Extension process

AHarvey

AHarvey

AHarvey

Soldato
Joined
6 Mar 2008
Posts
10,085
Location
Stoke area
Hi,

We've a 3 bedroom semi and it's 2 full sized bedrooms and 1 box room.

Wife wants to get pregnant again so we're going to be 1 kid too many for the house so our choices are:
1) move somewhere
2) extend
3) no more kids.

I'm ok with all 3 :D

1) Our house is worth £160k, £50k we own. Houses within our price range and location aren't very attractive to me, and 3 of them are down our road and my wife refuses to sell, buy a big chunk of land a live in a yurt.

3) Is not an option for the wife, which leaves:

2) I've a plan to extend over our driveway where the carport is so it'll be adding a driveway width onto the house. It'll double the size of the box room into a normal sized room, add a 4th full size bedroom over the drive. Downstairs, i'd move the hall to the other side of the stairs sot it's now where the drive it. Extend the lounge to include where the hall was. Add a downstairs toilet and cloakroom and double the size of the kitchen. It's a massive job but it's the best design i've come up with and it looks good on paper.

The question is, what's the best process to follow?

Could you get a builders quote first to price it up to see if it's even a possibility or do we need to speak to an architect first then look for quotes?
Do you really need an architect?

What have others experienced when extending?
 
That's a reasonably sizable extension.

Could easily be £45-£75k fully finished. Work on £1750-£3250 per square metre. You are unlikely to get lower these days as a domestic client but it can easily go higher.

The cost of borrowing that much either vs moving should be carefully considered.

You also need to consider impact of disruption and duration of works and depending on how it is tied in/knocked through plus although optional the cost of temporary accomodation in some stages.

You will need a couple of £k up front for design and planning fees.

Builders unlikely to quote without any plans in any more detail on pricing than I have given above.

Architect can give a reasonable figure once plans are produced.
 
AHarvey said:
Could you get a builders quote first to price it up to see if it's even a possibility or do we need to speak to an architect first then look for quotes?
Do you really need an architect?

What have others experienced when extending?
Click to expand...
Obviously we're in different areas, but here you wouldn't even get a builder to turn up without signed off plans.

From recent memory (and I'll write more if you want later):

- Get an architect
- Get plans drawn up
- Get plans seen by Structural Engineer if architect doesn't take care of it
- Get planning permission and ask building control to look the plans over (BC is optional at this stage, but we did, and it saved us some money because they pointed out that some of the steels specced up were too much, so we got cheaper steel).
- Get a Quantity Survey done (optional but this really reduces the cowboy builders trying to rip you off if you're able to produce a QS if expected build/materials costs).
- Now start to get builders round
- Budget for moving out. This - seriously - is not optional, especially with the work you've listed.

You'll be surprised how many builders contact you once they see your planning permission go through (as its all public record). My experience of these were they are all chancers. The good builders are busy and don't have time to scour planning permission portals. Some of these will simply not respond to you once you tell them you've got a QS because to quote they'd then have to reveal their profit margin.
 
platypus said:
/snip
- Get plans seen by Structural Engineer if architect doesn't take care of it
- Get planning permission and ask building control to look the plans over (BC is optional at this stage, but we did, and it saved us some money because they pointed out that some of the steels specced up were too much, so we got cheaper steel).
Click to expand...

Somewhat off topic but I'd be concerned and going back to my structural engineer with a query about their spec's if building control is saying to reduce steel etc.
 
Have a look to see what other houses have been extended in your area. That will give a good idea of what planners will accept.
Get an architect.
Andi.
 
novaenough said:
Somewhat off topic but I'd be concerned and going back to my structural engineer with a query about their spec's if building control is saying to reduce steel etc.
Click to expand...

They do things differently down in Englandshire. Scottish Councils don't want to take any responsibility on these type of things so leave it entirely up to the Engineer and SER scheme to cover the structural side of things.
 
do you really need an architect at this stage?

Some good measurements of your house and land, some paper and a ruler and set of pencils and youve got the outline down. It is, after all, just a brick box.

Majority of materials easily specified too. Bricks per 1000, steel per length. concrete, roof tiles. All easily priced up and should cover 80% of material cost right?

Id do the above then get quotes, then go for the full design up if you decide to go ahead.
 
Pringle W said:
They do things differently down in Englandshire. Scottish Councils don't want to take any responsibility on these type of things so leave it entirely up to the Engineer and SER scheme to cover the structural side of things.
Click to expand...
Well you learn something everyday.
Thanks for the info Pringle W
 
novaenough said:
Somewhat off topic but I'd be concerned and going back to my structural engineer with a query about their spec's if building control is saying to reduce steel etc.
Click to expand...
Yeah we talked to BC about that and they said simply most SEs do it as a belt and braces approach. Go Figure.
 
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