How do I bathroom / kitchen / extension? etc.

shit is spenny fr

4m back, approx 8m across. Hampshire south coast. £67500 + vat, including fancy zinc roof, 3m x 1m skylight, new boiler, underfloor heating.

Not including flooring, kitchen, and decorating, which I expect will come in about £15000.

I guess about £2000 / m2, but that does include £10-15k of extra of nice bits like the zinc, underfloor and massive skylight.

In our minds, it would have cost us approx: 25k in stamp duty and tax to move, and we’re quite happy where we are at the moment for school, convenience, etc.

And we would need to borrow probably £200-300k extra to buy a house nearby to make it worth the move.

Fortunately extension stage 1 raised the value nicely for a remortgage for most of the extension money.

Ta.
About to blow sixsomething on the forever house and still considering a 9x3 extension on the back as that would be it, done sorted, finished.

Might have to delay any work as my realistic pot for anything that needs doing will probably be down to £50k. Sounds like I need a 5+ year plan.

Aye, we had the same, from basic internet research we expected an extension to be about 50 and a loft 45 so borrowed enough to cover both only to find it barely covered one, but in retrospect I think a smaller than once planed extension was a good idea as would hate to have an even smaller garden than I already have.

Mortgage rates can be very cheap, but extension prices are going up, with material costs and demand.
I fully expect further material cost increases in the coming years, so if it were me, I would extend sooner rather than later.

Having said that, we're not in our 'forever' house, so an extension sooner means we get to enjoy it for longer before we decide to move. Probably at least another 5-6 years, probably 9 years with the kids moving onto secondary school.

Of course my other option is to find out who owns the paddock behind the house and throw cash money at them to sell.

This is my preferred option that my wife is "considering"

That would be incredible. Also garden studio?

Came home from two weeks holiday to this: - did not expect to be able to walk into our house, unlocked in such a casual way. All good though. Roof comes off today ready to build a vaulted/apex roof. Pray for the sun gods to shine on Scotland for the next 3 weeks.

Chickens, a small orchard and a woodworking shop would be the dream.

I've been watching Oakwood garden rooms on YouTube for all the tips to DIY.

Is that Zone 2 or 3? Because I'm in...

I left London, and now kentshire.

My commute (ha), is the same as when I was in crystal palace.

I'm working with an architect on an extension on our house, and are heading toward planning. But I want (rough) building estimates as obviously that will affect what options we take forward. Our architect has suggested https://www.estimators-online.com/ but I can't find many reviews. Does anyone have any experience of build cost estimators? It's £125 so in the grand scheme of things not a huge amount of money but is it usual to go to planning without having an idea of costs?

@chrisbmx116

OH HAI.
IMO...
Not much point going into planning without idea of cost.
I had a good build firm come round when I was weighing up options, who offered 3D designs and VR tours before build, who for a side and 2m out finger in the aired at 75K without glass or kitchen.
Here is a screenshot of how our costs worked out roughly. Your eyes will prob jump to 55K and think thats what we paid, but that doesn't include the door which was another 5ish, or VAT, another 11, or fees somewhere around 10...

Power user @Sheppz may be able to help.

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I got some rough costings from a couple of building firms pre-planning . This was done via my architect and contractors he works with regularly. TBH the quotes were not entirely accurate !

@fredtc we got a bunch of recommendations from our architect and then contacted another 5+ firms - we found a lot were reluctant to spend the time quoting for something that didn’t have planning permission which was annoying. However we managed to squeeze 3 very approximate quotes which were pretty inaccurate once the plans had gone through planning, changed and all the rest.

All this is to say we found it very hard to get builders interested in a job that wasn’t approved so be prepared for that.

Could also share designs on here and an idea of the spec you might go for - unless it's totally unique I'm sure you'll be able to crowd source an accurate idea

Yeah go on @fredtc ! Wanna see what you're planning...

thank you all, this is totally exactly the response I wanted.

it's a full width kitchen extension on a terraced house plus an extra room on top. but tbh it's so based on budget I'm not 100% sure yet myself. The architect wants a double height living room but I think I want a third bedroom...

As soon as I've got firmer plans I'll share them. I think I have to speak with the architect about builders. I guess the fun bit is thinking about what you want, then the unfun bit is trying to find a middle ground between what you want and what you can afford.

Nailed it.
For kitchen room on top you'll struggle to spend sub 150k I'd guess.
Double height living room sounds like a dream, but the extra bedroom would add more to resale.
Sounds like it may be quite a fancy bit of work Fred.

yeah in the first instance all you can do is use a £/m2 . If the general floor area of what you want plus a healthy contingency is way over then reduce the ambition.

£2300 is what I’m seeing for standard back extension stuff at the moment - that’s without fancy joinery , nice cladding and posh glazing etc

Builders are crazy busy right now - materials are scarce or doubling in price.

That quantity surveying website looks quite good tbf - having a ‘plan check’ by a local qs is another route and shouldn’t be too costly.

The whole thing is so chicken and egg.

1 "I want an extension and have £x" >
2 "please can I get a rough quote to see if I can afford it" >
3 "Not until you have drawings and planning approved" >
4 "But I can't decide on my plans till I know what it will cost and how big an extension I can afford......"

No wonder people pay over the odds for the all in one build companies or just give up.

If I had the money to spend on 3 sets of plans and applications I'd just buy a bigger house...

Big ol’ skylight lifted onto roof by hand, big old’ hole ready to receive it when finished.

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I'm now planning the process of getting the bathroom now. If I get the bathroom reskimmed the plan is to tile straight on it. Can I deal the bath and sink to the wall before tiling to offer that double seal protection?

Just ruling out having to dot and dab moisture boards etc

All going swell, until it’s noted that the pitch of the roof is not enough for the zinc by 1 degree.

Carpenters back the day after it’s noticed so it’s fixed, which is fine, schedule intact.

Skylight is dropped in place, looks fine.
While they are readjusting it and tacking in membrane, one of the lads puts a nail through the edge of the skylight and puts a crack in it.

Fml.

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