Money saving tips for building an extension??

Rowbo

richardw wrote: »

No, I'm referring to reconciling your figure of £20k and the builders £30k and where you think the £10k is amongst the elements of the building works.

Ok thank you, I will have a look at this.

crazyrae

Hi, wondering if I can ask my questions here too - related but suggesting an alternative location for the extension...

I too have a budget of £20k for an extension but most estimates/quotes have come back around £30k. This is for a single storey rear extension 3m out and 5m across and have a WC and kitchen installed (doesn't include the kitchen/wc units). It would mean our current dining room and kitchen are merged into the extension to make a large kitchen/diner. Instead, I am considering of converting our garage (brick and pitch roof - good construction) which is attached to the side of our house and extending it back to make a longer room. In theory this makes it cheaper as most of the foundations and building structure are there (but thin walls so need adding to inside) but I am yet to get quotes back. But this would be a narrower room of 2.5m by 6.6m by the time the walls are sorted, but leaves our old kitchen separate as a utility room and our dining room as a separate room, with this new room being a moderate size kitchen/diner (wc is same location each time, under stairs).

So my questions are - is this a cheaper alternative and is it better to have the 3 smaller separate rooms or one massive one? And would it matter losing the garage?

richardw

Would losing the garage make your home slightly more difficult to sell?

Would it be possible to have a smaller extension that improves the existing kitchen and dining room?

kaya

crazyrae wrote: »

Hi, wondering if I can ask my questions here too - related but suggesting an alternative location for the extension...

I too have a budget of £20k for an extension but most estimates/quotes have come back around £30k. This is for a single storey rear extension 3m out and 5m across and have a WC and kitchen installed (doesn't include the kitchen/wc units). It would mean our current dining room and kitchen are merged into the extension to make a large kitchen/diner. Instead, I am considering of converting our garage (brick and pitch roof - good construction) which is attached to the side of our house and extending it back to make a longer room. In theory this makes it cheaper as most of the foundations and building structure are there (but thin walls so need adding to inside) but I am yet to get quotes back. But this would be a narrower room of 2.5m by 6.6m by the time the walls are sorted, but leaves our old kitchen separate as a utility room and our dining room as a separate room, with this new room being a moderate size kitchen/diner (wc is same location each time, under stairs).

So my questions are - is this a cheaper alternative and is it better to have the 3 smaller separate rooms or one massive one? And would it matter losing the garage?

wow, i have been looking on ebay at orangeries, 3m by 5m , foundations dug, plastering, electrics, glass roof lantern, couple of patio doors,windows, all to building regs for 11k, that includes some downlighters and a free tv and clearing the rubbish away as well, im asking myself if your getting ripped off or if i would be getting it from flea bay !

System

an orangery is completely different to an extension, orangeries and conservatories are occassional spaces and are subject to different regualtions than a properly built extension so the price of the two are not comparable

SailorSam

When we were building a large garage we started by buying a job lot of roof trusses off a builder and built to that size, similar with the door and windows, got them 2nd hand and built them in.
I did the footings by hand and took all the waste to the tip in the trailer at the back of the car ........ never again, get a man with a mini digger.

kaya

the_r_sole wrote: »

an orangery is completely different to an extension, orangeries and conservatories are occassional spaces and are subject to different regualtions than a properly built extension so the price of the two are not comparable

thats interesting, when i spoke to the planning people they told me that the only difference between a conservatory and an extension was the materials they were made from, could you please enlighten me? i viewed an orangerie as an extension with more windows than normal and a roof lantern.

System

planning departments do not deal with building regulations, there is a specific definition of a conservatory for building standards - however in the past i have found that a planning department can sometimes regard a non heated conservatory as an non habitable room as it can't be used year round (obviously that is down to individual cases)

i would phone your planning department again and ask them what the differnce between an extension and a conservatory is, maybe for your specific case this is true to your local planning department, but if i could get all the extensions i design in as conservatories i'd have a very easy life

crazyrae

richardw wrote: »

Would losing the garage make your home slightly more difficult to sell?

Would it be possible to have a smaller extension that improves the existing kitchen and dining room?

I'm not sure really (if it would make more difficult to sell) - there is a mixture of housing down this road, some with garages, some mid terrace (with and without garages at the end of their garden) and some have converted their garages...so the garage does give it something different, but we do have a wider plot than most (on a bend in the road which we solely benefit) so our garden is a big selling point already and our driveway would be able to fit 2 cars (once we have it redone - 1 currently)

I hadn't thought of a smaller extension out the back. Not sure how much we'd save if we took away say 1m from it to make it 2m out by 5m across - would it be that significant?

And ooh, I didn't even know what an orangery was (looked it up)! Might look into that too (just to add even more options/complications!)

kaya

Thanks for the reply mr sole , just spoke to the building regs dept, the criteria for my area to define a conservatory is below 30m sq floor space, walls must be 33% glazed and roof 50% glazed, so long as i retain the doors and windows between the house and conservatory then building regs dont come into it(except for electrics and a thermostatic rad valve) , sweet!!