[gangzoom]

May be or not be interest to some, but we are finally on the road with our major renovation of the house.

Builders started in Feb, the brief for the architect was to come up with a design that allowed us to view the garden from as much of the house as possible.

Original plan was to keep most the existing structure and build above it but almost as soon works started it was obvious the old house wasn't well-built, including finding unfilled well.





This week building has finally started, and quotes for glazing been finalised. It's only now we are appreciating the scale of the 'design' 4×4.5 meter of glazing for the entrance, the architect has 100% met the brief of us asking for more light/views from any where in the house!!

Next few weeks should see the walls start going up, and steels starting to appear .

[Pond]

Why is the thread titled 'pointless'?
Is the point not to give you a better house, with what you require? Looks like you are getting that!

FWIW; the 'well' looks like it may have been an old cesspit in a former life, judging by the lack of mortar and the discolouration of the bricks. Brick cesspits had gaps in the mortar to allow the 'grey' water to seep into the surrounding ground. The 'sewage' was then supposed to break down through anaerobic respiration and microbe breeding, then dilute. Not the most pleasant of processes, but worked (to a degree) for thousands of years!

[JustChris]

Looks a great project. Where was the well outside I assume or under the existing bungalow ?

PS why is the project pointless?

[D69GMB]

Definitely not pointless at all, watching with great interest. Does something similar last year but on a smaller scale.

[gangzoom]

Pointless only interms of anyone looking at the project from an ‘investment’ point of view would think its mad. We are not adding any extra rooms, and instead losing a large family bathroom whilst spending in the region of £400K+.

JustChris The hole in the ground with water in was apparently ‘well hidden’ by who ever build the original extension to the house. The old/new entrance gable/hallway sits above the hole!!

The builders were surprised we haven’t been flooded before, but it probably explains the weird run off/pooling of water we had around that area every time the rain got heavy! As they say, never dig around an older property as you never know what your going to find.

The surveyors have been out again as well, and we are basically now rebuilding 75% of the old house from the ground up. There isn’t a single bit of floor space that isn’t been ripped up/swapped, and the whole roof will be new. So actually the cost of the build is looking pretty ‘reasonable’ given the job.

The builders are great guys, they are very much just getting on with things, currently about 2-3 weeks behind target due to all the ground work issues, but they are hoping to catch up as the walls go up. The steals is still the bit am not sure about still, I cannot quite visualise who this all going to go up, but than again that’s why I’m not a builder .

[Nibbles]

Looks like a big project. Hopefully it’ll all go to plan with no more gotchas like the well being uncovered.

We had the same in our last house when extending the kitchen. It certainly surprised the builder who was using a pneumatic drill on the bricks covering it when he heard one fall and land with a splash a second or two later. Sadly it was on the line of the foundations otherwise we would have made it a feature in the kitchen.

[KRS_SN]

Good luck on the build..
My current view is that extensions and rebuilds start to make sense because of one thing...LBTT
I can't get my head around the fact that if I wanted to buy a house worth 1.2 million I'd have to pay 102k for that privilege in LBTT.

[Nibbles]

Originally Posted by KRS_SN

Good luck on the build..
My current view is that extensions and rebuilds start to make sense because of one thing...LBTT
I can't get my head around the fact that if I wanted to buy a house worth 1.2 million I'd have to pay 102k for that privilege in LBTT.

Christ, I thought stamp duty in England was bad but that’s ridiculous.

[Wills2]

Originally Posted by Nibbles

Christ, I thought stamp duty in England was bad but that’s ridiculous.

Someone's got to pay for the motor home

[Pond]

Originally Posted by KRS_SN

Good luck on the build..
My current view is that extensions and rebuilds start to make sense because of one thing...LBTT
I can't get my head around the fact that if I wanted to buy a house worth 1.2 million I'd have to pay 102k for that privilege in LBTT.

And if it was with a mortgage at 4% ish over 25 years......

