Cost my plans

[greenozian]

I’m rubbish at all of this so please help! We’ve had a quote of £200k for this double storey extension in SE England. I know we need to get quotes from different builders but does this seem right from a price per sq metre perspective? I can’t work it out. Price is all in to paint finish but excluding kitchen, windows, floor coverings etc. We’re imagining that would be an extra £50k on top?

Hopeful bump!

How much of that is extension? We had a kitchen extension of about 5m x 8m last year that cost £130k (including new kitchen) if that helps

No help on SE prices but can I ask about the bathroom access. Is it from bedroom three or the hall? Or both?

You want to know your house is appropriately balanced before committing to that kind of outlay. It seems a bit off but appreciate that perhaps this is a compromise you need to make for your own circumstances.

Thanks for your reply, that’s really helpful- our ground floor will be about 4mx8.5m. Upstairs I think is 5mx2m. So with the double storey seems in line with yours…

I'd say £200k before finishing is about right. However windows, floor and kitchen could well be over £50k depending on what you choose

OP I'm in Ireland but that's a similarish price a friend got for something similar to yours,

@Calmdown14 Entrance to the bathroom upstairs is accessed via both the master bedroom and the landing. We wanted an ensuite but the larger footprint necessary for that would cost at least £300k and we just can’t spend that much.
Can I ask what you mean by appropriately balanced? Is it something to do with the bathroom access upstairs?

@CMOTDibbler yes this is what I’m thinking. DH wants everything done at once but I’m wondering if we just need to hold back on some things that can be done at a later date. Not that it will ever get cheaper, I imagine!

Just that for resale, most people looking for four bedrooms are probably looking for an additional bathroom. It looked a lot of openings into quite a narrow space.

It also depends if this is being done because the location is perfect and it suits your family so you plan to stay long term , or whether it's a 'will serve the next four years', in which case resale is more important.

I see - that’s really helpful, thanks. So yes we have added an extra shower room downstairs - we needed an extra bathroom as our DC grow. We’ve gone back and forth over what to do - our builder has said he doesn’t generally draw so many plans! We’ve had to compromise a lot as we also need an office to wfh. The extra bedroom was supposed to be a study/bedroom but not enough space for both so we will have to have a garden office.
Ceiling price on the road means we don’t really want to spend above £200k but we can’t move up in our area without adding approx £300k to our mortgage. We want to stay in the area for secondary schools so will be here for another 8-10 years. Hence why we want to make sure it’s right for us to live in. But we also don’t want to make a mistake financially.
We’re in an odd area where there are no real comparables for what we want to do and houses 2 doors away on a different road are worth approx £100k more.

I know this isn't what you have asked, but can you re-jig the upstairs layout? I think you can have a smaller family bathroom and an ensuite - the 2 points of access for the bathroom is very strange and I think the layout will feel cumbersome.

We’ve tried so many configurations! But could be worth asking, thank you.

Have the plans been done by your builder rather than an architect? Don't want to sound snobby but unless it's a family member or similar I wouldn't get the builder to do the plans, it sounds to me like you are potentially spending a lot of money on something you've made a lot of compromises on before it's even begun! The layouts seem awkward to me so I'd get someone else to take a look and come up with some different/better ideas - sorry to be negative!

For example upstairs I'd do this (lack of window in family bathroom wouldn't bother me) and you'd lose the leaf/dirt magnet aka roof light over the kitchen!

Thanks @iknowimcoming - we can’t go double storey all the way round as that side is where our neighbours are. It’s a design-build company that friends have used so we know and trust them.

@greenozian For the upstairs - we also had a similar dilemma with double storey across the back - I think the rule was that we couldn't build within 2m of adjoined neighbour. We did something like this - we changed the position of the window in your Bedroom 1 and then extended out the left hand wall of your Bedroom 3 to give you a bigger room. We then had sufficient space to incorporate an ensuite and family bathroom on the right hand side of your Bedroom 3 / Family bathroom. You can play around with layouts for ensuite / bathroom but it makes it easy to have a 2nd bathroom / ensuite there as all the pipes / plumbing / soil stack are on that side already I'm guessing. We still have enough roof area for a large window / velux in the ground floor roof where its single storey if you see what I mean. It would add expense to your design, but not massively so and I think it would be money well spent.

Ooh that’s interesting @Africa2go thanks!

Personally I'd lose the door to the bathroom from bedroom, move the wardrobes along and have a bigger shower.

You'll find half the time the kids have locked it then gone out of the other door so you can't get in anyway.

Drove me nuts when we had one as no one ever remembers to either lock or unlock both doors.

Not much different walking three steps out of bedroom anyway and saves light casting in and waking other person.