Anyone planning or doing a build/renovation at the moment?

[LoveItOrListIt]

Is anyone contemplating or doing this at the moment? We’ve been saving for years and now the time has come (hurrah!) but oh my goodness, I didn’t think it would be so hard! We’ve been punted by a number of architects (sorry we’re too busy to help)….plus am hearing prices have sky-rocketed and you can’t get a decent tradesman or materials for love nor money….
Am I just being incompetent about the whole thing or is it really the worst time ever to be doing/planning building work? We’re Edinburgh based.

We’re getting our loft converted.About 15 months ago we got plans drawn up. Planning granted a year ago. Took ages to find a company who would do it. Costs much higher than expected. What we hoped would be £25-30k is now a £40k project.
Signed contract last September and still waiting! The builders we are going with will only start once all our materials are in the warehouse and the team will work only on our house when they do start so that’s something. It’s likely to be Sept-Dec before it happens.

So, in short, yes it’s more expensive and has been much harder! But we need the space as we both now work from home and moving also seems much more hassle and more expensive, so it felt like the lesser of two evils for now!

I'm concerned about this same thing , about to put planning in for conversion of property and yet I've heard it's really hard to get good trades , materials and costs are rocketing . Not a good outlook .

I work in construction (client side), and yes, it is that bad. I've worked in the industry for 35 years, and have never known it be this difficult before.

Yep, just finished a conversion. Engaged builder six months before he could start, work delayed due to availability of materials etc. we downgraded our plans due to rising costs!

Urgh…I feel like Edinburgh is renovation central at the best of times but my initial buzz in “getting started” is rapidly disappearing ☹️

What would you do if you needed work done @Tomorrowisanewday? Do you think the situation is likely to be better, worse or the same next year?

We are in a similar situation and not too far from Edinburgh. We recently had drawings completed after waiting 15 months for our preferred architect. We are now wondering to proceed on the basis that we'll need to wait a while for a builder and costs will be high, or wait a few years to see if things calm down. We had been planning to extend when we bought this house 8 years ago, but decided we'd live in it for a while to make sure we knew what we wanted. We delayed things because I was cautious about what would happen to the economy post-Brexit. With hindsight we should have pushed ahead before everything went crazy!

Geezabreak82 - I've been advising clients that if they don't need the works immediately (for example, we've got clients who develop offices, retail space etc where they have agreements to lease that they can't break easily) , then to wait until next year. Prices won't drop dramatically, but by then, they should level, and there should be more certainty. It's the uncertainty that's making the process so much more difficult than "normal". At the moment, we've got some builders holding their price for 7 days, and for some trades, 24 hours, which isn't workable.