How do I bathroom / kitchen / extension? etc.

This was something I considered actually. I don’t have the same floor boards as these are the OG 1930s boards but I’m sure I could fashion something together from ripped reclaimed pine floor boards.

I’m in the same camp though , it does have the possibility of looking shit 😂. I tried to find something similar for inspo and couldn’t find anything to help

I think I’m edging more towards tiles the more I stare at it. I just can’t resolve how much I’ll obsess over the 2/3 of tile at the base. I’m sure I’ll forget after a few weeks…

Can’t tell if that would look good or shit

Imo you need less rustic/more modern boards for that to work.

I think what's on there kinda works with the tiles. So I'd be tempted to see if you could get a single sheet of ply cut to size and then paint it a dark grey / light charcoal with a bit of a greeny tone to tie into the tiles. Something like F&B Rock Bottom.

Main challenge will be finding something big enough for that 4m long bath.

We got quotes back... £12,000 to do up a small kitchen to basic levels. :S

I think not.

What does that include?

These are the labour costs (looks like it's ex-VAT which I'd not factored)

Existing kitchen base units and worktop removed £264.

• Existing tile splash back removed £118.
  
• Ceiling boarded over with new plasterboards £382.
  
• Ceiling and wall section (where the fridge was and splash back section)
  plastered £567.
  
• Water supply and waste pipe for the washing machine and tap/sink
  adjusted to adapt new position £764.
  
• Existing water heater repositioned and replaced with new (including
  rerouting the pipes; instant under sink water heater to be supplied by the
  client) PC SUM £466.
  
• Ducting for kitchen extractor fan supplied and installed £362.
  
• 1no socket plate replaced with new (electrical fittings to be supplied by
  the client) £15.
  
• 1no kitchen extractor fan fuse spur 1 st and 2 nd fix (electrical fittings to be
  supplied by the client) £196.
  
• 2no existing kitchen ceiling lights replaced with new (electrical fittings to
  be supplied by the client £54.
  
• New kitchen base units and laminated/wooden worktop installed (new
  base kitchen units and associated accessories to be supplied by the
  client) £1,289.
  
• Storage front remodelled as necessary - TBC
  
• Wall section between wall and base units lined with new splash back
  board (splash back board and finish trims to be supplied by the client)
  £373.
  
• Washing machine and freestanding electric cooker/oven and extractor
  fan installed and connected (appliances and associated accessories to
  be supplied by the client) £246.
  Ceiling and walls and woodwork prepared and painted (white finish;
  paint to be supplied by the client £1,089.
  
• Licensed waste disposal £330.
  Total: £6,515
  
  

Optional:

• Existing kitchen wall units removed £185.
  
• New kitchen wall units installed (new kitchen wall units and associated
  accessories to be supplied by the client) £766.
  Total: £951
  
  

All above prices are subject to VAT at current UK rate.

"Parts"

1 CLW5178 Clerk Gls White 900 CC 3 Standard Dwr Base White Cab 340.05 F
1 CLW5221 Clerk Gls White 500 CC HiLine Base White Cab 149.30 F
1 CLW5231 Clerk Gls White 600 CC HiLine Base White Cab 166.30 F
1 CLW5428 Clerk Gls White 500 CC 900 Tall Wall White Cab 145.00 F
1 CLW5431 Clerk Gls White 600 CC Full Height Wall White Cab 127.43 F
2 CLW5438 Clerk Gls White 600 CC 900 Tall Wall White Cab 361.82 F
1 CLW5445 Clerk Gls White 900 CC 900 Tall Wall White Cab 276.09 F
1 CLW560G Clerk Gls White 600 Built Under Oven Housing Base - Low Shelf White Cab 92.68 F
2 CLW591A Clerk Gls White 30mm Cornice/Pelmet Square Profile 2.4m 63.44 F
3 CLW5920 Clerk Gls White Continuous Plinth 2.75m 95.70 F
5 CLW5933 Clerk Gls White 910 Base Decor End 206.10 F
4 CLW5947 Clerk Gls White 932 Tall Wall Decor End 150.52 F
1 GIR0029 Zipbolt Slim Worktop Connecting Bolt 22mm (Pack of 3) 10.27
1 HBH1700 Bosch Black Touch Ctrl 4 Zone Ceramic Hob 60cm 239.29
1 HBH3401 Bosch S/Steel Single Fan Oven 60cm 205.71
1 HYH8102 Moulded Silver Cutlery Tray 900mm 26.37
1 LAM2304 Lamona S/Steel Canopy Extractor 60cm 85.09
1 PLU1002 Plumbing Kit for 1.0 Bowl Sinks with 1 x Appliance Trap 20.18
4 SDH2461 Quick-Step Moonstone Rigid Vinyl Tile 1.848m2 180.00
1 SNK9830 Lamona Easton S/Steel 1.0 Bowl Sink and Waste 251.42
1 TAP3476 Radstone Brushed Nickel Swan Neck Dual Lever Monobloc Tap 126.31
2 WHT6460 Matt White Square Edged Worktop 3m 22mm 433.46 F
2 WOK1097 Malibu Grey and Storm Blue Aluminium Backboard 3000mm x 750mm 734.16
1 WOR9068 White Worktop Jointing Compound 8.62
1 ZZD39 Delivery 99.00

