Support thread for those crazy enough to be extending their homes this year!

[ilikeyoursleeves]

Hiya, after hijacking another thread about massive extensions (not massive erections LOL) there seems to be a few of us who are about to embark on building projects this year. So if you are one of them come join in so we can share all the excitement, nervousness and bewilderment at everything that needs done!

We are currently awaiting quotes from builders for a two storey side extension plus a single storey at the rear. We had our first quote in today which is £64k. Not sure if this is good or bad, it will be interesting to compare the quotes when they are all in. We are also awaiting planning permission but should get it fine as our house already has planning for the extension that came with the sale of the house (but we had to resubmit as we have changed it a bit). Awaiting a building warrant too.

I'm very excited but frankly crapping it re the costs as we are going to have to remortgage plus DS2 will start nursery so we will have 2 lots of chilcare costs too.

ARGH!!!

So I for one need my hand held throughout all this process I just keep thinking of the end product and hoping it will all be fine.

What's everyone else doing and when?

And congrats on the planning, Sleeves!

OK I'm no further forward, not sure what breeze blocks are...?

Thanks for the understanding re the builder, yes it's totally up to him to do his paperwork correctly so as long as we pay him he can then do whatever he wants. As you say Elibean, it's pretty rife in the building trade- the builder said he has had lawyers and policemen paying him in cash in the past! Not that that makes it right of course....

I think what we will do is get some work through with VAT on it so he is traceable so to speak. He uses some non VAT registered men so all that bit is above board for him. And he said he will put all that's included / excluded in writing and sign it. We will have a retention fee too so I really don't think he will scarper with the job unfinished. Plus he won't get any money til he does each bit and it's signed off by building control. DH keeps reassuring me that we arent doing anything wrong and that the builder can be trusted as he knows him and did SIL's extension etc.

Elibean, what type of doors you got? We are getting French Doors and then 2 x 2m floor to ceiling glazing in our single storey bit at the back. We need to choose our French doors soon- well, once the joiner gets us the brochure!

BB= big ugly blocks made of something concrete-like, I think! They get plastered over, so the finish is just white and smoothish.

We have folding doors, Sleeves, from Magnet. Standard size, I think.

rebl meant to say earlier, fingers tightly crossed for your dh and jobs...my BF was in same situation last year for months, and it was soo stressful. All fine now, and hope will be for you v v soon.

This vat business - does anyone know if there are any rules about vat being fixed at the beginning of a contact? or does the rate apply at the time the work is done/materials are bought?

just that vat is bound to go up possibly a lot straight after the election, and if there is a way of fixing it at current rate that would be helpful. i'm trying to google but not getting very far.

also, if one was to want to pay someone in cash, how do you get hold of it? i mean, if I start withdrawing £100s of pounds in cash left right and centre, the bank are going to be on the phone asking me what I'm up to, aren't they? What are people thinking about that?

ISNT I haven't a clue about what will happen with VAT after the election but I'd imagine if it were to go up we would get plenty notice? Or maybe not You could always ask your builder to fix it at 17.5%?

Re getting hold of cash, DH asked the bank this when we got our remortgage and they didn't so much as bat an eyelid. They said just to call in advance re how much you want (and she was talking ££££'s) and they will arrange it. She said we have it on our record that we are remortgaging for house improvement purposes so they will know we aren't shifting loads of cash about fraudulantly. The fact that she didn't bat an eyelid makes me think this kind of thing is more common that we think!

I think that i'l have a word with the builder and if it is the case that it can be fixed at the start of the contract/beginning of work then we could make an agreement or he could come and dig a small hole and that would be that.

he'll know all about it I'm sure.

re the cash, yes actually it would be big chunks not a bit every day (i guess) so yes i have taken out big sums of cash before. when I did it, it was to move it to an account in a different bank with better interest and I didn't want to pay teh transfer fees, so is done for non-dodgy reasons you're right it will be fine

Well, planning lady said we can't change the materials at this stage...so dh has to go and say 'no' to the neighbour again. Poor dh

At least you can say that it's the planning lady who is saying no so your neighbour won't think it's you saying no. Hopefully that will be the last you need to deal with her!

