talk to me about house extentions

We have a very ordinary 1970’s terraced house in a very ordinary 70’s suburban estate and we’d like to extend front and rear to allow for a large porch to the front (big enough for washed, dryer, hanging coats & shoes and somewhere to park buggies and stuff. to the rear we want a full width, and probably 4M deep single room which would be playroom by day, home cinema by night. i’d like a pitched roof to the bottom of the first floor windows on both

I’m going to get a local builder round to give a broad idea of costs in order to decide if its likely to be worth doing, but what questions should i be asking? and what are the steps to go through with regards building control, planning etc? will i need to use an architect to do drawings etc

don’t suppose anyone on here is a builder on the north herts/south cambs border??

Firstly youll need planning, which will also involve building regs. You could quite easily knock up the drawings yourself or possibly have a chat with your builder.
The only issue i can see you having is wanting a pitched roof, i would suggest youre not going to have enough of a differential in height between wall plate and the underside of the first floor window. Certain tiles will allow a shallow pitch but this could come back to your initial planning application on whats allowed, it might also look a bit rubbish to be fair.

We had a large amount of work done over 6 months.

Get a price that’s guaranteed. Even if it’s slightly more than others.
An architect makes a difference. Ours turned our ideas on it’s head
Don’t forget that painting, tiling, flooring and other things you didn’t get a quote for cost a **** fortune!

Point format and basic I’m afraid:

1) Budget, budget, budget. First question I ask. What’s your budget? Is it realistic? Is it?

If you pass point 1 then proceed to 2

2) Employ someone to translate your ideas, provide you with ideas, down onto paper be that an Architect or whatever.

3) You will need planning. Your proposals fall outside general development.

4) Pre advice / planning application

5) Planning approval – Hopefully

5a) Start speaking to builders – check budget costs.

6) Building regulation application / approval

7) Tender / employ a builder.

I don’t need to go into the rest at this stage!

Firstly it sounds like you will need planning for both. For porches look here: http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/permission/commonprojects/porch/ but your’s sounds a bit big, for the extension you are limited to 3m for a terrace: http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/permission/commonprojects/extensions/

You don’t need fancy drawings for planning permission, it’s quite easy to DIY these. Have a look on your local council website for what they want.

Building regs is a totally different issue. You will need to comply. If you are unsure get a builder who will do it all for you. The process is: tell the inspector what you want to do, they charge you, then between you arrange inspections at various points in construction.

For us getting a builder has been the hard bit. We’ve had a few round but no one seems to want the work.

We have got to poinr 7 (see above). The whole thing has been a real eye-opener for me.

I had an idea that we should be able to build ours for 25K isk all in.

Just had our first 2 quotes 35K plus vat… not including the price of a new kitchen.

It has been a long road so far.

We got to point 7 above a year or so ago with our perfectly ordinary 1930 ex-council house and our best quote was £35k+VAT (the others were more like £50k) for just the shell of a 3.5m x 6m extension. Then we’d have had to plaster the insides, buy flooring, refit the kitchen, buy patio doors and new windows and decorate. I reckon it would have come to more like £50k by the time that had been finished — we moved house instead.

Opps I forgot. In your case:

6a) – Party Wall awards with your neighbours.

ouch! those sort of prices just wouldnt stack up, i could move and get an additional bedroom & bathroom for that sort of cash

these guys were advertising on the link above and there indicitive pricing looks much more like it
http://www.homeextensionsltd.co.uk/products/home-extensions

Not a bad price but it’s SIPS construction.

Also note there are a couple of differences between the drawings / price and specification / whats included. Bifolds are extra for example.

We ended up spending a fortune on things like an Oak staircase, Posh doors and kitchen, but it can REALLY mount up, to the point that I get a lump in my throat thinking about how much we spent

Be sensible from the start

as paulosoxo. 2 years into a 6 months build…

You will almost certinaly need a structural engineer, so allow for their fees too. Your architect will have a relationship with one.

think about a good size consevatory, no building controll needed, check out your local regs. probably no planning up to a certain area in cubic metres and less money spent going into the ground in foundations etc . hope this idea is of help.

A wee warning about conservatories, be sure you think it through properly.
http://www.diynot.com[/url%5D

Hmm, yeah I don’t think a conservatory is going to work for us, I’m after something good for all year use and that can be pressed into service as an overnight bedroom when we guests.

Is the 3m limit for rear extensions just if you want to do it under permitted dev? If so, is planning really a big deal to get cost wise?

No. From my point of view its the easiest part.

If you’re going to combine a playroom and cinema make sure you go for a ceiling mounted projector out of Lego range!

Is the 3m limit for rear extensions just if you want to do it under permitted dev? If so, is planning really a big deal to get cost wise?

Yep, 3m is the PD limit. 4m under planning will depend on the area. It doesn’t sound like a conservation zone or anything like that, how much garden is going? Anyone else extended? How likely are the neighbours to complain? Lots of factors. Most planners will do a pre planning chat chat for free or cheap, that’ll give you a good idea. It’ll add at least 8 weeks to the project, though.