I guess I was thinking more like 5k for some new cupboards but... scope creep. It's that thing where you're like "well, if we're doing this, we may as well do this now too". I reckon we can find cheaper bits and if I do the removal myself I could save a little bit but then it's more hassle for a few hundred quid when the total is 12k+

Existing kitchen base units and worktop removed £264.

You could do

Existing tile splash back removed £118.

you could do

Ceiling boarded over with new plasterboards £382.

a little high but not crazy

Ceiling and wall section (where the fridge was and splash back section)
plastered £567.

very expensive. They must think it is 2-3 days of plastering which sounds a lot

Water supply and waste pipe for the washing machine and tap/sink
adjusted to adapt new position £764.

extremely expensive for labour in my view, this is not hard. Are they lifting the floor boards and popping it out in exactly the right place? Are you moving it far away from where it is currently/towards the middle of the flat/house away from an exterior wall?

Existing water heater repositioned and replaced with new (including
rerouting the pipes; instant under sink water heater to be supplied by the
client) PC SUM £466.

seems high but not sure. What heater are you going for?

Ducting for kitchen extractor fan supplied and installed £362.

how far does this go? Seems expensive if just labour but suggests it is products as well

1no socket plate replaced with new (electrical fittings to be supplied by
the client) £15.

this is easy, but £15 is probably fine

1no kitchen extractor fan fuse spur 1 st and 2 nd fix (electrical fittings to be
supplied by the client) £196.

** more than I paid, but I’m no longer in L’sFL**

2no existing kitchen ceiling lights replaced with new (electrical fittings to
be supplied by the client £54.

As above

New kitchen base units and laminated/wooden worktop installed (new
base kitchen units and associated accessories to be supplied by the
client) £1,289.

doesn’t sound bad, depending on how big the kitchen is I suppose

Storage front remodelled as necessary - TBC
Wall section between wall and base units lined with new splash back
board (splash back board and finish trims to be supplied by the client)
£373.
seems high not sure

Washing machine and freestanding electric cooker/oven and extractor
fan installed and connected (appliances and associated accessories to
be supplied by the client) £246.

seems high

Ceiling and walls and woodwork prepared and painted (white finish;
paint to be supplied by the client £1,089.
Licensed waste disposal £330.
Total: £6,515

If you managed the trades separately it would be cheaper. That price probably includes 20% on top of everything for their time running around (but they likely apply it to things that take no running around as well). For a normal flat with a normal kitchen I would keep looking for alternate quotes.

Thanks very much for your analysis. I've never had any work done here other than spot stuff or mates hanging sliding doors or whatever so I've no idea when it comes to something of this scale.

The water setup is a mess. We used to have an immersion heater and cold water tank in a cupboard and that was replaced with an electric unit and now for some reason we have two water meters (neither of which Thames Water have the IDs for matching our house but that's another issue). So, I wanted to remove all the piping in the cupboard, remove a water meter and have it all contained within the sink cupboard which would be to the right of the washing machine. Because of the limited room they my have to sink the pipes into the wall or floor perhaps but I'm not really sure what's likely to be involved. I think they're also talking about using another contractor for that bit so they're likely adding markup.

We have not picked a replacement water heater unit yet, so there's another £xxx to add to the bill.

We don't have an extractor currently, so that needs to be new and the ducting will go from the oven through or over a side cupboard and probably out an existing wall vent (or maybe new wall vent but I doubt it).

Kitchen is maybe 3m x 2m or something. It's pretty small aka FUCKING TINY by Aussie standards.

£800 to move some pipes, honestly we are too cheap.

I had a small kitchen done by Wren so overpaid but it was financed and no trade management for me and it came in about 10-11k but that includes expensive electrical goods which I think were nearly 3k, decent tiling plus some extractor ductwork, upgraded the electrics and moved the mains/waste.
Units were gloss grey and not the cheap vinyl ones.
I did the painting and skirting.