'moving tax' has cost me a fortune over the years. I've moved many, many times. It's like taking candy from a baby for the Government. It's a brilliant tax. No-one actually pays it in cash. All gets thrown into the massive cost of moving house.
Never paid a (waste of space parasites) estate agent in cash either. Probably how they keep the monopoly going TBH

[gangzoom]

Front foundation work nearly done, the 'opening' been formed is going to be where the 4×4.5meter alu smart wall glazing will sit.

I can start to see the 'line of sight' obsession our architect has about getting light that goes from the front door straight into the back garden. The rear when build up will have a 3 meter sliding door that site in line with the front glazing with no walls in between.

So essentially the current view into the garden thanks to all the demolition work will be partially preserved once walls are rebuilt.

[gangzoom]

Slower progress over the last week, as the steels guys have been to take measurements and now fabricating. Next week should see the first steels go in and than progress should be quicker.

The front is still where I'm excited at the moment, cannot wait to see the steels go up to outline the almost wall to wall glazing at the front .

[gangzoom]

It's been slow this month, main delay has been steels. But around 1/3 of the steels are in now, so hopefully some walls will start appearing soon.

[Pond]

Looking at the last two pictures, I can't see any ventilator 'bricks' for the void under the block and beam floor?

[gangzoom]

Originally Posted by Pond

Looking at the last two pictures, I can't see any ventilator 'bricks' for the void under the block and beam floor?

You mean these black plastic vents below floor level?



I'm leaving the builder to it, they know what they are doing. I'm trying not to interfere but we have changed the downstairs glazing layout about a dozen times. Have now hopefully settled on the final glazing openings as the walls will hopefully start appearing soon.

Still not sure about essentially having a glazed 'wall' in the living room versus just a normal window (3)? Going for aluminium frames all round.

[Pond]

Originally Posted by gangzoom

You mean these black plastic vents below floor level?

Ah now I see them! Completely missed them TBH!

[KRS_SN]

Originally Posted by gangzoom

You mean these black plastic vents below floor level?



I'm leaving the builder to it, they know what they are doing. I'm trying not to interfere but we have changed the downstairs glazing layout about a dozen times. Have now hopefully settled on the final glazing openings as the walls will hopefully start appearing soon.

Still not sure about essentially having a glazed 'wall' in the living room versus just a normal window (3)? Going for aluminium frames all round.

That's a big house! More glass the merrier. If I was you and if I understand what you said correctly between a window or a glass wall I'd always go for the latter.

[gangzoom]

Originally Posted by KRS_SN

That's a big house! More glass the merrier. If I was you and if I understand what you said correctly between a window or a glass wall I'd always go for the latter.

The architect originally drew this for the downstairs glazing, I cannot quite remember why we didn’t just go with it, but current steel frame means we cannot have one large opening in the living room.

The aim of the project was always the stairs and entrance, so the living room glazing was/is an after thought in many ways.

I’ve left my armature drawings with the builders……will be interesting to see what kind of openings get formed. The glazers will make the windows to fit, so its essentially the blind leading the blind on actual/final opening sizes .

[gangzoom]

Most the steels have now arrived, but still needs installing. At least we now have some walls, and window/door openings are starting to form.

[gangzoom]

...and now I can see why the steels for this project is nearly 1/3 of the costs.

Apparently there is still more steels to come in addition to the stuff that's still awaiting to be erected!!

[bishbosh]

I had 3 beams of steel in total about 7 metres for some interior alterations and that was £1k. Yours must be at least an order of magnitude greater!

[gangzoom]

Originally Posted by bishbosh

I had 3 beams of steel in total about 7 metres for some interior alterations and that was £1k. Yours must be at least an order of magnitude greater!

35tons in total, £70k including installation.....Frankly even the builders thinks its ridiculous, but there are 50pages of structural engineer calculations to validate it, and I'm not about to start telling the builder to replace the steels with timber or just bricks/motar.

Better be good once it's done.