Best way to budget a two story extension?

gazfocus

We are in the process of looking for our forever home, however, a house the size we want would only be affordable in an area we wouldn't want to live in, so we've decided to look at something smaller than we'd like but with potential to extend.

So...we've seen a house we like, garden is superb (and plenty of it), and the house has currently got a 7x3m conservatory on the back.

In order to make the house big enough for us, we would want to replace the conservatory with a two story extension measuring 7x3.5 - 7x4m, however, never having done anything like this before, we don't know where to start with pricing it.

We recently had a conservatory built on our existing house and I'm convinced we could've got a brick built extension for the price we ended up paying for the conservatory but as I say, I'm not sure on prices.

Is there a good rule of thumb to help us budget for the costs involved?

Anyone recently had a similar extension that can give us a guide to the price? We're in the North West if that makes a difference.

sweaty_betty

I also live in the north west and have recently had building work done (although not quite the same as yours). I would guess at around £30- 40k, but your best bet is to ask around to see if anyone would recommend a builder who can give you a ball park figure (you can tell them it's not immediate but future work). If you need a recommendation, let me know

gazfocus

sweaty_betty wrote: »

I also live in the north west and have recently had building work done (although not quite the same as yours). I would guess at around £30- 40k, but your best bet is to ask around to see if anyone would recommend a builder who can give you a ball park figure (you can tell them it's not immediate but future work). If you need a recommendation, let me know

Thanks. £30-40k isn't as bad as I thought.

If you wouldn't mind pm'ing me the details of who you used, I would really appreciate it (as long as you were happy with their work of course).

Thanks again

Doozergirl

On the £1000 a metre rule, you're looking at more in the region of £55k

£30k would get you the ground floor but £40k for two would be really pushing it if you were bringing someone in to build it and wanted a good degree of finish on it.

gazfocus

Doozergirl wrote: »

On the £1000 a metre rule, you're looking at more in the region of £55k

£30k would get you the ground floor but £40k for two would be really pushing it if you were bringing someone in to build it and wanted a good degree of finish on it.

Ok, still not too bad - £1000 per sqm is handy to know.

Would that price usually include someone project managing the build?

Grimbal

gazfocus wrote: »

Ok, still not too bad - £1000 per sqm is handy to know.

Would that price usually include someone project managing the build?

remember to add vat on top of that.

A good builder can project manage things themselves. Ours were wonderful, and organised absolutely everything. All we had to do was swan about and tell them where we wanted plug sockets From organising deliveries, trades etc to liaising with Buildings Control they did everything. We were paying him £1.2k +Vat (south east) for that though



ETA: apart from the VAT, remember to add in about £1-2k for architects fees, £500 - 1k for buildings ctl, and also for any upgrades from a basic fitting out that you want to do eg better doors/handles

gazfocus

Grimbal wrote: »

remember to add vat on top of that.

A good builder can project manage things themselves. Ours were wonderful, and organised absolutely everything. All we had to do was swan about and tell them where we wanted plug sockets From organising deliveries, trades etc to liaising with Buildings Control they did everything. We were paying him £1.2k +Vat (south east) for that though



ETA: apart from the VAT, remember to add in about £1-2k for architects fees, £500 - 1k for buildings ctl, and also for any upgrades from a basic fitting out that you want to do eg better doors/handles

Thanks for your post. These figures are very useful... my next question was going to be about architects fees so that's really useful to know.

I think any upgrades, we will supply ourselves because we are going to be changing the doors, electrical switches/sockets throughout so will want them all to match.

berks

I had a 7x4m double story extension built last year replacing a conservatory on a victorian cottage.
It involved moving the bathroom from the back of the kitchen into the extension. Replacement kitchen. Replacement roof slates to entire house, Full rewire, replacement boiler in extension and assoicated heating works. Lots of other plumbing works. Some TLC to the original house and full decoration.
Came to £90K inc VAT in Berkshire - took 3 months start to end with us moving out for 2 months of that.
Started off with a RIBA architect, but we parted company a few weeks into the build having paid him about £4K. A draftsman would be fine in a lot of cases, but our architect was superb through the planning stage and that might be important in a difficult planning area.
Building regs £800, structural engineer £600
Quite a stressful experience!

gazfocus

berks wrote: »

I had a 7x4m double story extension built last year replacing a conservatory on a victorian cottage.
It involved moving the bathroom from the back of the kitchen into the extension. Replacement kitchen. Replacement roof slates to entire house, Full rewire, replacement boiler in extension and assoicated heating works. Lots of other plumbing works. Some TLC to the original house and full decoration.
Came to £90K inc VAT in Berkshire - took 3 months start to end with us moving out for 2 months of that.
Started off with a RIBA architect, but we parted company a few weeks into the build having paid him about £4K. A draftsman would be fine in a lot of cases, but our architect was superb through the planning stage and that might be important in a difficult planning area.
Building regs £800, structural engineer £600
Quite a stressful experience!

Thanks for your post, those figures/time scales are very useful.

We wouldn't need the full rewire or replacement boiler/plumbing works because the house is only 15 years old and the boiler is only 2-3 years old, but it's good to have a possible 'maximum price'.

Thanks again

sweaty_betty

gazfocus wrote: »

Thanks. £30-40k isn't as bad as I thought.

If you wouldn't mind pm'ing me the details of who you used, I would really appreciate it (as long as you were happy with their work of course).

Thanks again

PM sent