Lower floor by 15cm - how much £££

stuart45

What will your husband say if he spends 50 grand on the work and you decide you preferred it how it was before and want it put back again. My wife does it all the time when I build something. I've found after a while she gets used to it, and finds something else to complain about.

casper_gutman

gemma.zhang said:

Can have more head room and no steps….

will stay out for 5 years and decide.

just regret eats me alive..

Such an expensive oversight 🙈

There has been no "oversight". Unless you didn't know the floor level would be different? If you weren't made aware of this, then possibly you might have some kind of comeback on the architect or whoever did the design, but I'm betting the floor levels are clearly shown on the drawings the builders worked from. The headroom in the extension and the height of the doors were always going to be a compromise between cost and maximising space/light.

PLEASE move on from this, accept it as it is, and think about all the lovely things you can do with £50,000. You could buy an amazing new car outright, go on several luxury holidays, or take a year off work. I can't believe you're thinking about spending it on moving a lintel up six inches or saving you the trouble of going up and down one solitary step!

rach_k

I think I've seen a couple of posts from you about this building work and you sound very stressed by it all.

It seems to me like you've had a bad experience with your builders and the whole thing has become massive in your head.  Now, you're focussing on small things and making them massive in your head too, which is understandable in a way, but I think you're going to ruin your experience of the room once it's done if you continue.

I imagine it's probably rare that anybody has work done with absolutely zero regrets, but that's life.  We don't always get 'perfect', but good enough is good enough!  Once it's done and you're using the room, your thoughts about and memories of the room will become what you've done in the room... the conversations you've had, the time somebody dropped something insanely messy across the whole floor, the ding on the counter you've never admitted was you.  The step won't matter (and I have a step into my kitchen, I've never even thought about it, even when we moved in with a toddler and a baby.  I doubt anybody else would either).

Instead of looking at fixing how you feel by spending money on the room, do you think it might help to talk to somebody outside the process to help you sort out what's worth worrying about and what isn't?  The way you're beating yourself up about (sensible, reasonable) choices you've made doesn't seem proportionate to what's there in the room, so I think it might be a good investment to work out why you're so hard on yourself.  You could speak to your GP, or try here: https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/mental-health-services/find-nhs-talking-therapies-for-anxiety-and-depression/.

LightFlare

I actually prefer it with the step - it creates a natural separation in what would otherwise be a massive,flat,through room

Instead of spending 50k on "fixing" something that imo doesn't need it- spend 5k and go on a nice holiday -- your regrets will soon be forgotten

ic

Wouldn't the foundations need to go down too?  Won't you be below damp proof?

Sounds crazy.  May as well knock it all down and start again.

gemma.zhang

Thanks everyone for your kind words. 

Negative feeling all back every time I am back home and see the step. 🙈🙈🙈. Same time feel anxious and trapped thinking about the £50k I can’t afford to fix.

sigh 😔…

Grenage

This is not a criticism, but a serious comment.  It might be worth seeking professional therapy.  Your anxiety is disproportional.

ic

gemma.zhang said:

Thanks everyone for your kind words. 

Negative feeling all back every time I am back home and see the step. 🙈🙈🙈. Same time feel anxious and trapped thinking about the £50k I can’t afford to fix.

sigh 😔…

After I fitted my kitchen myself, I stood back and thought "f*** I've mounted the handles wrong".  Two years later I don't see it any more - nobody visiting has ever pointed out what I can see in how they align and have only complimented my work.  I could have spent two grand replacing all the affected doors.  It'll pass, once you actually have a step, flooring, furniture, plants, etc.  One killer in being the decision maker is you can kick yourself for the tiny minor stuff.

gemma.zhang

Apart from ours is not minor.
it’s floor - fundamental.

Others can be changed. This costs 25 k just Labour…

If I count the other things that have gone wrong, or almost gone wrong, I would be in tears. 

gemma.zhang

ThisIsWeird said:

gemma.zhang said:

Can have more head room and no steps…
will stay out for 5 years and decide.
just regret eats me alive..
Such an expensive oversight 🙈

Pros: 

1) Increased headroom. (Do you NEED this? What is it currently?)

2) No step. Purely personal point. To me it wouldn't matter, especially as it serves a purpose - getting closer to garden level. It might even be a nice aesthetic feature.

Cons:

1) Surely it would reduce what you were trying to gain - sight-line out to the garden?

2) £25k

Regret is eating you alive? Well, since neither of the options provides the answer to your dilemma - each is a compromise - then you will almost certainly have some 'regret', regardless of your decision.

One cause of regret will be a lot more costly than the other.

We lost headroom of 15cm, so new high is 2.7m.
not bad in height alone, it’s the difference you feel when entering from one to another.

The house is built on a hilly slope, we have 4 steps in front garden to get in. Luckily it doesn’t make it look too odd. 

Understand everything u say, just feel awful in my decision 🙈. We had cowboy builders + incompetent architect been awful few months. 

i might have taken quite personally, feel I fail the project at home now I have to face it everyday.