[gangzoom]

Originally Posted by JD6

I guess this means we’ll have to build new, significantly alter something, or compromise…

Life is far too short to compromise on stuff that really matter to you, given all the S**T going on in the world, if you have the chance/opportunity to do something most people can only dream about, why would you let that chance go .

[Sennen]

Your 'builders' are dragging there heels Gangzoom. My son and I started a bigger project back in late May and we had it done by December.

Looks a bit pricey for what you have done too especially considering the location of the property

[gangzoom]

^Agree on potentially pace as the builder is a small firm so only really have 1-2 guys onsite, but totally disagree on price. We had 3 tenders comeback precovid price increases and the other two quotes were significantly higher to first fix than even our current projected finishing costs. Had we gone with a bigger firm I suspect we would have blown our total budget already and be at serious risk of having not funds to get the whole project over the line.

The biggest cost was the £72k worth of steels, given the time it took them to erect etc, I'm just glad they finished the install and didn't walk off half way through the job. Even with the steel install cost we should be coming out at around £2,200/sq meter, which from my understanding is pretty reasonable costs given all the new glazing is aluminium framed, two sets of garden doors, porcelain tiles with UFH on the ground floor, as well as oak staircase, aircon, and a kitchen that cost more than one of our cars to buy new. We could have come in at under £1,800/sq meter I reckon but as you're know, it's hard to not splash out on fit and finishes when you've spent so much already on the actual physical build .

Overall I'm really happy with the cost of the project, but we're itching to move back in, however the longer it takes for the final bill to arrive the less pressure there is on finances as we are diverting a decent figure after each pay day into the project budget which really helps with not having to compromise on things.

Sounds like you undertook an interesting project, be good to see what the end result was? We still haven't finalised all the finishing yet so the budget may go up, my wife's favourite comment right now is 'Nursing home vides' when ever I show her what I consider to be 'normal' spec stuff, like white plug point covers. Hence I would be happy to move without hitting the imaginary budget cap.

[NotGotABimmer23]

Originally Posted by gangzoom

^Agree on potentially pace as the builder is a small firm so only really have 1-2 guys onsite, but totally disagree on price. We had 3 tenders comeback precovid price increases and the other two quotes were significantly higher to first fix than even our current projected finishing costs. Had we gone with a bigger firm I suspect we would have blown our total budget already and be at serious risk of having not funds to get the whole project over the line.

The biggest cost was the £72k worth of steels, given the time it took them to erect etc, I'm just glad they finished the install and didn't walk off half way through the job. Even with the steel install cost we should be coming out at around £2,200/sq meter, which from my understanding is pretty reasonable costs given all the new glazing is aluminium framed, two sets of garden doors, porcelain tiles with UFH on the ground floor, as well as oak staircase, aircon, and a kitchen that cost more than one of our cars to buy new. We could have come in at under £1,800/sq meter I reckon but as you're know, it's hard to not splash out on fit and finishes when you've spent so much already on the actual physical build .

Overall I'm really happy with the cost of the project, but we're itching to move back in, however the longer it takes for the final bill to arrive the less pressure there is on finances as we are diverting a decent figure after each pay day into the project budget which really helps with not having to compromise on things.

Sounds like you undertook an interesting project, be good to see what the end result was? We still haven't finalised all the finishing yet so the budget may go up, my wife's favourite comment right now is 'Nursing home vides' when ever I show her what I consider to be 'normal' spec stuff, like white plug point covers. Hence I would be happy to move without hitting the imaginary budget cap.

2200 per sq is a fantastic price but I didn't think you were adding loads of additional space? Are you including all the existing space being renovated? 450k is an eye watering amount of money to be spending on an extension but it's your money so crack on. Do you think you have added 450k of value to the house?

[gangzoom]

Originally Posted by NotGotABimmer23

2200 per sq is a fantastic price but I didn't think you were adding loads of additional space? Are you including all the existing space being renovated? 450k is an eye watering amount of money to be spending on an extension but it's your money so crack on. Do you think you have added 450k of value to the house?

