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?

50% to double on top is problematical I have to say.

The builder we are going to use has come in on his quote for 2 other houses near us so that's hopeful?

We have about 25% put away (but the quotes are monstrous)

ImSoNotTelling - yes, I feel like it

UFH can be great. We just used in both refurbs. We corrected our mistake from the last one (not using insulation) and making diff (less critical) mistake this time. This time I think we should have kept a normal (small)radiator in our largest sitting room so that we can have quick blast of heating. UFH (especially under wood) has a very slow response.

What type of UFH are you having?

Most critical thing about UFH is not to skimp on the insulation!!!

ImSoNotTelling - you should be okay as long as you don't end up with the scope creep that I am prone to but put away some for contingencies.

We restored 3 fires places in downstairs to go alongside UFH but a small radiator tucked away in the largest room would have been perfect so I occasionally use plug electrical for a quick blast. Also we have decided to keep normal radiators in upstairs of house as UFH is slow response. Also upstairs has now become very pleasantly warm since we did UFH and insulation downstairs

More advice on UFH - in the downstairs bathroom we should have kept small radiator as it is a small WC and the polumber didn't get much pipe into that room so it is a bit chilly not helped by the cold air coming in through the extractor fan vent. Will see whether a draft excluder over the extractor fan makes a big difference.

On the whole UFH great but I would consider the odd old style radiator startegically placed alongside the UFH especially if you have wooden floor

blimey.

all noted

when you say insulation you mean the insulation around the pipes under the floor? or something else?

we were going for ufh in the new parts downstairs and upstairs but due to costs are probably going to ditch ufh upstairs and just have it in the new big family room and utility.

we are probably going to have amtico flooring which I suspect will allow the heat through much quicker than wood

Very good insulation under the floor is absolutely key. Then you can run it continuously at low cost. Also affects performance. We made that mistake in previously house. Are you using elctric or hot water pipes? Either way insulation, insulation, insulation. If you are skiming any walls then worth insulating. even if you don't hav cavities you can put a thin insulation layer.

We think UFH upstairs would be of marginal benefit.

hot water pipes here, i think the running cost of teh electric stuff is huge.

have noted re. insulation!

agreed. Electrical in upstairs bathroom with insulation and timer is fine but you are of course, correct

maybe we will think again of electric in the bathrooms

we are maybe going to have a wet room and I think with a traditional radiator it could just be soggy in there the whole time.

i have a theory that wetrooms are for people in hot countries or who have ufh. otherwise surely everything will just start going mouldy

yes, we are putting in wetroom with UFH upstairs * 2.

Wetroom is just pretenious word for walk in shower room without shower try but continuous tiling instead.

Holy shit! 64K is that all in, kitchens bathrooms the lot?

We had similar done 2 years ago, 45k all in.

UFH in extension here too (with wooden floor) and adding a couple of vertical rads, as its pretty much north facing and we don't want it to be cold. Water pipes, not electric.

Am deeply of all your reasonable neighbours. Ours is still living in a parallel universe and rang dh up at 9.30 last night (yup, Easter Sunday) to discuss her 'appeal' and say she's feeling bullied by the party wall surveyors. We've tried to explain a zillion times, and she's stalling on everything...now looks as though she's granting access to a surveyor on 20th April: only 3 months after we served the Party Wall notice emoticon.

We really wanted to move in by summer...

dh has dropped in a copy of our perm. dev. cert. and a copy of an email we got from the council saying she has no right to appeal. I don't think it will make a blind bit of difference

Elibean- good idea to have a vertical rad or two. You wouldn't need the anything large. We should have done that on our main reception room but at least we have the open wood fires in each of the reception rooms. Sorry about the neighbour

TDiddy can I ask how much UFH costs in an area about 30m2? The reason I ask is that one of our quotes (builder1) has included UFH but we aren't going to get it, so we were going to use this to try and get our other quote (builder2) lowered (as he is roughly the same price as the first quote but hasn't inc UFH).

