How do I bathroom / kitchen / extension? etc.

No one who works for their money.
Someone who either owns one or more successful companies or bought property when it was cheap, or a bit of both.
I know of people who bought similar places in Dalston when it was a real slum at 90k a pop, they are now worth about £1.5 mil each.

I have a friend who’s parents bought him a run-down Victorian house off Clapton roundabout for peanuts, back when it was ‘murder mile’, with shootings/stabbings outside Chimes nightclub almost every weekend. We used to come back to his after squat raves to find the road cordoned off regularly...

He slowly turned the basement into a flat, sold that for £600K, and the 3-storey house above is now worth £1mil.

exactly... my Uncle turned down a 3 bed in Barbican for 4.5K because it was just another council estate and they already lived in one.
I think my parents first house was 9K and I saw one on the same street recently for 650K.

The price jump that generation have experienced is not far off a once only event IMO.

Forum-approved builders in East?

I’m looking for quotes to do a side-return extension on a Victorian house in E10; have structural calcs, plans and party wall docs ready.

please take every line that starts with the word 'custom' and strike a big line through it, im begging u

https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/58427968/

ooft dream garden on this

well this isn't how you do it, only done 15 years ago or so

bit of a leak and a bit damp, new bathroom time, seem to have found a really good builder though, will divulge his details once it's all finished and if it's done well ... and so you can't poach him

just another council estate

Barbican's always been private, it's next door Golden Lane estate that's council. There's some great contemporary news/doc clips of residents with a little neighbourly envy (Golden Lane had swimming pool, launderette etc).

have you seen my spreadsheet?

Ok, looked like just another council estate…

Questions re structural engineers: I am planning a kitchen reno which will include taking down a load-bearing wall between my kitchen/diner and enlarging a window opening such that it will need a small joist/new lintel. These feel like fairly straight forward structural alterations. I had been quoted £800+VAT from the surveyor I was obliged to commission to produce the report for the freeholder's approval. Having just met the surveyor I am very keen to find someone else to do the structural drawings. I have the following questions:

• What would be a reasonable price estimation for the drawings I require?
  
• Would you expect any 'aftercare' from a structural engineer? i.e. if a contractor required clarification about an aspect of the drawings or you wanted to query whether you could make a minor change?
  
• Would they provide any sort of a mediation service/'help' with getting building reg sign-off?
  
• Is there anything else I should be thinking of? Would some contractors provide this service? My assumption is I want the drawings in hand before getting contractors in to quote but happy to be put straight on this.
  
• Does anyone have a recommendation for a structural engineer who would cover SE London?
  
  

Any input, insight or recommendations greatly appreciated! Cheers

Want me to forward the quote we had for our structural engineer - much larger scope but will give you and idea of how they break down costs?

Had a call with the Architects today - obviously there was a gap between the full spec of works and what we had for budget. Feeling better about where we've come out with. Basically we're removing a chimney and opening up quite a few walls, this basically means more steel and given the old, higgeldy piggeldy nature of the property they're being prudent with budgeting quite a bit for this work. It's a key part of the design so we're going ahead with it and cost engineering in other places, whilst leaving custom carpentry to a later date. Still got some time to go before hearing back from planning and even longer until we start but excited again about it all

That would be really helpful, thanks mate! PM'ing now with email....

Hey @Tenderloin, have you appointed to QS to ensure you are getting market rate for the works, or are you reliant on your architect who also happens to be the contractor/project manager?

That would be a very odd way of building a relationship.

No we haven’t appointed a QS - as far as I know we’re reliant on the Architect. We do get a full itemised breakdown of cost so imagine this would be possible to do if we so wished.

Finally got updated plans for the second part of our extension.
We've been speaking to a couple of builders, just trying to get a gauge on price.

Planning on Zinc / zinc effect roof with 3000x1000mm fixed skylight.
full height glazing on the 45 degree wall, bifolds, and a slightly unusual slim window to bring more light into the kitchen area.
The garden wall runs at an angle, so rather than having unusable garden space, extending all the way across the garden to have a utility area connecting the garage, garden and kitchen.

Current kitchen is where the lounge is marked, with the current external wall being between the lounge and dining room.

Not including a new kitchen, we're hoping somewhere around £60-70k, for approx. 32 sqm.
Does that sound reasonable? (in Hampshire)

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It does depend on region but from my recent forays into this kind of project in outer london I’m not seeing a £/m2 rate of less than £2000+Vat. Last one I tendered came out approx 2300+vat £/m2. This was more or less ‘all in’ mid range spec (engineered oak floors/couple of velux/howden’s kitchen , Bosch appliances etc etc).

No-one have any structural engineering experience/recommendations to throw at me?

Original post

I used https://www.porthousedean.co.uk/

Just had a tiling quote in for our very small bathroom (2m x 1.5m), and it seems high to me. It's 3m2 of flooring, with the floor tiles also on the bath panel. And then subway tiles on 4 walls totalling about 16m2. Any thoughts? I'm obviously not an expert, but it seems like a lot of time to do a very small room.

Labour = 6 days

1 day build bath panel and access hatch, fix boards and tile

1 day floor (concrete sub base) + boxing, tiling in floor tile

3 days wall tiling. Based on 200x100mm tile and non black grout

1 day finish. Grout etc

£200 per day x 6 days = £1200 + materials

Timber, screws, ply, primer, adhesive, grout, trim for window = 2 lengths, miscellaneous
= £215

day rate seems cheap but not sure it would take 6 days

@chrisbmx116 just had a bathroom tiled he might be able to help

Price wise i dont think its that bad but they will defo be juggling jobs as thats not 6 full shifts for the size of it.

Expect a good structural engineer to write to you explaining what they will do for the fee, and their hourly rates for dealing with things additional to their scope. Same goes for any consultant actually. It's in all their interest and yours to be rigorous about defining what they will and won't do.

Are there lots of uneven bits to cut round for the wall tiling? I'm very much an amateur but 2 walls took me a couple of evenings to tile, then another couple to grout. Couple of days should be enough for the tiling - that looks generous by a day but it's probably just rounding with all the other stuff that could easily be a bit over one day.