Any action on your building site today Elibean?

architect has just been round looking down teh drains

who thought that would be a cause for excitement

Did he find anything interesting down the drains? A poo or five?

no turds

DD thought it was wonderful!

They should be easy to move, thank god. I really didn't want to have trapdoors inside the house (which is what our neighbours have).

hi guys, you have to pay VAT on everything virtually, your builder may or may not be VAT registered, they can choose. I believe you can avoid paying VAT if you agree with your builder before he starts any work. All he does is "forget to do" paperwork on his books, so his job is done for cash. You can go to your bank and ask for thousands in cash and you hand it to him (after the job is completed to your satisfaction of course) otherwise there will be no proof of work carried out, so be careful. 17.5% can work out a lot of money on thousands of pounds, you must weigh up the pros and cons. He possibly may also not pay any tax this way.
Reading this thread with interest, we are having a loft conversion, we live in greater manchester. Its costing 29k with a gable extension and will have waited nearly two years for our highly recommended builder. dont ask square footed havent a clue but will be quite big.

I thought that busineeses with a turnover less than a certain amount didn't have to be vat registered? so if you got small/one man band type people there may genuinely be no vat. or something

our bloke said we would get receipts and we will have a contract with him so...?

waiting 2 years for top builder is v impressive - i think i would have got impatient and ended up starring on rogue traders

We're now 3 weeks into our loft conversion. The dormer is up, and you can see the openings for the french windows and the shower room. Ours is hip to gable, (still don't know what that means!). Next week the electricians and plumber are arriving so we can tell them where we want our sockets, light, etc. V exciting so far!

Drains are definitely progress, won't be long now, ISNT! lol re dd.

Vonny, the loft sounds great - we'll be doing a hip to gable, and I'm not too sure either but think its to do with lifting the end of the roof so you get more head space, no?

dh over at neighbour's now. Am sure it will be fine. We're offering to get our tree surgeon pal in to help look after her climbing shrub when the fence gets moved, try and avoid killing it. And I've googled some high quality exterior paint which, hopefully, will live up to its rep and not need re-doing for a long, long time!

Progress report pending...haven't been to look, but I do know the bricklayer was there today....

marking my place. My house is an absolute buiding chaos and I shall follow this thread with attention

eli am sending good luck vibes your way

vonny - wow! how does it look? And have to ask - french windows in the loft? so you are having a balcony? i am imagining wonderous things!(wow again!)

she went nuts. Utterly loopy. Raged at the council, at the surveyors, then suddenly turned on dh and accused him of enjoying it all - couldn't be further from the truth, and he finally got angry and told her so. Anyway, she did sort of apologize, then ranted some more at the council, and then asked if she could use our builder and dump her garden shed in our skip

Long story short, no to the skip, but dh did agree to get someone to make her a flower bed next to the fence once we've re-instated it, and do our best to preserve her (skinny, ratty looking) clematis.

Sorry for the rant....should have started a new thread, eh?!

Anyway: brick layer laid most of the bricks for the damp course. The doors, apparently, weigh a ton! Light, oak coloured frames with thick double glazing.

Evening all

Sleeves I meant to reply to your post on VAT last night. I think it would ok to do cash if you feel confident with the builder. One of our potential builders has said we can pay cash for some parts of the work to cut down on the VAT, but we'll still have a contract etc (if we get the all the quotes back that it - grr)

Elibean what a pain with the neighbour, bet you're glad your DH broke the news not you!

No further progress here, still waiting for the last quote, and haven't had time to follow up on the sunlight stealing windows issue. We're off on holiday for a week so I'm going to forget about it all and deal with all when I've got some more energy.

