Building an extension, where can i save on costs!!

johns4012

Hi Guys

Not sure if this is the right area to post but its the closest i could find!!

Ok so i recently bought a house and i'm looking to have an extension built, its a pretty straight forward side extension where we are knocking down the existing garage and having a 2 storey ext done, enlarging the kitchen downstairs and add 2 beds upstairs.

Ive got my building reg drawings done and over the past 6 -8 weeks i've a several builders come over to quote with prices coming in around the 80K mark (inc VAT)

What im looking to do is get this price down to around the 65-70k mark so im really asking for suggestions on areas i can pull in the spend. obviously i know this is a difficult question without seeing plans etc but are there any areas of the build i could manage myself that could save money i.e like organising the demolition of the existing garage myself or using a cheaper brick on the side wall that no one can see (the house is built with hand clamped bricks .. more expensive!!)

i obviously dont want to self manage the project myself as i dont know enough about the different trades required and ive read about the pit falls, but ive got another 12 months before we want to proceed with the build and would love to get more of a handle on the potential savings... all suggestions welcome!!

comeandgo

Prices on materials are increasing with the demand on house building starting. Something that will cost k80 today will not cost that in a years time.

kaya

we had an extention done a few years back and were advised by our builder that wooden framed is the way forward and a lot cheaper than bricks and mortar , ours is fully insulated etc etc,, very warm and rendered on the outside

cattie

If your quotes are all coming in at around the same price roughly then you need to accept that these are all reasonable prices for what you want doing. And as another poster mentions, material costs are rising, so by the time you're ready for the work to start, the estimate is likely to be much higher.

I certainly wouldn't be looking to cut costs on such a big & expensive project as an extension. There are plenty of cowboys out there who no doubt would be willing to give you a nice sounding quote & either end up not completing the job or else completing it but cutting corners in areas that definitely shouldn't be done with inferior materials, or even worse, perhaps not even bothering with any materials, let alone inferior ones.

Please don't use different cheaper bricks, extensions that have been built using completely different bricks always look rather cheap & shabby to me, as if the owners really couldn't care about aesthetics.

Procrastinator333

If you have had several quotes at that price, that is how much what you are currently asking for is going to cost.

So, the only way to get it down will be to ask for less. To do that, you need to look at the detail and ask the builders what is costing the money. As a few examples.

Windows. Assuming you are having Upvc. My understanding is that the cost of a window is all in the openings, so if currently, you have specs for 3 windows, all of which have 5 different ways of opening, maybe reduce that down to 1 or 2 actual openings in each window. I don't know what that would save, maybe a bit, it is just an example.

You need to look at everything in that sort of detail and decide what you can sacrifice. At that prices, you must be getting some sort of fit out. Are you having an extra bathroom? How much of it is being tiled? Cut back on the tiling, save on materials and labour. Reduce the quality of the fittings to be used.

I would suggest you pick a builder based on who you like so far. Then sit down with him and tell him you need his help to understand where the money is going. What is costing money in terms of the fit out, or time in terms of expense to install. Then work with him to reduce it down to an acceptable level.

Also, I hope you have still left yourself a contingency as whatever budget you settle on, you will end up spending more.

patman99

Have you asked about alternative building materials ?. I am thinking about hollow poly-block construction.
These are basically large polystyrene blocks witch look like a square number '8'. They lock together like giant lego bricks and the holes are filled with concrete.
They are cheaper than a proper cavity wall, but are much, much more thermally efficient (around 8x more so than the standard insulated cavity wall). They also take next to no time to put up.

AdrianC

Radical suggestion, I know, but have you considered talking to the builders and asking them for suggestions to reduce the cost?