I'm also a bit annoyed with builder1 as he has told my mate how much our quote is and has given all sorts of opinions on our extension like 'if I were them I'd move as the extension will be so complicated and it's a really tight space'. I got his name from my mate as he is doing her ext just now, and I would have been open with her on his quote anyway but I just don't think it's the place for a builder to be discussing our affairs with anyone! Is it not all confidential? I am more annoyed with him suggesting we should just move- and as for a small tight space, our extension will be 3m x 8m over two floors, plus a 3x3m single storey , I thought that was a pretty big extension!!!

Thanks, TDiddy. We were warned by a neighbour of ours, who is a heating engineer, that north facing extensions can be chilly...I also know, on the subject of UFH, that a lot of boilers apparently struggle to cope with the extra load. So efficient UFH needs a pokey boiler, as it were (ours is new, and big, so hopefully pokey ).

Wood fires sound lovely though...

Ooh nice to see a thread like this. We are currently awaiting plans from the architect for extending our porch across the front of the house, using the extra room to increase the kitchen and also knocking through to the currently v pokey dining room to get a big kitchen diner and installing a downstairs loo...will be interesting to see what quote we get from our builder...

Talking of north facing extensions, we are having a big glazed area in our extension (north facing) which will have two 2m long floor to ceiling windows, one on each adjacent wall IYKWIM. We will also have french doors in the same room but I'm getting worried about heat loss & the room being cold. My neighbour who has a conservatory facing the same way said to me not to get a conservatory cos hers is always freezing despite central heating. Do you think the amount of glass we are planning is a bad idea? Would it help if we raised the windows about 2foot off the floor or something? Any ideas?

Ensure that the glass has good thermal efficiency. Our North facing conservatory is crap though. Will eventually knock it down and build a huge kitchen/living area extension with lots of windows for the view.

Spent the afternoon designing and getting quotes from the man from Dolphin for big wetroom + ensuite bathroom. Very expensive compared to my builder!

Hello team!

Just wondering, has anyone signed up to their contract with the builder ...?

We didn't sign a contract, because builder is a mate.

TDiddy, is that good? I mean, in terms of feeling more confident about builder quotes? Big wetroom sounds wonderful...

Re North facing extension: we're having standard sized folding doors across most of ours. Two sets, with about 3-4ft of wall in between. And a load of velux windows above. TD is right - quality of glass is important. I'm a bit worried about it, but I know it will get sunshine (from above) in summer and if its well insulated, with UFH and rads, should be ok

morning all, I fully intend to sign a contract with our builder whoever that may be. I want to know what our costs should be and hope that having a contract will make the builder stick to that amount, with only agreed things added on. We are remortgaging and borrowing £X so we can't go over that amount, plus all our savings seem to have been swallowed up paying the hidden costs like the architect etc.

Elibean, surely you should still sign a contract even if your builder is a mate? Don't mean to sound pessimistic but what if something went wrong? At least you could refer to your contract so it could all just be business instead of it becoming personal?

Anyone any ideas what we need to discuss with the builder once we choose him? We are 99.9% certain we are going with builder#2 and he said he can come up and meet us after his easter hols. So far I want to ask:

-what type / grade / efficiency the windows are
-how much he has budgeted for our internal / external doors
-will he throw in a velux for free
-will he reduce his costs to match builder#1's quote
-how long will building work last
-when will he start
-how will we pay him
-will he let my BIL fit / supply the bathroom
-ummmmmm, what else?

My BIL is a plumber so he is going to source our bathroom, radiators & doors at trade prices yippeee! Apparantly they pay about 70% less than the public! How can they get away with charging so much more for the public?!

Sounds like you're ploughing ahead, Sleeves All good questions, btw.

Yes, we probably should He did our loft last year (before we moved, other house), and we did get an official quote from him, a breakdown of costs, a time frame etc. Just haven't signed a formal contract.

It IS amazing what you can get for trade prices - my brother is doing the same for us for lots of bits (he's a designer, which covers all sorts of trade reductions apparently ) and our builder has got us skips at a very competitive rate too, from a mate of his. Does make me a bit at what I've always paid in the past!