Manage my expectations! Timescale for work.

Snakey

Hi

I live in a flat in a large-ish block, and I want to:

1. Knock toilet/bathroom wall through. Block off bathroom door. Dry-line one wall in the bathroom (for insulation - it backs on to a lift shaft). Move bath to side of room (adjacent to dry-lined wall, assuming this isn't a problem), move sink to where the tap end of the bath used to be, tile around the bath (three sides) high enough up the wall so that I can have showers. Move the radiator to the wall where the other end of the bath used to be. General making good etc.

2. In the hallway opposite where the bathroom door used to be, knock through about three feet of wall between the hallway and the bedroom. Remove bedroom door. Dry line the wall to the end of the hallway and around the corner into the bedroom (this is the back of the lift shaft, plus the the side and back of the external stairwell, so sort-of a zig zag). I'm hoping I can leave the hallway open-plan into the bedroom but if that's not permitted then I need a door putting up. Basically so that the end of the hallway becomes part of the room rather than being dead space.

First question, would I get all of this done at once, or is it two separate jobs? I'm assuming the former would be cheaper, but happy to be educated on the subject!

Second question, if I were to start getting quotes and things now, roughly when could I expect the whole project to be finished? I suppose I mean: any idea of the time it would take to get plans drawn up; get landlord/building consent (landlord is the council); get the materials; wait for however long before the builder can fit me in (what is the typical timescale?); and then for the work to actually be done? Is it weeks, months, a year? Right now I don't even have anyone in mind - I don't know any architects, builders, plumbers, plasterers or whatever - so I really am starting from the beginning.

I'm guessing "how much might it cost" is a piece-of-string thing so I won't ask that just yet.

Thanks for reading!

tacpot12

It will be quicker and cheaper to approach this as one job. I'd expect it to take five to six months to complete, with the permissions taking most of that time. The actual work should take about two to three weeks.

keith969

Forget cost and think about disruption. There will be a lot of mess (dust) created so it is better to get it all done at the same time rather than having to clean up twice.

The actual work (minus planning / permission etc) is probably about a week; most good builders will have a waiting list which means you might have to wait 3 months or more for it to be slotted in.