Picking the brain of doozer and the other project experts....

sarah_elton

Thanks. That's a good idea that we could look into. I prefer gas hob and electric oven but could be a good compromise.

The current cooker is a free-standing one (not built in to the fitted kitchen - the owner has replaced the fitted kitchen around the cooker she bought off the previous owner for £50) so can be swapped out easily.

chappers

personaly speaking If you are adamant that the flat roof must go, then I would build another gable over the flat roof leaving a valley between the two roofs, this would be afraction of the cost of roofing over the whole thing. As you have already realised this will be totaly reliant upon you being able to obtain planning permission.
I think DG is pretty much on the money I would expect to do the whole lot for half of your £60k budget. If you go down the take the whole roof off and recut it as one then why not consider doing a loft conversion at the same time.

sarah_elton

I guess my view on flat roofs is (1) they need to be replaced every 10-15 years which is hassle and money (replace twice and you might as well pay for a pitched roof instead) and (2) they'll put some buyers off in the future (we're planning on staying put 10-15 years but I still think about these things ).

The current owner (been there five years) doesn't know when the flat roof was last replaced so we don't know what condition it's in. In the part of the upstairs hallway that is in the extension, there's a square sort of skylight thing - hole in the roof covered in perspex type material - which has gathered plenty of old bugs inside it.

But maybe to re-roof the whole house would be more time and money than it's worth. I'll look for some pictures of the double-roof with valley option as I can't quite picture it - in my mind at the moment it'd look a little strange.

The roof would be the biggest part of what we're planning so cutting that out would help financially and hassle wise...

I don't think we'd do a loft conversion as the house is already top heavy having gone from 3 to 5 bedrooms with only the addition of a utility room downstairs. We were half thinking about turning the smallest bedroom (next to the master) into an en-suite and walk in wardrobe, but I'm always loathe to lose a bedroom. On the other hand, there's currently one bathroom upstairs for five bedrooms.

marcg

Architect's opinion:

I would guess at £40k.

Roof at around £15k - put a front-to-back pitched roof running into the existing gable. Or you put a new sarnafil single-ply-membrane roof with a 25yr guarantee for about £7k.

New central heating £4k

New electrics £3k (so far £22k)

Garage - new screed over existing £1.5k

Floor - carpenter replaced odd floor joists here and there £1.5k (£25k)

New window and back door £1.5k

New carpets £5k

New doors £1.5k (£33k)

General redecoration and skimming £6k (£39k)

If you have to put a new roof on you'll also need planning (£200) and building regs (£500) and an engineer (£500)

sarah_elton

marcg wrote: »

If you have to put a new roof on you'll also need planning (£200) and building regs (£500) and an engineer (£500)

And very good relations with the new neighbours, especially given how close the house is to the one on the left.

Thanks Marc - that's a hugely helpful list. We'd build in a good contingency; as mentioned before we're bound to make some mistakes! Our current rental costs us £900/month for rent and all bills so we need to add that to the budget too for x months.

marcg

If it were near me I'd be willing to project manage it for you for around 25%. For that you'd get programme management (to make sure the thing happened as quickly as possible) and cost control.

Unless you know what you are doing, these two aspects could cost you a lot more than £10k, particularly as you will be living somewhere else at £900/mth. In which case, it might be worth asking round for recommendations of project managers/architects.

sarah_elton

marcg wrote: »

If it were near me I'd be willing to project manage it for you for around 25%. For that you'd get programme management (to make sure the thing happened as quickly as possible) and cost control.

Unless you know what you are doing, these two aspects could cost you a lot more than £10k, particularly as you will be living somewhere else at £900/mth. In which case, it might be worth asking round for recommendations of project managers/architects.

Something I have given serious thought to, and one of the things scaring us off. We both work full time in London, so are out from around 7am-6:30pm Monday-Friday. I do have serious concerns with us not being around on site while the trades are in. Because we have friends and family in trades too, we'd be organising all the sub-contractors ourselves, rather than having one builder sub it all out.

We're still debating. It's a huge undertaking and the house plus work would be at the very top end of our budget for buying, so we'd have little wiggle room in the budget if any further problems with the house were unearthed.

marcg

Honestly, I don't think you can manage a construction site and be out for that many hours. It will overrun, prices will slip and you'll end up moving into a half-completed house since you can't afford to keep both.

You _must_ have someone on site everyday. I'm just quoting for a landlord at the moment and am offering to be on-site 4 days out of 5. This means coming for an hour or two everyday, walking round, probably sweeping up a bit and generally knowing what is going on and, more importantly, what needs to happen next (and after that).

The person always there doesn't necessarily have to be an architect - you just need someone who knows this sort of project from experience. It might be worth asking your brother how much he'd want to come to site everyday and just keep on top of things.

GDB2222

But maybe to re-roof the whole house would be more time and money than it's worth. I'll look for some pictures of the double-roof with valley option as I can't quite picture it - in my mind at the moment it'd look a little strange.

I have a feeling that this is never going to look quite right, whatever you do. So, I wouldn't go to the cost/effort of straightening out the whole roof. A second pent roof with valley will be scarcely more waterproof than the flat roof - or at least that's my rather limited experience with valleys.

If you do put a new roof on how will you supply the light that currently comes from the skylight?

I doubt that what you are planning with the roof will add anything significant to the value of the house. It will always be an extended house in a street full of smaller houses. So, whatever you spend is going to be water down the drain, except to the extent it saves you maintenance on the flat roof.

I think it is inconceivable that the owners will take anything off the price for the roof. In the end, you decide on an amount to offer, and they decide whether to accept it. How you reach your figure is of no interest to them.

Doozergirl

Can you see this?
http://www.photobox.co.uk/my/photo?album_id=27469175&photo_id=1600634555

That's a double roof with gully. The house has three roofs actually. The back ones feed into the front.
http://www.photobox.co.uk/my/photo?album_id=27469175&photo_id=1600634776


Light you can bring in by using attic trusses and using Velux. Like you would do in a loft conversion as you see but you'd end up with a vaulted ceiling instead of a loft conversion. These are baby Velux (rubbish pic but you get the idea):
http://www.photobox.co.uk/my/photo?album_id=239017432&photo_id=1916863276