how much did your one storey extension cost you, and how long did it take?

[cornedbeefpasty]

we're hoping to extend our semi detached house out the back to make a teeny tiny kitchen into a big huge one, plus a downstairs loo.

will dig footings for a two story extension so we can go upwards when we have money spare ()and will only have a flat roof...

any words of wisdom also welcome!!!

Planning rules changed in Oct 08 - so check. You may now be able to do more than you think without PP.

Harrogatemum - I'd say (without seeing it) that seems a good price - especially if that includes VAT

thanks everyone...

the ironic thing is that my twat of a FIL is a builder! we get very little help shall we say!

there is a builder who lives across rthe road from us who has done loads of work on his own house..it looks immaculate. inside is amazing too so my dh tells me after a visit there once. he's also done work all around us.....is it a little too close to home though in case of a disagreement??

we just had a single story 1.75m x erm 2.5m or so extension put in. this required a lot of rebuilding, masses of new insulation, new drains, we also moved the kitchen and bathroom, so some new stud walls and a lot of plastering. New (flat) roof and big skylight. We also removed a chimney breast on ground and first floors, plus cut an understairs cupboard in half. We also had some new sockets and mostly new lights downstairs.

It was HELL on earth for 7 months, and cost £40K. It's beautiful .

sequence of events; builder booked, architect booked, architect's plans, planning permission (allowed to go ahead without formal permission in fact), builder's quote, rejig of plans to cut 10K off the quote, went ahead, out of house for 5 months, back in house for 2 months with 1 cold tap and no heating.

GET ADVICE ON PARTY WALLS IF AN ISSUE FOR YOU. Everyone else knows all about them and assumes you do too. Also warn your neighbours EARLY.

would love an extension

thanks choosy. what is this party walls you speak of??

god...no chance of us moving out....could you have managed staying put?? all these things to consider...

i am worried about the stress already tbh...we did our house from scratch when we bought it...kitchen, bathroom, heating, rewiring, walls etc... but only had one toddler then...have 3 kids now!

flat roofs are a bit of a prob in conservation areas and apparently are rarely flat as they have to be able to drain in some way - but if you have examples all around you then that is what will be allowed - do you know anyone who has done this locally? you could ask to see their plans or get any tips? some people are keen to 'debreif' and share their knowledge so may be happy to do this

when i say flat roof, i mean a felty type roof as opposed to a tiled slanting one iykwim? i wuld ideally have a beautiful posh roof, but its one way to keep the cost down, and will hopefully go upwards in the not to distant future....

would love to go into the neighbours house behind us...have never spoken to them, but was wondering if we could give them a knock one day....

ok our 'flat' roof is not actually flat, it slopes very slightly, but is not a pitched roof either. It's not felty, it's something else (I should really know about this shouldn't I!)

our original house was one single space downstairs (it's not big) and with both kitchen, bathroom,water, electrics, roof out for 7 months and foundations being redug there was no way on earth we could have stayed there. Many people manage to do so - again, get advice early. We would have had to budget £6K or so at least to rent somewhere - in fact we just sat in other people's houses (amazingly generous of everyone). It was awful though, we had to move every 3 weeks and dh's back went half-way through so I then had to do about 4 moves solo! Was also paranoid about destroying other people's houses, breaking their stuff etc. And inevitably we always did break a glass or cup or something, though thank goodness I don't think we ruined anything vital. We also stayed at a travelodge for 4 weeks - cheaper than camping - though we smuggled in an electric wok to cook with, which obviously I would not recommend as it is probably illegal.

party wall - are you a detached, semi, or terrace? If the former, then I assume no problem - if either of the latter, you may have a party wall. If so, you need an agreement to cover works to the party wall, andyou also have to pay the other 'owner' of the wall a proportion of the cost of the original building (I think) - we had to pay about £350, my sister had to pay £100, it's not a vast amount but it all adds up. This is a very quick and dirty view of it all but get proper advice. NB if your architect like ours tells you to get an informal OK from the neighbour, I would strongly advise against. We didn't bother for ages because we assumed it would be fine - it was NOT - and the neighbours were so upset about the works that they have become extremely 'difficult' (I don't really blame them) and if they could have sued us for damage to teh party wall, they would have done - without a party wall agreement, that would be a nightmare.

Sorry - it's all been so awful, I can't help spilling it!

i got advice on party wall - there are standard letters you can download from internet or get from your architect for low cost and you both sign it - it doesnt have to be expensive or time consuming but you should do it as soon as you submit plans to avoid any delays

lol choosy!

would rather go into it with my eyes wide open..

we live in a semi. have a shared wall separating our gardens, and they have already extended, so our new kitchen will be joined onto their already built kitchen wall iykwim.

cornedbeef, that was exactly our situation, hence why we thought there would be no problem. a) they were furious and b) their extension wall was built yonks ago and turned out to look like it was built by my 5-year-old ds, in the end we had to build our own decent wall inside theirs but it still counted as party wall works, naturally enough.

We have done up a load of houses and typically its about 15K to 20K for a single storey extension.

Just a thought, you say you are looking to do a second storey. If you are going to do this within 5 years of completion of the first storey, you should submit a single set of plans for the whole thing and then you can work on it over time.

make sure your builder knows you are going 2 storey and puts in pipes / leccy etc in the ceiling ready.

Just a quick word re; party wall.I also second you must get this done officially and not have an informal verbal agreement.Our ex neighbours had their kitchen extended about 4 years ago and during the work they (builders) ripped off the old ceiling on their side as a firewall was being putup between the two kitchens. As I was standing, rather hugely pg with dd making ds breakfast in my own kitchen the ceiling buckled on our side and ripped! really we would have had a strong case to sue as no party wall agreement was in place and they didnt send anyone to fix it for months.In the end dh fixed it but it still was a bit of a bodge.As we had 2 very young babies we were too tired/stressed/hard up to take it further. It turned out they were very unpleasant neighbours (lots of other stories) who didnt even offer us as much as a decent apology bunch of flowers/bottle of wine and had the nerve to complain about the noise of our kids regardless of the fact we had put up with the building work on their house plus endless parties for 4 years prior to this.
The house next door is now owned by a lovely couple who have added a huge glass conservatory (crystal palace as we call it) which was equally rather noisy really when being built but because they are so pleasant we still have a good relationship with them. Just flinch whenever I see a cement mixer

thanks again everyone....

have been looking overv the plans again....getting a bit excited!

Reading this with interest, as I am thinking my only way to get a bigger house is to extend this one I simply won't get a bigger mortgage.

I am thinking single story alnog the back of the house, only really need the major building work done and first fit electics, although plasterboarding and floor boards would be nice too .

I would be prepared to do second fit electrics, fitting skirting boards etc and other general finishing off stuff, wouldn't need plumbing as I would work kitchen around what we have in place already.

I wonder how much that would save me, I think I might have to just go for a conservatory, no idea of prices. Ok will start new thread on that.

Does anyone know how much a standard small uPVC lean to conservatory will cost? I went on Scotland UPVC and they have put me in touch with three conservatory companies, just wanted a rough estimate I can compare to when the companies come round to give me a quote.

Thanks in advance to anyone that might help me!