Update june 08

Well,

things are still going very slowly, but we had Stephen's 4th birthday party here this weekend and the house was fine for visitors - lots of visitors! Geoff got the last drawer fronts on and temporarily fixed the plinths so nothing would get lost under the cupboards over the weekend. The dishwasher landed today (the old one wouldn't wake up and we decided we may as well get one) so that needs plumbing in.

The island now has backs and is just waiting the Iroko breakfast bar - hence the gap at the top!


The light switches and lights on the pillar have worked out really well.


The dining table under the Velux is really nice in the sumer - although we need blinds when the sun is very bright - like this weekend! We often only put the uplighters on in the evening.


Still the odd box around and about, but we're settling in. Time for that flat screen on the wall.....


The kids' cupboard - still not sure about the green, but the purple is great.



The hob run is looking good now. We need the upstands and splashback (more granite!) and the shelf lights chasing in, and the cover above the hood.

Walkabout

Here's a quick walk around the ground floor

Hoorah

Well - we have a sparky - he starts on saturday and he's called Chris.


Everything came back from storage today - The first thing I did was connect the router so I am writing this on the main PC upstairs over WiFi - for the first time snce November. 33 Windows Updates!!!


Downstairs looks pretty good now. The cupboard doors are going on and we should get light fittings when Chris starts on Saturday.


Things now look very different

April 3rd:



April 16th:

Yesterday it looked very different again as the stuff came out of storage so we have the piano, dining table, TV etc. in the room. Now the problem is deciding exactly where to put it and cabling it all up!

Floors and sofas

Well, we still have no electrician, and the heating is still off downstairs (although maintaining a good 15-17 degrees even so!), but we have half a floor in the big room and we unwrapped the sofas. The rest of the room should be laid today along with the front hall - another 48 hours then the heating can go back on. The snug should get primed today, screed today/tomorrow and start laying on Wednesday I hope, so that should be done by Friday - heating on for Sunday. Then the rear hall and utility next week, maybe earlier. Carpets are scheduled for w/c 28th.

Geoff collects the doors for the kitchen cupboards today/tomorrow so the big room should start to come together over the next week. Still no sparky though, so no light fittings (bare bulbs), no extractor and the fridge on an extension..... but moving out of the bedroom will be a massive change.

More Photos

The UFH - not much to show for over 3 grand! A bit of swirly red piping and the manifold from the previous post. This was the 23rd November.

The screed company let us down on the saturday. The driver didn't turn in so no delivery but no-one told our guys so everyone was hanging around waiting. Eventually we found out and after some argy bargy, Martin's screed guy got onto Tarmac for a delivery monday afternoon... and here it is. Monday 26th.


Luverly and smooth - trouble is a dog got in chasing our cat overnight and got footprints right across here!! Geoff got rid fo the worst of them near the front door but we'll have some sanding and filling to do when it's done. This stuff is Tarmac Truflo.

Now the floor cost another £2K. We were going to use normal sand and cement screed but a few things swayed us. Firstly, we can turn the heating on after 3 days with this stuff - it's 3 WEEKS with the sand and cement - and we have no other heating downstairs. Secondly, we want Karndean flooring on top and that needs a smooth surface - so hopefully we'll save a few quid not needing the floor levelling (well - apart from the dog prints that is!). Lastly, this is the recommended screed for UFH as being liquid it runs round the pipes and you're not supposed to get cold spots. Unfortunately, what is not supposed to happen is the floor to get very wet.... then we had 80mph winds and torrential rain all weekend, the temporary roofing got blown off and we had 1/2inch of standing water. Geoff made temporary repairs on sunday and on monday finished most of the roof so Sarah and Stephen mopped up and it's been virtually dry since - we still have a bit of a leak around the Velux so a bit more work to do but it's coming.

