Have you ever had an extension done in winter?

[MaryMotherOfCheeses]

The builder assures us we won't die of cold.

He says he boards up the back of the house with some kind of insulating boards so that it's not too bad.

Should we wait until spring, at least?

We're having an extension done at the moment - started Nov and should finish sometime in Feb (crosses fingers hopefully). It's absolutely f*cking freezing a little on the cold side here, but then the boiler died when it had to be moved to allow the builders to knock down a wall, and we've decided not to get it replaced until after the knock through to avoid a new boiler getting wrecked by dust and damp.

What are you having done? Our builder is getting the shell completely watertight before knocking through, which is a bit warmer. But doors do get left open etc ...

We had a loft conversion done in Jan/Feb. They basically took the roof off and covered it in blue tarps. We had force 9 gales and everything held firm.

The worst was when the heating was off for a few days because we also had work done on the central heating system. I basically holed up in the living room with electric heaters.

The work we had done basically had them working all over the house, so there was nowhere to go to get away from it.

I was very glad to have some distant coffee mornings to go to that would take up much of the day.

The cold is not the worst thing we put up with. The hardest bit was putting all our stuff into other rooms out of the builders' way. I remember putting one child's mattress on top of the other's and then having them sleep top to tail (at a great height), and pulling away our couches from the wall so we could stuff thing behind them.

BTW, builders are very good at telling you what you want to hear.

We ended up with no roof for most of last winter. Not recommended especially when windy and rainy.

If it's on the back of one room that you can seal off quite well it might not be so bad, but if more of the house is affected I really wouldn't get work to start until late Feb.

How long is the work expected to take, can materials be stored in advance on site, and how much do you trust the builders?

we had the basement converted and the only cold was supposed to bethe draft up the connecting stairs
Farking freezing.

The thing is that they also don't allow for how often they have to shut offthe electricity because they are working, or the bit where they had to move some gas pipeing - so it is not just the cold air coming in, it is the hours at a time when you have no heating or hot water.

If its any consolation its not always a walk in the park having major building work done in the spring summer either.

We had half a roof covered in tarpaulin in May a few years ago and had the most horrendous storms and downpours.

I was about 7 months pregnant at the time and ended up sleeping on a mattress on the floor in DDs room just to get away from the noise of flapping tarpaulin. Also had rainwater pissing through dripping through removed roof into finished rooms below etc.

Just make sure that you have plenty of places to escape to during the days for peace, quiet and warmth

Hmm, this is helpful thank you.

We're just replacing the conservatory with a proper built extension. It's already open plan on two sides, to the kitchen and dining room, so they'd seal off those bits and just word on the extension, which is sort of the corner between them, making a kind of L shape. The whole extension is tiny really, just over about 2 metres by 3 metres.

Also, it doesn't involve any heating (there's a radiator right next to the space) so that's one less thing to do. We have a coal fire in the front room, so could huddle round that, and we're not in during the day time except on weekends.

Builder is saying 3 weeks though. That's a long time to be cold in my eyes.

oh - I'm also looking at a 3m x 2m extension (infil with 2 walls already there). Can I ask how much yours is costing?

Mary, your extension plans sound exactly what we had done last year. There were patio doors out from both the kitchen & dining room onto a patio, and we basically had the extension built onto this, where the patio had been.

Our builders started in early October and finished at the end of November. They made the extension watertight before taking off the former patio doors (and thus exposing us to the cold). That happened mid-November. It was cold, but not unbearable and we had a nice fire in the sitting room to cuddle up to.

Our only mistake was going on holiday for 2 weeks on the day the builders were due to have finished. We got back to an absolute mess and the house was freezing!

Our extension cost £22k, incl plumbing, electrics, oak flooring (not great quality though ), decorating throughout downstairs and a new patio.

CS, we've been quoted £7k for it, but I think that's a good deal. As I say, no plumbing or electrics in it though.

TBH, our house is so damned cold anyway, I'm wondering if it's really possible to be any worse. That's why the crappy conservatory has to go!

Thanks, that does sound good. I had 3 quotes - 10k, 15k & 18k (although the 15 & 18 included design). Does include some electrics, moving the radiator. Was meant to start a couple of weeks ago.....

Mine will involve doing the external brickwork then knocking through, so shouldn't be too much of an issue. Similar to when we had the conservatory put on the back.

OK, another question...

How secure is it?

Will I have to make DH sleep in the back room with a baseball bat and a rottweiller?