Impossibly cheap extensions on TV shows?

suki1964

richard686 wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback!

Well we do live in a big house, but I wouldn't say flash!

We are in Dorset (and no we're not near Sandbanks!).

So going back to prices, I have found that going for wooden framed windows/doors/lantern triples the price of the glazing from around £10k to £30k. I have three quotes for the glazing and all came in at around the same.

The Lantern, 2.4m X 5.4m comes in at around £8k

Bi-folds, 3.5m wide, around £4k

2 pairs of triple sash windows 2.3m wide, around £5k each.

The building works costs, well 2 quotes so far, several 'too busy'. One quote at around £20k (that's everything except supplying and fitting the glazing) and another at around £35k.

I was expecting it to cost somewhere around £25k all in!

I have tried small and larger builders and I more than ready to do as much as I can myself (footings dug already and I will probably lay the slab too).

Pay my hubby's board and lodgings and he' ll come do it a lot cheaper !!

richard686

!!!!!! wrote: »

I wish you luck. If the Met Police with their resources can't find one then you stand no chance.

There was a team of them on Grand Designs this week. Took on a build that other companies quoted £1.2m for, for £150k (but that was just labour).

richard686

suki1964 wrote: »

Pay my hubby's board and lodgings and he' ll come do it a lot cheaper !!

We'll we are very close to Lulworth Cove so it would be a nice holiday for you too!

tigsly

Do you think they just double prices in London then?

I've had 3 people round (only just started getting quotes..) First said ALOT .. no price has come forward yet..

One said 'that stair case will cost about 2K...
It's an L - going up to the loft..

I'll keep asking people ..

tigsly

I also know its 'who you know' .. but how do you find someone decent ... who 'doesnt see you coming?'

theGrinch

definitely shop around, but dont go for just the cheapest load of builders, checking out their work and getting a feel for their skill is as important if not more

united4ever

When people say the cost of an extension varies depending where you are is this cost proportionate to the cost of property in your area or is it purely because of labour costs. Does a builder in London charge 50% more than a builder in Manchester for example? How does It work between an expensive suburb and a poor suburb e.g. The same extension in Kensington compared to one in Edmonton? Surely the builders costs would not be much different here?


by the way, I am in Trafford, Greater Manchester, is that at the cheaper end of the scale which I gather is 1k per square metre roughly?


thanks

tigsly

I think labour costs more in London, I think people will pay more here generally - so builders can charge more... if you see what i mean...

ruggedtoast

They tend to do a lot of the work themselves or with volunteers who magically appear to help out while the cameras are there.

There is very little focus on the personal cost. I know from personal experience how absolutely soul destroying it is to finish a long day at the office and then come back to a fixer upper that needs months of long days to sort out.

It's exhausting, demoralising and in many ways can make you feel quite hopeless. I cut my losses and sold mine before it was 1/4 done.

I also actually have three friends who all fixer uppers and after 2 -5 years they none of them have progressed much past essentials. They all either ran out of money or energy.

My brother in law is a skilled and able builder with all the tools, knowhow and contacts imaginable and building and remodelling his own extension and house in the evenings after the day job has taken a toll on him. He looks absolutely exhausted, all the time.

spannerzone

I don't believe most of these TV shows that renovate houses for such low prices... Homes under Hammer or whatever that awful daytime TV show is called is a classic example, newbies pay too much for a house in an auction, apparently spend £500 on a total rewire, £1200 on new boiler, rads and all plumbing and £1800 on a flashy kitchen.

Either they're not including VAT, labour etc or they're getting friends etc to do work for next to nothing.