By the friday Geoff had got us some stairs and on the saturday we moved back in.... hmm..
Here is a slightly dark picture of the main room. The shuttering is where the new doorway will be, but until the uPVC company and Geoff agree which order the rear porch roof is getting done in, we have no doorway as such....

Catch up....

Blimey, no posts for 3 weeks.....

The last time I posted, the floor had been ripped up in the old lounge and the stairs had gone. Well it took the best part of that week to clear and level the soil ready for the new slab. The following week, the kitchen came out and the floor came up. Few words but a massive upheaval. The rest of that week was getting ready and laying the concrete slab - which went in tuesday afternoon - very late, and a big concern to Martin in case it wasn't set in time to lay the UFH.

Anyway, come wednesday PM and although the concrete wasn't the flattest ever, Martin declares it OK. They measure up and find the floor is 50mm too low. My fault for 20mm as I changed to Anhydrite Screed which is thinner (but mainly, because we can turn the heating on after 3 days instead of 21 for sand and cement and because it leaves a level surface for the Karndean....) not sure where the other 20mm came from, but there we go... So Martin rushes off to the local builder's merchants and orders a load of 50mm thick polystyrene sheets, so we'll have 150mm of insulation under the UFH! Very eco.

So thursday and the insulation goes down, but.... Martin is again concerned that the floor is not stable enough for the screed, which can crack, so friday morning he arranges for the screed expert to come and check - if it's no good either the insulation will have to come up and the floor raised and levelled, or we go to sand and cement...

Friday morning and the screed expert tells Martin to stop being a pansy! The floor is fine - all go for the screed saturday morning.

Saturday morning - no screed. Later saturday morning - no screed. the driver hasn't turned up to collect it from the depot. Cue many phone calls to Lafarge (the supplier) with the end result being that Martin arranges for Tarmac to deliver on monday afternoon.

Now bear in mind we've been away for two weeks, I am due back with the kids monday pm and we'll have a liquid floor and no stairs, so we agree with Martin to go into a hotel at Lafarge's expense until at least weds when the stairs can be installed.

Monday pm and the screed is laid and everyone goes home (apart from Sarah who goes to the hotel to meet us) and we're all fairly happy.

Tuesday morning, Sarah goes to the house to find the floor is still completely liquid and a dog has got in, chasing a cat. We trace the cat prints to Holly, our moggy, and we suspect next door's dog is the culprit - so our expensive, very smooth floor, has a load of footprints across it - FANTASTIC.

Anyway, Geoff manages to float some of the worst out as the floor is still very wet. We wait until Wednesday.

Come Wednesday (28th), the floor is now drying out so Geoff starts to install the stairs. We now have
no bathroom
no kitchen
1 electrical socket
no indoor access to the toilet (we have to go outside to get to it)

So we stay in the hotel and book through to friday night!

Thursday - and we turn the heating on after a few conversations between Geoff and Martin finally sorts out how to connect them initially (despite the complicated manifold, for now it's just a flow and return!)

By friday, we have most of the stairs in (although we still have the sub-landing as there was not enough head room under the landing, it will still need raising but not much now - the stairs look great, Geoff is doing a good job putting them together).

Saturday afternoon and we return to the house..... and the lounge is 1/2 inch deep in water. It has rained all day and the temporary cover on the rear roof has been blown off and water has peed into the lounge - all over the expensive new floor....... So we mop as much of it as we can, hide in the snug - which is dry and closed off (the guys built most of the dividing wall during the week and blocked the gaps with insulation and polystyrene)

Saturday night and the one electrical socket cries enough at being expected to power everything and we lose power - and the boiler! So I clamber downstairs in the dark (the torch has got lost), disconnect everything, turn the power back on to get lights, and plug things back in one at a time until we discover the dodgy extension - another cold night for the fish in the bedroom!

We pester Geoff to come out on Sunday and make good the temporary roof - which he does. So we mop a bit more and turn the fan heater in the snug up to full. We have some of the polystyrene down on the floor, and the UFH is starting to work, so the snug is almost... well, snug! Sunday evening - and we run out of heating oil! I think someone dislikes me......

