makes them feel steeper as well. So that’s maybe worth considering too, if one design means the stairs will be smaller (I guess there is a minimum length of each step?)

@Hall84 our architect plugged numbers into the model and said the stairs would be too steep and too narrow to be comfortable and wouldn't pass regs.
DH and I went to the site this afternoon and spoke to the builder and stair contractor. The stair guy showed his measurements and the stairs felt a comfortable size (800mm wide,
217mm tread riser, 263mm tread (footprint)). When accessing the loft the shallowest height will be 1.92m.

Though slightly smaller than the ground floor stairs I think it's fine.

@thenewaveragebear1983 I think the issue is the surveyors measurements for the 1st floor height are different to the builder and stair contractor. Really not sure why so have enquired.

Yes, the different stair layout will result in increased costs to tile the bathrooms plus I'll want a bigger suite (my dream has been for a separate walk in shower and bath - now we have the space for it) but ultimately we'll enjoy the space more, it's more future proof plus a bonus when selling at some point in the future.

I've fed the dimensions back to my architect and hopefully he'll revise the drawing so that the engineer can confirm the new beam positioning.
Need this sorted asap so that the loft shell can be created. Was hoping to get that done before Christmas so fingers crossed.

Good luck @reno22 ! We lost 60cm from the length of the extension and 10cm ceiling height. It doesn't sound much but really impacted storage in the bathroom. Over the course of the build the cupboard is back. It didn't impact our steel though. Hope you aren't too cold

Our previous architect wanted us to loose part of a bedroom to accommodate a staircase because they’d misinterpreted the building regs. @reno22 I agree with @Hall84, get as much info as you can as to why they think it won’t work!

Where is your 1.92? I think our minimum is 2m for building regs but we have lower eave height in the front bedroom

So the stair contractor sent through the updated specs for the stairs in a middle location (I’ve attached). The 1.9 is literally the top step so I’m not worried - apparently because the height across other steps is >2m the single <2m is within tolerance.

I’ve got written agreement it will pass regs and if not they’ll pay.

In other news, we now have our party wall award so the scaffolding will go up first week in Jan 🥳.

Our build is coming along- kitchen steels in, utility has been split, ground floor electrics done and 1st floor rooms have had new walls built.

My Xmas job is to look at new bathrooms as our current one is for a smaller space .

How is everyone else getting on?

that sounds promising! @reno22 . I have had a brief look at the bathroom sales today, just browsing. Is your new space bigger than you originally planned?

our guy is coming next week to begin building a stud wall to split our through room. I can sense he doesn’t really want to- he won’t do much in 2 days, and he’ll leave us with a mess over the Xmas week- but we are very keen for him to start even though it’s the worst possible time.

@thenewaveragebear1983 yes it is bigger - I've attached. It's basically returned to the original size it was when we bought the property.

now that we have moved the water tank I’m thinking we get a separate bath and shower

Did you see any good deals?

There were various sale items on places like Victoria plum and Victorian plumbing. What I find hard is getting all the different elements separately that go together as opposed to buying a suite. I really want black fittings as we are having a minty green tile, but it’s difficult to find a bath that doesn’t have chrome fittings- (I need to ask the builder whether they just change these or if I need a specific bath) and I really want a free standing sink on top of an oak sideboard (it was the first piece of furniture dh and I bought and it’s had its day as a sideboard, I’d like a shallow butler style sink on top of it). My only other spec for the bathroom is that I really want a single wall light just above the bath. I’m happy to keep spots but I do like to read in a relaxing bath and currently it’s like an all weather football pitch in there 🤦‍♀️
plus, if they can get rid of my slug population I’d be very grateful. I think I have the only upstairs bathroom that has slugs climbing up the walls, it’s truly grim!

we are doing the opposite to you, we are returning our vast bathroom to a smaller family mum’s bathroom and a separate shower cubicle accessed from the landing for the children (and dh), so in the family bathroom we will have shower over bath.

@thenewaveragebear1983 i also like a soak in the bath without too much light. We've had lights fitted under the cabinet and in the recess + have a backlit mirror. The recess/cabinet come on with a sensor so great overnight but also mean you don't need the main light on. The shower room upstairs is going to have similar under the sink so you don't need the main light on if you pop to the loo in the night

@reno22 that sounds really promising! Because I've not been up there yet I found it helpful to put things into context so 1.92m is virtually 6ft4. No one in our house is that tall.
We were hoping that the stairs would be in by Christmas but if they aren't delivered by Monday then it'll be the new year. I'm a bit disappointed as I'm desperate to get up there and have a look but it's been so cold/icy this week that I'm grateful for anything getting done and I wouldn't want them taking any unnecessary risks on the scaffold. All of the windows have gone in now so the rooms are really starting to take shape.

@thenewaveragebear1983 you can generally buy click clacks and waste along with the tap ware in different colours for the bath and sink etc. For previous projects I've bought it from here www.dowsingandreynolds.com/product-category/traps-and-wastes/ and also Lusso Stone.

Also, worth thinking about dimmable lights for the bathroom if you like soaking in the tub.

On our project we decided we would get an architect and so now are waiting for their plans. Not sure whether to start doing some of the work now, or wait for the plans and get it done altogether

@thenewaveragebear1983 you buy the waste, taps etc separately to the bath so can choose what you want to go with it. We've specified handles with ours (they seem to be called grips) and a more slip-resistant bottom as well.

@RidingMyBike thanks. If the bath is listed as ‘with waste fitted’ can it be changed? Some seem to be sold without the fittings, others have them included. I have seen one I like that has black waste and fittings so that’s another possibility but most have chrome

You'd need to ask the supplier. We wanted to avoid chrome too and just had to specify what we wanted when we ordered. Most of the things we chose were 'special' order so couldn't be returned so had to check very very carefully we'd specified right!

Soooo he was supposed to be starting today to do 2 days before Christmas, but dh is absolutely full of cold so we have agreed 2nd Jan!

Our builders wanted to start sooner than we did but I said no as I have another project that needs done before we start the loft. They said they could do it for cheaper. Now alarm bells did go off but my mum likes them and offered to pay for it, it's a big shed, and so she said yes.

Anyway, they did ten whole "we will come Monday" and then messaged to say Thursday and then messaged to say Monday and then messaged to say Tuesday and then arrived Tuesday afternoon last week.

They started. All good, they came the next day and I had a child in surgery that day so wasn't around and when I came home the neighbour, he has fully agreed and consulted with this had gone apeshit. So we went around late that night to discuss it with them and it's all what we agreed and all within regulations etc but we agreed to partially knock it down and move it alight further way and lower the height etc as again trying to keep the peace. Neighbour still being horrid but he's having mental health issues and I think it's just something he's decided to focus on.

Anyway builders haven't turned back to, keep promising and not arriving. Who knows when they will turn up. About £5k down and literally having wood just sat getting wet.

I can't even imagine starting a bigger project right now. Loft is definitely not going to be starting in January. Especially as this was way way over budget.

Rant over.

Hope everyone else's goes smoother than mine.

@Newnamefor2021 gosh that sounds awful and very stressful! I think them leaving mid job is everyone’s absolute nightmare, it’s the reason we were prepared to wait nearly a year for our guy to start (he’s a very good mate of dh’s)