New house - Add extras or hire someone else

amadoralvarezruiz

Hi all,

We are in the process of buying or first home. It's a new house with Barratt. It's still on early stages of construction, brickwork has not started yet.

At the moment we are looking at the different extras they have available to decide what to add.

Flooring options are pretty expensive and the sales representative told us we could hire someone else to do it as soon as the roof is finished.

The things that we would like to add is down-lights to the kitchen and bathrooms, they only include one per room. But the cost of additional ones is £130/each! So we were wondering if it's worth hiring someone else to do it after completion, but I am not sure if this is possible once the walls are finished.

We were also thinking about adding tiling till half height to the bathrooms but again the price seems quite high at £500 per bathroom. So again, we were thinking about hiring someone else in this case too.

Thank you in advance for any advice!

Doozergirl

It would certainly be cheaper to hire someone else for finishing bits like flooring, but when it comes to the electrics, it's quite possible that you'll cause more damage to the walls and ceilings than Barratt will charge you for the electrics.

Is the bathroom large enough to need more than one light? If I'm working to a budget, I just use one flush ceiling fitting. It's what we have in both bathrooms at home at the moment, as well as a lit mirror in the bathroom which casts a nicer light for relaxing in the bath. I don't think downlights are an amazing design choice - they're not for looking at, they're purely to cast light.

Understandable that you don't want a 'big light' casting your shadow over the kitchen worktops while you're working, so down-lights can be useful.

I'll never understand why people like being restricted and held over a barrel by developers, but someone has to buy these new houses.

amadoralvarezruiz

The bathrooms are not that big. Maybe having a flush light in the ceiling and a lit mirror would be enough.

Regarding the kitchen, another option we were looking at is some sort of semi flush light with multiple lights that could cover the whole kitchen. But not sure if this would be enough light.

SmashedAvacado

if they allow you to have your contractor in doing work before you have completed, then you are all opening yourselves up to arguments about who is at fault if something goes wrong / is delayed. The developer ought to be cheaper as they have people on site - so negotiate it down to that level / ask if you can specify what you want as part of your overall deal. That's the best of both worlds.

jennifernil

it may be an idea to have a few downlights in the kitchen, especially in the sink area, but make sure they are placed so you will not be working in your own shadow.

Worktop lighting is good in the kitchen, you can retrofit if you have a couple of spare sockets.

Spend the money on things that will be very difficult to do later, like additional sockets. Especially in the kitchen and lounge, you can never have too many sockets!

I would not want to add any flooring until the house is finished, it could get damaged.

Extra tiling in bathroom could be good, sometimes it can be difficult to source the same tiles if you want to do it later.

need_an_answer

I've no idea of the quality of the lighting but if you are able to get a separate electrician quote before you commit to decision it may help.

I'm in total agreement that flooring/tiling is very easily sorted yourself or by your nominated tradesperson but I may be a bit resistant in a separate electrician.

Just to add some context we renovated with very good spotlights in several rooms via an electrician and they worked out at around £110 per light fully fitted....so not a million miles away from your Barrett quote but of course it all depends on the quality of the fittings they use,but I do think that electrics are classed as part of the fabric of the property so personally would deviate too far from the developer on that one.

harz99

Downlights means different things to different people. If you're talking recessed led spotlights I wouldn't go there myself as the fittings can lock together with time and make bulb changing almost impossible.

Spotlights off a central light fitting are okay but you can end up in the shady part, best solution is under cupboard worktop lights imho.

babyblade41

harz99 wrote: »

Downlights means different things to different people. If you're talking recessed led spotlights I wouldn't go there myself as the fittings can lock together with time and make bulb changing almost impossible.

Spotlights off a central light fitting are okay but you can end up in the shady part, best solution is under cupboard worktop lights imho.

Totally agree with everything above.

Hate down lighters .....led spots... hate them with a vengeance

amadoralvarezruiz

harz99 wrote: »

Downlights means different things to different people. If you're talking recessed led spotlights I wouldn't go there myself as the fittings can lock together with time and make bulb changing almost impossible.

Spotlights off a central light fitting are okay but you can end up in the shady part, best solution is under cupboard worktop lights imho.

It sounds sensible, I think we are going with the spotlights off a central light fitting and under cupboard worktop lights.

[Deleted User]

What effect would this have with snagging? I'd be worried that Barett would try to blame as much on the person you hired as possible.

Slithery

My usual advice would be to only pay for anything that requires cabling or plumbing as these get a lot more expensive once the walls are plastered.

Everything else is going to be cheaper from local trades once you've completed.