How do I bathroom / kitchen / extension? etc.

That was the original plan and we were confidently told it wouldn't really add too much to the cost...

140k for roughly 30m² of extra space is quite punchy if you break it down to m² cost.
does this include any other costs such as demolition etc?
it's it a difficult plot? any restricted access on the street or anything?

I'd imagine glazing will be one of the prime costs.
Then looks to be a fair bit of steel.
Personally I think that price seems somewhat steep if it doesn't include kitchen and floor

So the thick end of 200k with the vodka and tonic and professional fees.

Sounds absolutely mad to me. That's nearly 7k a sq m.

Worked out aright

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This is frikkin wild & I love it.

My kids would instantly brain themselves on anything like that tho…

Toe stubbing final boss. Looks great though!

❤️

Does anyone make a fire door that looks like a Victorian pine, four-panel door? My builder is sceptical but I imagine someone must, right?

Like this??

Searching traditional style fire door brought up loads. Like this, or this.

That's the business, yeah. I could have Googled that before coming to LFGSS but wanted to keep you lot on your toes.

Windows coming out today so they can make good the sides with brick. The new ones will be thin aluminium frames so the bit that housed all the sash gubbins gets bricked up and plastered over. Then we have three or four weeks of OSB windows in the meantime.

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Nice.

What if you decide you really like the OSB windows? Could save a fair bit in the long run.

A few daylight-style lamps around the place and you're sorted.

I like the texture but they let very little light through. One bonus is you can't see what the builders have done to my garden anymore.

Get yourself down to Magazine London. Never seen so much OSB in one place, not even at Bullder Depot.

Get more quotes.

Borrow more money if you can / have to?

We're doing the same for both windows on the first floor, but we're building out the reveal using timber and PIR insulation, as masonry will create a massive cold bridge.

Are you insulating the solid brick wall internally/externally?

As my old man would say if I commented on the price of things
they’ll never be this cheap again
He wasn’t always right mind.

No. They're not insulated anywhere at all so the whole wall is a cold bridge. The windows will be the only insulated part. Got to love Victorian houses. The downstairs extension is ludicrously well insulated - you can almost feel the bulk of it when you're in there, it sort of deadens sound too. But the rest of the house leaks heat terribly.

Ah, fair enough. We're spending a fortune insulating as much of the original house as possible, but a big part of me has a sinking feeling we're pissing in the wind...

I reckon your insulated suspended floor will make a massive difference, especially to airtightness.

Downstairs feels really different. Hard to explain, but it feels more still, and muffled. You can definitely sense the insulation under the floor. I think it should be much more comfortable. The thermostat is showing higher indoor temperatures but it's really hard to compare like for like with weather changing.

I lament the inflexible planning laws in the UK that cockblock you being able to flatten your busted old Victorian dump and build a near-passive replacement for far less cost than extending and retrofitting.

Being in a modern, well-insulated, well-constructed building with good airtightness and ventilation is an absolute revelation compared to the bulk of UK housing stock...

I don't know that you couldn't. Would the council really say no? None of the houses on my street are listed or protected. They let people pave over the front gardens, turn them into 6-bed HMOs (basically battery hen living), pebble dash them, whatever. I'm sure they'd let you knock one down.

Try and get full planning permission and party wall agreements to do that to a Victorian terrace!

You can get away with a litany of crimes under permitted development, granted; but straight up scooping out an existing house and building something new with a different layout and wildly different construction methods in its place just doesn't compute with the decision makers.