Monday morning and full tilt. Geoff gets the guttering up on the main roof so the rear roof only has it's own rain to deal with and not the run off, Pip has grouted some of the en-suite and got the cabinet for the sink in - wow, it's starting to look the biz now. We got some more oil and the UFH is starting to do it's thing now - the floor is warming up and drying out nicely now.

Came downstairs this morning and it wasn't ice cold - the UFH is starting to have an effect - pretty good at 35-40 degrees instead of the 55 it will run at eventually. Still having to put shoes on to go to the loo or clean my teeth - oh, and take a torch! The lead flashing on the rear roof should go in today so we'll be just about watertight there. the front bay window is ready to go in, as is the front door glass, so we may be almost watertight by the end of the week! And by friday we should have full temperature to the UFH. Still on the old boiler which is disappointing but pip is concentrating on getting us a loo and sink in the en-suite.

Photos to come but no way to get them from the camera to the laptop which is the only way I have net access at the moment....

Over the worst of it now so things 'can only get better' to borrow a phrase - bout bloody time too!

Bit chilly...

Firstly we gained a new door into the bathroom! This will be a cupboard, but it looks like it was the old doorway.

Here is the boiler and the tank - not much to show for the money, but looking like the most important purchase given the cold!


All the lights......


But here it is - our new, eco-friendly flooring in the lounge......


But at least Pip has started on the tiling - should look nice when they're cleaned! the funny knot at the bottom of the picture is part of the electrical-spaghetti for the bathroom.


Here is our new open-plan landing... I'm sure we were getting shallower stairs, not steeper ones...


Even Holly finds them a challenge!


I don't think we'll keep this layout

Roof and glass

Well, things have really moved on appearance wise in the last week. This was the situation on 29th September
As of today, the main pitch is complete and the ridge tiles are on the extension half - we are re-felting the front of the main roof so the ridge tiles will have to wait there. But the big thing is the glass is going in! The bow window looks great - we didn't have it in the original plan but decided on it when we spoke to the window guy a few weeks back. We had planned on a lead edging on the main panes and the blue pattern in the top panels but the window guy questioned it as being a bit busy and Sarah decided to drop the edging - a good move in the end as the lower panels are not that big in the end.

You can't see it in the photo but there are hinges on the opposite side of the lower windows - they can be turned right round for cleaning - a nice bonus. The windows are Synerjy by Synseal. I had never heard of them (I had been looking at Rehau) but according to the Synseal website they are (one of) the largest uPVC manufacturers in the UK - so I hope they are good!


The en-suite window and the front bedroom are now in and looking good. The rear door frames are waiting at the bottom of the picture. Can't wait!

Also, Martin Hope has left Rehau and setup Walkwarm on 0161 7038343. Email Martin on walkwarm@aol.com for UFH or Anhydride Screed. I'll add his website to the supplier links when I get the URL.

Its Raining...

Well it hasn't stopped raining...


The drain is flooded - luckily (I guess) it is a sealed pipe now, but the hole is filled


So Geoff spent yesterday in the pouring rain putting up the first floor joists. The beam was too low, so thepillar and wall have been built up again!

Beam in!

Well, here they are - the first two beams are in. Bolted together and resting on metal spreader plates after the building inspector declared the concrete blocks weren't hard enough.


2 down, 7 to go!

More holes....

Well, Paulo the builder has been busy again. The building inspector came on friday and wanted the big hole for the pillar expanding, plus some underpinning between the chimney breasts where one of the beams will rest above. As a result , we have a bigger hole and a new hole. Once the inspector comes tomorrow lunch time we should get the base of the pillar poured and the underpinning in. Also the first few courses of bricks for the pillar - enough to sit proud of the main slab. Then the inspector comes again, the hardcore under the slab is compressed and the slab can be laid. Then things should speed up. 5000 bricks are coming on tuesday so plenty for the lads to go at!



