How to get an extension done?

d0nkeyk0ng

Having never had building work done before, I'm quite naive as to the entire process. We moved into our first house and whilst my wife and I considered living here for a few years and then moving on, there's a good chance we maybe here for a lot longer.

We live in a 3-bed semi-detached 1950's house. As typical for the area, the house is a on the small side (largest room is 4m by 3m), but particularly the kitchen is tiny. One person is fine, two is crowded, three is a nightmare. The previous owners have done a single storey extension which is the utility room.

We are considering knocking together the kitchen and utility into one room and extending this out by about 1m into the garden. SWMBO likes the idea of bifolding doors and maybe some sort of skylight/glass roof over the extending bit to bring in more light. We will, however, lose cupboards on both sides of the dividing wall.

We've also thought about building a second storey extension on top of the utility +/- loft conversion to make it into a 4-5 bed house.

What do we do? Who do we speak to? What steps are involved?
Architect? Surveyor? Builder?

Any help or useful information would be welcome.

iamparakeet

I'm in a similar situation. In fact, I just posted a similar thread. I'm uncertain which professions I should call on to provide the right information and when.

Clive_Woody

We were in a similar situation a couple of years ago, fortunately a family friend who was an architect was able to talk through our ideas, propose a few of her own and guide us on what was permitted. An architect probably won't be able to give accurate estimates of how much the build will cost but may be able to give a ballpark range of potential costs.

Do a bit of research yourself but I would suggest talking with a professional who can guide you through the process.

If either of you are in the Herts area I can recommend a very helpful architect :beer:

Tykva

i suggest to do some reading online, then discuss with planning permission, then architect and the rest. preliminary architects would say yes, to anything but as you have to prepay you might not be happy with what they propose you can do, so before making any payments research as much as possible yourself. that's what i'm doing.

d0nkeyk0ng

Thanks all. It's been really tricky as quite a few websites seem to say different things. I've been in touch with a local architect to see what might be possible (payment is on production of plans).

teneighty

d0nkeyk0ng wrote: »

Thanks all. It's been really tricky as quite a few websites seem to say different things. I've been in touch with a local architect to see what might be possible (payment is on production of plans).

Did you get a fee quote? A fixed fee is better than an hourly rate or a % charge. Although your brief is still quite fluid so it would be difficult to calculate, if you are torn between the 2 schemes you would probably have to get a fee quote for each scheme so say £800 for the small ground floor extension or £1200 for the first floor extension.

Did you shop around and speak to different designers and get several fee quotes?