Home extension costs?

JusinScot

Hi,

I looked at home extension costs about 2 years ago and the prices went nuts. +50% up on materials from a year before. 

I'm thinking about extending again ... Are prices more reasonable now? I'm looking at starting in October.

Thank you 

Doozergirl

In a word, no. 

The price of timber has dropped, for example, but other things are still rising.  

I think the overall price is settling, but it's not going to go back to where it was.  Everything is more expensive.  Inflation gonna inflate.  

cymruchris

There's not been a lowering of prices across the board, and nothing has really settled down. All that's really happened is that prices aren't going up as fast as they were. I doubt they'll ever come down much unless there's a major recession and everyone stops buying things and demand drops to nothing - but even then I wouldn't foresee things going back to 'the way they were'.

Albermarle

There are some disinflationary items in the system. Such as the price of energy and shipping. So in theory this should eventually feed through to the cost of construction materials. However these things take quite a long time to work though the long supply chains, and whilst demand remains high there is little incentive for suppliers to rush to pass savings on.

Tucosalamanca

Basic rule for years was 50% labour (and other overheads), 50% materials.

That went out of kilter for a while. Now material prices are stabilising but labour costs continue to increase.

It's getting closer to 50/50 again but not because materials are falling.

Business rates, insurance and vehicle running costs are hitting hard, I don't see these falling much, if at all.

You're not alone in delaying, I have many clients who have done just that and are now trying to book jobs that are now becoming urgent (because they delayed).
We've never been busier, we're frequently pricing high simply to reduce the number of less desirable jobs.
It isn't working, such is the mismatch between demand and supply.

We're also seeing lots of shockingly bad work, I would be putting quality of work above all other requirements.
Choose the wrong tradespeople and it will almost certainly be the most costly decision you'll make.

macman

There is, to state the obvious, a huge shortage of skilled labour post Brexit in almost every building trade. Nothing much is being done to address that, and it can only push labour costs up higher (and result in a lot of bodgers doing very poor quality work instead).

TELLIT01

Availability of good tradespeople is a major issue.  I have two friends who are both self employed builders who are snowed under with work and are pretty much refusing to quote for new jobs.

FreeBear

macman said: (and result in a lot of bodgers doing very poor quality work instead).

After having paid a "plasterer" to do my stairwell, and getting a crap job for my money, I've had enough. Going to do everything myself (aside from gas). Did the hall walls & ceiling last year, and made a much better job of it than 'erbert, and now have a bedroom to tackle.

If I make a mess of it, I only have myself to blame.

TELLIT01

FreeBear said:

macman said: (and result in a lot of bodgers doing very poor quality work instead).

After having paid a "plasterer" to do my stairwell, and getting a crap job for my money, I've had enough. Going to do everything myself (aside from gas). Did the hall walls & ceiling last year, and made a much better job of it than 'erbert, and now have a bedroom to tackle.

If I make a mess of it, I only have myself to blame.

Our new(ish) neighbour is in the buiding trade but not a plaster.  He had a lot of alteration work done when he moved in and asked some of the plasterers on the site he was at if they could do it for him.  They all said they only know how to apply skim to plasterboard and have never applied backing coat and skim coats to walls!

stuart45

I remember back in the 70's when plasterers and bricklayers etc were turning up on site after doing a 6 month Government Training Course. They deemed a bit clueless back then, but I suppose compared to some of the Muppets around nowadays they would be considered good tradesmen. 

gzoom

We are coming up to completing our build, all in, costs are hopefully going to land at around £2400/sq meter. That includes a reasonable spec to finish, aluminium framed glazing + front door, AC in 2 rooms, tilling totalling 150sq meters (bathrooms, kitchen, entrance hall),  mid spec kitchen (£30k ish), bathroom fittings totalling £8k, and £4k staircase. If we had cut down on the spec for some of the fittings we could have come in at £2300/sq meter.

Costs now do seem much more stable so I think it makes going into any project that bit easier to plan, I would budget around £2000-3000/sq meter to completion mindful for spec/ need for complex ground works.

Our builders have been utterly amazing. I would love to know whose who think they can do it better than the trades how long they could take essentially ruins to home.....or how they would be able to plaster something that has more angles/folds than an 12 year old origami project.

However finding a builder you can 100% trust is absolutely vital, we haven't even got a written contract with our builder, everything relies on trust without it you will end up in a nightmare situation. If you watch various TV home shows you will see its suprising how often people change contractors/builder mid project, I cannot begin to imagine the stress that much cause.....money is money, but having a builder walk off the site when it's a pile of rubble......I wouldn't know when to stop crying!!!!

Having said that Good luck with the project:).