Home Improvements – Extensions
Ground floor or one/two storey extensions are an excellent way to increase the living space in your home, and are also a good way of adding additional value to your property. You will need to think carefully about the space you have available for building and also your budget, and it is a good idea to commission a professional architect to draw up some initial plans for you.
Once you have decided on the plans you will in most cases need to submit them to your council local planning/building control department for approval, which may cost a small fee. If you do build an extension without planning permission, the council can reject your plans even after the building has been completed, and this means you will have to take the extension down and start again, which would be a huge waste of time and money and so it is best to make sure you have planning permission before you start.
Choosing a Building Company
There are many different specialist skills involved in building even a simple ground floor kitchen extension, and also number of building regulations to adhere to, so it is best to call in a professional builder to carry out this work for you. Completed buildings must be signed of by the council building inspector, and without this you may find your building insurance is invalid, or you may not be able to insure your home at all, so it is very important that you have any extensions to your home completed to a high build level and within standard building regulations.
There are plenty of general builders who specialise in home extensions, so look in your local business directory and phone around for a few quotes, and don’t be afraid to ask for credentials and references. You could also ask friends, family and colleagues if they can recommend a good building company to you.
When you get your quotes think carefully about what each building company is offering you, and don’t be tempted just to pick the cheapest quote straight away. Many companies offer warrantees on the materials and works provided, which is a good back up for the future, and you should also carefully scrutinise the details of any ‘extras’ anticipated on the build, and ensure they are clearly defined and reasonable. Extras can cover a lot of different things from materials through to additional work that was not covered by the original quote, and can add as much as 30% on the final building costs.
Related Tags
interesting home extensions, http://www thehousingzone org/home-improvements-extensions/
4 Responses
My advice for managing an extension is don’t – pay the extra, get a professinal project manager in, that does NOT work for the building contractor. They’ll be able to talk the same language, understand the pitfalls, crack the whip when need be and most of be working FOR you rather than for the contractor.
The other thing to consider especially when there is a large amount of glass in the extension is the thermal effect of the sun. This can be alleviated with some solar window film which will stop too much heat from entering the room.
Interesting comment by Andrew- most Architects would love clients to be this enlightened but unfortunately expectations often exceed budgets and the first thing that tends to be cut is the ‘unnecessary’ professional services and most domestic clients elect to manage their own builds to save on fees.
An interesting phenomenon now though is the ‘George Clark effect’. This is where people have seen the Architect George Clark on TV take complete control of building projects and produce fantastic results. Well people- this is exactly what all Architects can (and would like) to do! So- forget going to builders- find a good Architect and let them do their job would be my advice.
The wife and I have just completed a rear extension to my terraced home in London. I have to say if it wasnt for Betternest we would have still been looking for planning permission! betternest is a great company who fast tracked our extension using “PD” Rights! Produced drawings, build cost estimates and even recommended builders… great service and much more affordable than your average architect!