We've actually lost about 10sq meters of ground floor space, lost a family bathroom and added no other additional rooms, so its in no-way any kind of extension

The build has essentially meant rebuilding 90% of the old original bungalow, floors, roof, walls, foundations. I'm pretty sure the builder wanted to knock down the remaining two walls but I managed to keep them standing (the original wall with the house number plaque has survived, just), so its essentially a totally new build.

As for 'adding value', that was never our aim, but David Wilson seem to have no problem selling bog-standard new builds for £600-700K for which am pretty sure they could fit 4-5 of those houses into our plot. Our neighbours had their property valued a well over 7 figures, so I'm really not too worried about overall 'value'.

Fundamentally we have no plans to sell (ever if possible), and my daughter cannot really complain about her inheritance regardless of added value or not .

[Watsey]

Originally Posted by gangzoom

Was out at the site with gaffer today. Noticed the flowers are starting to appear again, which must mean it’s coming up to 12 months since the build started.



Still loads of work to do, but I couldn’t help knock up a mock up of what things should look like once the render and cladding goes on in the next few weeks. The overall floor plan might not have increased downstairs, but its going to be feel like a very different home to live in compared to before.

UFH apparently will be started by the end of the week, and than levelling of the existing old flooring to make it all level, I actually now have hope we’ll be in by Easter .

The detailing/integration of the flat roof spanning the front-rear roof pitches of the double gable elevation

What led to that design detail ? At face value the roof pitches could have been integrated much more neatly/coherently. Bit late now !

[gangzoom]

Originally Posted by Watsey

What led to that design detail ? At face value the roof pitches could have been integrated much more neatly/coherently. Bit late now !

Trade-off between design and maximising usable space inside. As I've said, if we were to do it all again, I would have spent more time/effort on the architectural bit, which in turn would lead to more ££££.

2nd build project somewhere near the coast/proper mountains, incorporating cantilevers and enclosed atrium would make a nice retirement project in 20 years time .

[gangzoom]

The comments on the thread prompted me to back on site today, I could look at this view all day, cannot wait to be back in. Flooring is getting there now, and the existing part of the house now appears to be energised again, things seem to be progressing quickly now .

[gangzoom]

Its being 12 months exactly since we started the project. At times especially during the complex steel install, we did wonder, WTF have we done.....But we are 100% now heading towards the home straight. The plaster boards are going on next week, and it'll be 2nd fix/kitchen install. Most of the interior space is going to be unrecognisable compared to before despite no change in the footprint of the house, and adding only a limited amount of elevation.

[gangzoom]

Plasterboarding is well underway now, the new bedroom suite is starting to look really good.




The new glazing/atriums have totally changed the feel of the house. The difference in light between the new entrance hall and existing part of the old entrance corridor is literally night versus day. 100% kudos to the architect.



Total respect for the work the guys are doing on site over the last few cold/wet winter months, I couldn’t do what they are doing if you gave me a million + all the time in the world!!

[Pond]

Originally Posted by NotGotABimmer23

2200 per sq is a fantastic price

Really?
Last house house I built was 258m2 and cost me £145,000 all in (2017). I make that about a quarter of £2,200 per sq M.

It was extremely well specced for that too ('A' rated, heat recovery ventilation, 3 bathrooms, etc)!

[JD6]

Originally Posted by Pond

Really?
Last house house I built was 258m2 and cost me £145,000 all in (2017). I make that about a quarter of £2,200 per sq M.

It was extremely well specced for that too ('A' rated, heat recovery ventilation, 3 bathrooms, etc)!

The £2,200 per m2 includes labour, and I imagine that as you self-built you’re not including that?

If you are then please come and build me a home!

[gangzoom]

Originally Posted by JD6

The £2,200 per m2 includes labour, and I imagine that as you self-built you’re not including that?

If you are then please come and build me a home!

I should add that cost would also include Vat which on a brand new fresh build would be exempt. I'm not 100% sure we'll come in at that price yet, my wife has just picked the bathroom units, IKEA units were rejected out right

[Pond]

Originally Posted by JD6

The £2,200 per m2 includes labour, and I imagine that as you self-built you’re not including that?

If you are then please come and build me a home!