The hole for the pillar:


A rather unusual view into the lounge:


The new hole for the underpinning... digging this was a pig - the clay was as hard as concrete and the main electrical supply cable for the house was just behind Paulo's legs! And that's the main soil pipe so not much room for manoeuvre...

Update 07/06/07

Progress has been a little slower this week, but we have moved on. We now have almost all the blockwork for the foundations in and they have started excavating the floor and the corner of the house for the main pier. This pier effectively holds up the house! It will support beams in 3 directions, one of which carries 2 other beams - basically all the beams holding the outside walls of the first floor! Geoff realised that unless he put the pier in now, he would have trouble getting to it later as it has a 1.6m square padstone underneath the pier itself which is 440mm x 440mm engineering bricks. So....

We have moved the piano and sideboard out of the lounge into storage and Geoff will be shuttering off the corner and taking out the corner of the house to build the pier.


Concrete and a bit of blockwork:
This is the corner for the pier... Note the existing foundations - a couple of wider courses of brick - and that;s it!!! and we're down nearly 3ft for the extension.

The remainder of the drive coming up ready for the new floor. We need to go down a little deeper as we have 100mm of insulation and 75mm of screed on top of the slab for the UFH. We have doubled the required 50mm insulation to maximise the efficiency of the UFH.
One of those little things you forget - our washing line used to go between the house and the doghouse - no doghouse, so a new 'high-tech' line goes up!

Now we have blockwork all the way round the main extension excluding the bay:

Footings

The builder is hoping to get the building inspector in tomorrow to check the footings. His Polish lads have been digging for england through about 1 foot of top soil and 2 of clay. We have been shifting the soil to the other end of the garden to use and that was hard work - how they hump binfuls of clay into the skip all day long I don't know.

We are away for the weekend, so we may well come back to concrete instead of holes - what a relief after all the hassle of getting this far.

Ordered the boiler and tank yesterday so we get the installation information ready in plenty of time.

We also ordered the sofa and the bed! A bit keen but we didn't want to miss out if they changed model ranges... The bed is scheduled for september and and the sofa for 1st december - some targets for Geoff to go for!

Here we go!

Well, we finally got the money today! (well the first batch). After months of chasing the bank and them doing nothing they said, how they said and when they said, we have just picked up a cheque for the first installment from the solicitor and contacted the builder.

The bank managed to almost scupper things at the last minute by insisting we needed an independent solicitor and a local search - another week! - but we persisted and here we are....

Next steps are to sign the contract with the builder and agree a start date and schedule.

Finding a Builder

Builders

oo er. What a palaver. I think we spoke to 12-15 builders in the end. Some didn't return calls, some took plans and never returned - note here - get plenty of copies!!!!

We got a range of quotes from mid forties to one hundred and twenty thousand. The standard figure you see quoted is about £1000/m2 which means £2000/m2 (ground floor area) if you go for a 2 storey extension. This is a good budgeting figure, but you should be able to beat it with a small family builder.

We thought we had a builder, who changed his mind, then changed it again, then finally just didn't turn up for a meeting.... The moral here is definitely to keep in touch with your builder regularly even before you have contracted.

After that let down we got a load more quotes and finally settled on a local builder - Geoff Brookfield (http://www.brookfieldbuilders.co.uk/general.htm). So far Geoff has been on time, answered the phone and also been very accommodating with my bank's messing about and delays. Fingers crossed these bode well for his performance on the job!

To be honest, choosing the builder has been the most frightening aspect of the job so far. Entrusting the safety of our house (and next door) to a stranger based on a few chats with them and their references is pretty daunting. Needless to say we will be checking Geoff's insurance very carefully. (See the page on the detailed plans when I've done it for why this is especially important for us).

