Budget for extension

Redwino222

I recently moved house and the kitchen is way too small.  I would like to do a small extension to the side (for a utility room) and push out about two metres to the rear.  It’s a semi detached house.

how do I go about setting aside a budget?  I have saved £50k for the work in total.  My initial though was £30k for the building work and £15k for the kitchen.  Leaving a £5k contingency,

But I have no idea if this is reasonable.  I want to get an architect out to draw up plans but I’m not sure if my budget is any way reasonable.  

Any thoughts?

Rosa_Damascena

Depends on so many variables but I think £50k is more than reasonable. £15k for an additional kitchen is way too much though, even if its gutted.

casper_gutman

Rosa_Damascena said:

Depends on so many variables but I think £50k is more than reasonable. £15k for an additional kitchen is way too much though, even if its gutted.

You can easily spend £15k on a kitchen, depending on where you get it from. We had multiple quotes of £20k plus just for supplying units and worktops, with installation on top. We paid £9.5k in the end from DIY Kitchens, plus £2.5k installation and £2k for new appliances (we reused a few things from the old kitchen, or this could have been more).

The cost depends on the spec of the kitchen you go for (solid oak? Melamine-faced chipboard?), the worktops (standard laminate? Hardwood? Quartz? Dekton?) but more so on the supplier you go with. The likes of IKEA and DIY are a fraction the price of others like Wren amd Magnet, and that's before getting into Smallbone of Devizes or deVOL territory which is a step up again!

But yes, if you're careful £15k should be enough.

Redwino222

Thank you.  I think I need to put more in the kitchen budget!  I need new appliances - dishwasher, tumble dryer, ovens.  I also need the utility room as well as the kitchen.

I would like a wood kitchen - nothing too expensive but a step above IKEA etc.  Maybe £20 - £25k would be more reasonable for the kitchen budget.

 I have no idea about building work budget.  Total spend may need to be closer to £60k all in.

angela110660

I would say it depends where you live in UK as to the quote for the kitchen fitting if you are not using the kitchen supplier fitters. Our kitchen was done last year with a separate fitting company and although no extension done we had to have electrics overhauled including new fuse board, all new appliances, butler sink and wood worktops all for under £18k. Took 2 weeks to complete. Very happy with the result. Used Howdens and they did a great design too.

FaceHead

What are the dimensions of the utility room and the extension? What structural elements do you need - e.g. walls out, if you are pushing out the back is there a big steel across that to take what is above the existing back. 

The kitchen budget sounds sensible. 30k for the building work including plumbing, electrics,  windows etc. you gotta be dreaming unless it's so small it's pointless doing it. Where does decorating, floor coverings etc. fit into your budget. And the 2-3k you will spend on architects, engineers, planning, building control etc. 

Edit: if you give us an idea of the layout and sizes you will get much more specific help. Take your estate agent floor plan into paint and sketch out what you plan to change.

TELLIT01

The price of kitchen units, as well as the quality of them, varies massively.  Flat pack will potentially be cheaper than pre-built units, and MDF doors cheaper than solid wood.  I think you need to investigate that aspect more.  We had our kitchen gutted about 4 years ago and spent about £8k for units, cooker etc then there was installation, changes to the electrical layout etc on top.  Final cost was about £12k.  The kitchen is only about 3 metres each way.  We did have prebuilt units.

Redwino222

I was worried someone would tell me he building budget is way too light.  I’m in Northern Ireland.

haven’t really decided yet what I need or dimensions.  I have just moved in, but if £30k would only give a tiny extension, it might be back to the drawing board.

really my max for the project is £60k.  That’s everything including flooring.  

Maybe I need to save for another couple of years.  

Doozergirl

Redwino222 said:

I was worried someone would tell me he building budget is way too light.  I’m in Northern Ireland.

haven’t really decided yet what I need or dimensions.  I have just moved in, but if £30k would only give a tiny extension, it might be back to the drawing board.

really my max for the project is £60k.  That’s everything including flooring.  

Maybe I need to save for another couple of years.  

Maybe you should show us what you want to do!  We can't even guess with zero information. 

Our last kitchen cost less than £4k from Ikea with all the appliances. Probably another £1,500 to fit it.  We did upgrade the worktops to solid ones after a few years.  The kitchen lasted us well for 10 years and still got compliments when we sold.  You can have a lovely kitchen for not too much money.  

In our current kitchen, just the worktop cost more than the entire kitchen in the last house.    Horses for courses. 

You should be budgeting for the extension first before upping a kitchen budget to £25k.  You can spend that much if you want to, but it certainly isn't necessary.