I don’t think a conservatory is going to work for us

We had a block built ‘orangery’ with floor to ceiling windows and a glass roof sunk into the flat roof, with a pelmet of about 300mm of proper ceiling all the way round, There’s dividing it off from the rest of the open plan Lounge, Kitchen Diner, we had to get SAP Calcs done to prove the heat loss, but the area quite large and nice and warm. The windows do make it a nice room to be in, and it’s a lot warmer than a conservatory

The gardens probably 20m long. Neighbours are cool so wouldn’t expect any issues there. Plenty of houses on the estate have had extentions of various shapes and sizes too.
I’m working on the assumption that as its an identikit 70’s house with no architectural merit, l’ll be cool so long as I’m not breaching any particular rules.
Am I right in assuming that a 2 storey extention is out as I’m terraced??

Why would you need a structural engineer???? That’s bollox!!

I booked an appointment with our local (Rugby) planning department… actually I had 4 appointments in total…didn’t cost a penny and by the end I knew I was pretty much guaranteed to get what I applied for. Very helpful they were.

wrightyson – Member
Why would you need a structural engineer???? That’s bollox!!
POSTED 1 HOUR AGO # REPORT-POST

We had to get one to do the steel in the roof of ours.

i’d buy a bigger house. It’ll be cheaper and easier.

ps cost will probably be approx £1300+ per square metre for single storey

It’s a single pitched extension on a Terraced house ffs, if your builder/architect can’t do the relevant calcs for such a project then move on! Found design will be simple unless there’s massive tree influence, even then LABC have a tendancy to poo poo what your engineer comes up with! If there’s one thing I can confidently comment and advise on then this is it!

Couldn’t agree more about seeing your planning officer. Build up good repo r with then as “officer recomm
ended” can do little harm.
With regards to conservatories, as of 2011 some now need building regs approval which will open up a whole new can of worms for a “substantially glazed extension”

we are at stage 7 for building on top of a garage and grounfloor bathrrom , adding 2 bedrooms and a family bathroom , plus taking a chimeny stack out and other internals bits .

cost were :
architect 900
structural enginer 750
planning 150
building regs 260
planning visits 670

planning went mid september and got building reg approval end january .

everyhting was straighforward , not complaints , a few conditions on building regs ( test hole for footings , joists etc.. ) .

Yep I say as a guide between £1200 and £1400m2 add VAT depending on build for a basic extension. (To give you an idea my extension came out over £3.1k / m2)

I advised a friend along these lines, a few years back, plus £900ish for the first floor and he proudly told me I was too high. His “guy” was saying £850 and £450, and these were more realistic figures. Fine, you asked, you don’t like, move on.

Guess what it came in at £77k add VAT. He threw a wobbler, wanted to sue his “guy”, and snapped at me when I told him so, telling me my guide figures were too low as well. Fine, let me have a look through the priced documents and see where the money’s gone.

I pulled out 19k of extras which you can’t include in an extension cost. I.e new house boiler £4.2k , patio £5k, slate floor to existing kitchen £2.9k, refurbish the existing bathroom, replace a window and door on the existing house…… FFS.

So the real figure was £58k add VAT. The extension was 2 storey 25m2 footprint. Cost 2320 per m2. Hence point 1.

He has spent 3k in fees, can’t afford to do the extension and his planning permission is slowly expiring. He told me he was going to do it this year but he has just replaced a car. (Luckily a roadie so would not be seen dead on this forum.)

Hence I can’t stress point 1 enough.

Is there much regional variation in these square metre figures? I’d assume that London is in another league and the North is cheaper than the South, but is that true?

Can I suggest asking around locally for a contact of someone who offers a ‘drawing service’. As I’m sure you will have seen somewhere advertised in a local newsletter or similar.

It’s not particularly the drawings you need from them, as I can assure you they will be basic. But in the current climate there are lots of people providing drawing service at very reasonable prices offering a lot of construction experience.

1200-1400 a sq m? I do code 4 houses for that! Extensions (around here) are between 800 – 1200. Don’t necessarily new a structural engineer, just a good builder and building control inspector but depends on the work. Chech out planning portals interactive house for some guides.

Just remember that a ‘drawing service’ will be most unlikely to carry any indemnity insurance (note I missed professional off the front). That may not be an issue for you obviously.

pelmet

lol

Good point aP, definitely make sure any service is covered with Indemnity or Professional Indemnity insurance. Especially if they offer structural calculations, for any reason.

When you finally get around to it, i may know/be a good brickie 😉

Is there much regional variation in these square metre figures? I’d assume that London is in another league and the North is cheaper than the South, but is that true?

I don’t know but assume there must be because labour costs play a large part.

The figures are a guide as a result of talking to local residential builders. On my extension I allowed £2500m2. It came out at over 3k/m2

plenty of people draw up plans (badly) not many will have the training required to improve the quality of your life by changing the way you live in your house and designing the best possible solution for your budget and aspirations.

Get a good architect (or technician) who specialises in residential projects and has a track record go on recommendations!

you get what you pay for and you’re only likely to do it once so maybe do it right

budget a min £1.5K/sqm for the build its not comparable to building houses as there is no economy of scale