Full house renovation during winter. Am I crazy?

[MH0084]

Hi,
Here once more to gather your experience!

My Reno project is massively delayed due to change of scope (I decided to extend the extension...) and now we are looking to start works only in November. Estimated completion time is 4 to 5 months.

The builder said that was not an issue. He and his team do not stop over winter but I can't possibly imagine how to cope with the extension (it's just a small infill extension) and new flat roof as well as critical structural works while is super soggy and cold. I guess I feel bad for the builders working in a property that will have no heating whatsoever and on the patio/roof during the wet season.
I'm also worried about delays due to the weather....

On the positives, I know there are a lot of seasonal sales on finishes during that time of the year.

Having my double glazing replaced over two days one freezing cold October was a miserable enough experience, not a chance I would do that if it meant the house would be cold for a large amount of time.
As for the builders, I’m sure it’s a miserable time for them to be working but, if they aren’t working they can’t pay their bills. If not working for you they would be doing a job elsewhere.

I'd just wrap up and get it done. Then you have the rest of the winter to enjoy it and clean up after them. I had my entire house renovated and replastered in winter. Nobody died 😁

Are you living in it? I am guessing not as you only mention the builders being cold and not yourself. I wouldn't worry. They can make hot drinks and will be used to being outside all year round, plus the outdoors bit will only be the first few weeks.

If you have good builders you'll be fine. 7 years ago we had no back on our house for 6 weeks through November and December. Builders ploughed onwards and the result was so worth it! I'm probably glossing over the cold/dust/inconvenience but you can do it.

It will be fine @MH0084 I'd rather get it done in 4-5 months starting in November than wait for better weather. You should hopefully be all done by late Spring/early Summer which will be lovely!

In 2022 at our last house we had several large handbuilt accoya windows fitted on a hideous couple of days during a snowstorm. OH was two storeys up a ladder helping the joiner guy (balanced on a wall below) fit them and I was convinced one of them was going to come to serious harm, but ultimately all was well. At another house we built a huge extension during the wettest summer for ages. It did take longer than planned, but the whole thing was a distant memory once we were able to use our lovely new space.

We've always lived in our projects whilst (mostly) DIYing them, which can be pretty horrendous, as they usually end up taking us years to complete. I'd happily swap that for putting up with a few weeks of inconvenience during winter. Hope all goes well!

I think it’s better getting it over and done with so that when spring summer comes you can enjoy your space and garden.

I think you need to be realistic on the following

• rain - things will take longer to dry
• xmas - they will slow down/be off
• work out which is the clean dry room
• rain - leaks will show up immediately

We had a nearly full house reno/extension going on last winter and it was quite an experience, but so glad we did it, as we've been able to enjoy a lovely summer of using the garden and the new light kitchen whereas if we'd had the works going on we'd have been stuck indoors!

It was a challenge in the very coldest bits as we had no central heating or back wall, just a sheet of chipboard...but we did have a wood stove in our one remaining room which we huddled round like a 1920s family, so consider alternative heat sources.

We had a temp kitchen for some of the time in an unheated room open to the elements, can recommend a heated gilet for that. And electric blankets for unheated bedrooms.

The worst bit for the builders was probably the pissing rain for the whole week they were digging foundations, the poor fellas didn't even look like human beings after a day down the trenches. They had to use extra hardcore around it as the whole thing was mud and they kept sinking. And we had a few days setback with snow/roof shenanigans but on the whole it was fine...go for it!

Also you'll find workmen have a tendency to abandon you in summer for more lucrative jobs, our carpenter did after doing only half of the wooden rails in every room of my last 1930's house, not one single room completed for a building site job.
In winter they don't have much work around so will be more likely to finish the job.

I’ve done 4 winters in a renovation. Honestly, you just get on with it. Wear hats and coats indoors. It’s really not that bad.

We had a big extension built January to March, the back wall of the house was just a wooden sheet for months, and they took half the roof off (it was covered for precipitation). I was working from home and it was absolutely freezing, but was the only/soonest time the builder could fit us in. We survived but not sure I would do it again, once was enough. You can laugh about it afterwards though.

Sounds much like ours, we moved the kitchen and bathroom as well as the extension work, so was quite a logistical nightmare, they did manage to plumb one of the new toilets before disconnecting the one old one fortunately, and we put in a cold tap in a random spot that was out of the way of most of the havoc. Upstairs was only accessible by a ladder for weeks, oh what fun!

Thank you all for your encouraging responses!
This project has been dragging for a year now and I can’t even imagine delaying it even more.
We are still unsure if we will stay in the house. We might need to move out for a couple weeks for the UFH to be installed in the bedroom and the electrician to re run the electrical points there. I was considering skipping the UFH in the main bedroom just so I could keep living in the property. We do have a fireplace in the bedroom so between the warm bedroom and the garden office and the bathroom that we have renovated already, I think we can manage.
Our extension won’t need external foundations as it’s a tiny glass infill so the foundation works will be done removing internal load bearing walls only. The flat roof needs replacement but the top part, so it’s somewhat manageable.

We had our roof replaced the week before Christmas, it snowed most of the week and the roofers just got out blow torches to remove the snow and ice from the scaffold and carried on.

I did keep them warm with endless teas or coffees with the standard tradesman milk and one sugar.

@TheNoonBell one of our brickies was a 5 sugar guy, tbf he got the walls up incredibly fast!