I employed brick layers, roofers (as it was slate) and had the windows professionally fitted as they were expensive timber sashes. I also got the staircase made by a carpenter. Other than that, yes it was free labour!

TBF there is no way it could be done for anything like that now, as costs of everything have rocketed!

[NotGotABimmer23]

Originally Posted by Pond

Really?
Last house house I built was 258m2 and cost me £145,000 all in (2017). I make that about a quarter of £2,200 per sq M.

It was extremely well specced for that too ('A' rated, heat recovery ventilation, 3 bathrooms, etc)!

2200 per sqm is a great price for an extension in terms of adding additional space. Prices these days are regularly over 3500 per sqm. That doesn't apply in any way to this build though as no space has been added...

[JD6]

Originally Posted by NotGotABimmer23

2200 per sqm is a great price for an extension in terms of adding additional space. Prices these days are regularly over 3500 per sqm. That doesn't apply in any way to this build though as no space has been added...

I’m not sure that I understand the cost difference between adding new space and demolishing and rebuilding existing space. I have no experience in this, but I would have expected those costs to be fairly similar.

[Pond]

I know this is slightly off-topic but this is what I 'made' for my £145,000, finished in 2017. The figure includes the demolition of a small cottage on the site but not the plot (that was £105k in 2013):

[JD6]

Originally Posted by Pond

I know this is slightly off-topic but this is what I 'made' for my £145,000, finished in 2017. The figure includes the demolition of a small cottage on the site but not the plot (that was £105k in 2013):

Looks good. Crazy to think that this is the price of a 50 m2 extension these days!

[isleaiw1]

Originally Posted by JD6

Looks good. Crazy to think that this is the price of a 50 m2 extension these days!

Can be £100k for a single storey kitchen diner extension if you have a nice spec of kitchen in the south east...

[gangzoom]

Originally Posted by JD6

I’m not sure that I understand the cost difference between adding new space and demolishing and rebuilding existing space. I have no experience in this, but I would have expected those costs to be fairly similar.

We ordered the tiles last week, 160sqm for the downstairs kitchen/entrance hall + en-suites, looking at the plans is about 206sqm of floor space that need covering in total. If we can move in for £2200/sqm for the project I would be more than happy, given that cost includes kitchen, air-con, aluminium glazing, UFH etc.

The best bit though is from the front of the house you will struggle to tell that someone has essentially taken wrecking ball to everything expect the front east wall of the house. Even the new entrance gable once clad will look like something that came with the original house, which was the look we were after .

[gangzoom]

Originally Posted by Pond

I know this is slightly off-topic but this is what I 'made' for my £145,000, finished in 2017. The figure includes the demolition of a small cottage on the site but not the plot (that was £105k in 2013):

Amazing work

Honestly even if you paid me £1,000,000 and gave me all the tools + materials I wouldn’t be able to build the garage let alone the house!

I haven’t got an ounce of manual building bone in my body, but I have to say I have ‘enjoyed’ the project so far, so much so I’m working on convincing my wife in 20 years+ time when we retire, we should do the same again but on a smaller scale, however to include some more architectural bits……cantilevers and enclosed atriums really intrigue me. That’s the retirement aim set .

[JD6]

Originally Posted by gangzoom

We ordered the tiles last week, 160sqm for the downstairs kitchen/entrance hall + en-suites, looking at the plans is about 206sqm of floor space that need covering in total. If we can move in for £2200/sqm for the project I would be more than happy, given that cost includes kitchen, air-con, aluminium glazing, UFH etc.

The best bit though is from the front of the house you will struggle to tell that someone has essentially taken wrecking ball to everything expect the front east wall of the house. Even the new entrance gable once clad will look like something that came with the original house, which was the look we were after .

It sounds like the price is easily justified by the end result. I do like the new glazing. With the open outlook at the back it’s definitely worth making the most of it.

I might have been tempted to swing the wrecking ball a bit more and build from scratch in the style you’ve chosen at the back, although I appreciate that would cost even more.

Definitely a thought-provoking thread. Having lived in old houses for all of my adult life, the idea of a bespoke new build does have a lot of appeal.