ISNT yes if you have an annual turnover of less than £70k (I think) you don't need to be VAT registered, so a lot of tradesmen actually don't need to pay VAT. My builder uses some guys who are under the VAT threshold so they don't pay VAT.

vonny your work so far sounds exciting! Has it been a pain having the work done or has it been OK?

elibean what an utter arse a difficult neighbour you have. She sounds off her head! I used to live somewhere where the neighbours seemed to make a hobby out of complaining about things, like where our car was parked, if we hadn't taken the bin in etc. She needs a decent hobby LOL.

lifeistooshort what are you getting done just now? Sounds like you are in the middle of it all!

doingOK don't know how you have held out for your builder! When will you be starting the work?

Oooooo update- DH called the builder there and he said that his joiner will give us brochures for our French Doors this week and that he is typing up our 'contract' letter tonight. He also estimates that building work will start in two weeks!!!! (ish). I wonder what his letter will be like as he doesn't strike me as the most proficient at computing (I asked him to email me once and he said 'ah me and computers don't get on!').

OMG, it feels a bit scary now. We need to clear out the side bit of our house which will be getting demolished, not sure where to put everything (it contains washer, dryer, ironing board, all the cleaning stuff, mop, buckets, filing cabinet, shoes, boots, jackets, all the DVD's, two prams and a whole load more junk...eek).

A question re Fench doors actually- we are having them in the kitchen and I'm not sure whether to have them opening inwards into the house, or outwards? Normally inwards would make sense but the space isn't too big so I'm thinking outwards so the doors don't need to take u a big swing space inside IYKWIM? What do you think?

Outwards is cool.

IMO.

oh and i found a standard contract type thingy on the internet earlier - its a fill in the gaps job and looks straightforward, if anyone is thinking about having one but not sure what/how etc.

That looks like a good contract, it covers loads including things I hadn't thought of like them using our sink to clean paintbrushes etc... I forgot to ask the builder about the portaloo issue too, don't fancy them all traipsing through the house all day to do a piss (or worse, a poo!).

The only disadvantage to the doors opening outwards would be them getting covered in rain, but then they'd only be open for a few seconds for us to get in the house when raining. We are having raised decking right outside the doors (like a balcony about 2m x 1m) so another disadvatage might be that we wouldn't be able to sit at the balcony with a table & chairs if the doors open outwards?

Hmmm, must think about this one...

Hi all, been lurking and just catching up.

Sleeves - be a bit careful with your build being just 25cm from your neighbour - the party wall act will apply. Your neighbour might rightly be concerned that your foundations will undermine his structure. Is she/he on board with your build?

Cant remember who it was who said (and I paraphrase here team!) the builder said they can just pay a bit of vat to make it ok. That would be fraud ...on part of the builder and the person employing him! Just be a bit wary of this...if he is not charging vat then I would want to know whether it is for legitimate reasons or not, i think.

Whether the rate is fixed or charged at the rate prevailing at the time the staged payment is raised depends on your contract. I dont know many straight builders who would fix it in a contact at say 17.5% and not have the ability to pass on any increase he has to pay in the event that an increase happens.

federation of Master Builders does a good "plain english" minr works building contract which is worth a look. You can of course delete/alter/add to any pre-printed clause in any contract to make it fit the agreement you have met with your builder.

For these large schemes of over about £50k-£60k. I would make sure you agree staged payments, and agree a 10% retention payable after a 6month snagging period.

(My start date has been delayed by five weeks to start mid-July. We agreed this becasue it is essential to us that when our builder starts, he comes to us exclusively for the whole period and not need to be split between jobs, thus extending to build period...so we are ok with that)

Thanks little pushka that's very clear.

I guess a 10% retention over 6 months is considered fairly standard? I think that contract I found says one month - that's not really long enough is it.

Thing is I am v english at things like bargaining, haggling, taking about money, all that stuff ie I find it very uncomfortable. Am just going to bite the bullet. This is why it was so important for us to find a builder that i felt comfortable with - if we got a normal one, I find them intimidating at the best of times, so we'd never get anywhere.

Mid july isn't far off!

sleeves have you thought about other door options? I know the french/bifolding types are infashion but it might be worth seeing if there are other options that will give you the space you want. I mean we have bogstandard sliding doors at the mo - I know they're dull and not fashionable but if they give you the space on your patio and the space in the kitchen then something like that might be worth consideration