You can do yours cheaper but depends how much you want to organise or do yourself.
I would probably do the next one differently as I now know a few trades I can rely on and have better DIY skills but that depends on how busy I am at the time and our budget.

I have no idea what it costs to do but it's annoying I've watched my old man do it for nothing (he has some plumbing tools though) and here you need to involve Thames "We don't know where you live" Water if you need to move a meter. I could probably just isolate the cupboard pipes and remove everything in there myself and save a chunk of work but doing it half DIY and half with the tradies will presumably slow stuff down (and I've not looked to see if it's possible, if there's enough valves to do it).

I have some DIY skills but zero interest in doing any of it beyond removal of stuff. My missus is much more likely to sand and paint stuff but I don't know any rules about plumbing and electric and wouldn't bother saving money on that stuff just to be rolled later at some inspection.

If you don’t know where your mains stopcock is I’d try find it or else buy a toby key so you can turn it off in the street should you need to in an emergency!

Yeah, I know where it is and I have the key for it. I can't remember why I have the key for it but presume it was something to do with removing the cold water tank and immersion heater many years ago. Or maybe it was just paranoia, having had a few previous places start pissing water for some reason and not knowing where the mains was...

Alright all. I'm getting a builder to knock down a wall between the kitchen and the dining room to create a kitchen diner, in a freehold house. I've got a structural engineer to do the calcuations and design, and I have a builder ready to go.

I believe that to obtain building regs sign off, I would need to be able to isolate the kitchen with a fire door. If that's correct, I won't be able to obtain building regs sign off, because the design as is won't allow it - it's an open space.

But if in 10 years time I wanted to obtain building regs sign off by re-designing and installing a new fire door etc - would it possible for me to do this using historic pics of the work as evidence it was done right? Or should I just give up on the idea of ever getting building regs work approval for it?

Big can of worms, but we did what you are suggesting, retrospective BC sign off (with added issue of freehold and necessary retrospective permission from Hackney as well).

But BC rules had changed a lot and what may have been a cheap fix 10 years ago ended up being an expensive sprinkler system, fire doors etc. So if you can adapt plan to pass regs and then just take a fire door off onec they leave it may be a lot cheaper.

I believe that to obtain building regs sign off, I would need to be able to isolate the kitchen with a fire door.

Are you sure? I thought the issue was escape routes, do your stairs come down into the dining room? (Although I might be a few years out of date there.)

Maybe worth a bit of a chat with a third party building regs company.

What Aggi said, we’re having to install a fire door between the kitchen diner (“kitchen”) and the stairs. Currently there is a hallway off the kitchen with the stairs coming down alongside to the far end. We need to fire door from the kitchen to the hallway to isolate the stairs from the kitchen. I’d have thought making the kitchen larger by incorporating the dining room into a single room would pass provided the stairs were behind a door.

This is the answer.
So many places have open plan downstairs, it’s all about the stairs.

Yeah, what @Ramsaye said, it's the stairs that matter. When we had the loft done in our last place we had to had to isolate the stairs or get a misting system (as the stairs went straight into the living room.)

We went with the misting system ad there wasn't really anyway to isolate the stairs without losimg too much space. We only needed one head as the kitchen diner was seperate, cost was about 1500 all in (about a grand for the system and 500 for plumbing and electrics) . Neighbour a few doors down had the same done a bit later but he'd completey opened up the downstairs so needed 2 misting heads think you're looking at a extra 500 for each extra head.

This is the relevant part of the regs.

How many storeys does your house have? If only one above ground, and windows are ≤ 4.5m from the external ground then there is no need for a protected staircase/means of escape.

If you have more than one storey (including convereted loftspace) then you'll need to provide a protected means of escape. Ways around this (throwing money to a fire engineer to design a sprinkler system) should you wish/have the means.

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I had the same done and the door is a basic bitch on a sliding rail.

Ours got signed.

We didn't do structural calcs either, the builder pulled down some plasterboard and checked the beams then called building control to discuss. The benefits of a builder with a good relationship?

Thanks all, this is super useful. It's a two storey property with stairs, and while the stairs don't go directly into the kitchen/diner, they do run parallel to it so I've assumed a door would be needed:

However I do have some familiarity with the equivalent regs for flats and I'm not sure they'd apply in this situation - because the escape route is not on the same storey as the fire risk, the route itself would still be clear unless the fire was really spilling out into the hallway.

Can anyone recommend a third party building regs company who could clarify for me?