As for finding a builder, we asked for personal recommendations from friends and colleagues, used the federation of master builders website (generally the more expensive quotes came from here), and the yellow pages. We also used material suppliers as a source, including when we were considering thin-joint blockwork (Thanks to Chris Hirst at Clan).

I would suggest getting more than the recommended 3 quotes. If you are like me, you'll 'settle' on someone when you meet them, but it's important to balance their quote with a range. The cheapest is not necessarily 'dodgy' but a general rule of thumb is that material costs will not change, so the only real variables between quotes are labour and profit. Larger companies have more overheads so will usually be more expensive - but you have the 'comfort' factor, plus they should do the job faster (more labour available) and they should not have the biggest problem....

Plumbers and Sparkies!!!! Every small builder struggles to rally plumbers and sparkies reliably. Check your builder either employees his own (or does that work himself) - this is unlikely with 3-man-band builders as they don't have enough work to keep trades fully employed. If they do it themselves - make sure they are qualified and certified properly. If they have a regular team they bring together on jobs, that's probably less of a risk.

So... my advice would be to make sure the builder has the responsibility - ensure you contract the builder to manage the trades and that he is financially responsible for any delays they introduce. He may be OK with using your recommended tradesmen (if you have them) but you may have to accept his tradesmen. I would say this is worth it to avoid the hassle with organising things. We have taken this as a general principle - the builder has the whole job. We'll tell him if we want to use particular suppliers (eg. Kitchen) and we'll pay them, but it's up to Geoff to be ready for them and organise them all. If your builder won't do that, you'll end up project managing things - get a drop in the price, and be prepared to take a lot of time off work or at least be prepared for a huge phone bill and a lot of extra stress.....

I'll document how it goes with Geoff. Hopefully it will be basically positive (we're bound to fall out somewhere!) but if not, at least you'll know why and how - so you can avoid any mistakes we might make....

The Planning Process

We began the process of having our extension designed in January 2006. We engaged Cork Toft Partnership, a nearby architects practice and they began by measuring the house and producing a CAD drawing of the house as it is now.

Once the initial measurements had been made, the next step was to work up some options for the extension. Our original thought had been to include a full length garage to enable pass-through of vehicles, but it became clear that we would get no ground floor living space if we did this.

The architect produced a revised plan with a 2 storey extension the full length of the main house, initially with a step part way along to accommodate a garage at the front of the house and living space behind it.


At this point, we gave up on the garage and decided to go for a full size extension on both floors. The next design reflected this by moving the hall, and introducing 2 new reception rooms, but leaving the existing lounge and kitchen relatively unchanged. The first floor had a large dormer on the front to soften the impact, but extended back the length of the main house, providing 1 new double bed with en-suite and dresser, a replacement double bed with en-suite and adding an en-suite to one of the other beds - so 4 beds, 3 with en-suite and an option to en-suite the fourth.


A couple of iterations later (D) and the extension had grown yet again, bit downstairs was still a collection of individual rooms.


We submitted these plans but they were rejected in part because a neighbour engaged a surveyour to write an objection letter, but primarily because it was basically too big on the first floor.

The extension was redesigned to remove the dormer and cut the first floor back in line with the existing gable end wall. By now we were into June and a few thousand pounds worse off. It was at this point we fell out with the architect slightly as we felt he should have forseen some of the specific objections raised (or at least raised the possibility) and we also felt there hadn't been enough designing by them - much of the design was what we drew for them and they put into CAD. In hindsight, this may be a bit unfair, but when you get knocked back at planning, it is easy to look for a culprit!

The revisions were done in close conjunction with the planning officer (something we and the architect should have done from the very beginning) and we soon reached an external layout which he implied would be acceptable. It was this revision (F) that introduced the open plan layout which excited us so much. We re-submitted the plans in July 2006 and watched the council planning website with anticipation. On the 6th September we finally received permission !!!! As it turns out, that was the easy bit...

Front and Side Elevations:
Rear Elevation:
Internal Layout: