My 1st House Extension

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So the last 6 months have been full on and expensive but we now have a new roof, fascias, soffits, guttering composite cladding, windows and entrance door. I have been flat out at work and trying to get the front extension ready for the winter weather. It all came together in the end - Sort of.

With the scaffold up i got to have a look at the chimney stack that was being kept. It needed re pointing and the pots being reset. I managed to do this myself before the roofers started.

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Annoyingly I forgot to take pictures of of the finished job but I can say it was one of those things that I wished I had never started whilst doing the work but glad I did now that it is finished.
 
I then removed all of the old rotten timber cladding and jet washed the pebbledashing. All areas other than those protected directly below the soffits and fascias came back to the original rendering so i was glad i did this as speaking to my neighbour after they paid to have their house painted only for it to all peal off 6 months latter. The render was then left for 6 weeks to dry out thoroughly while the roof was worked on.

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We thought we had found the right tile which matched the original tile colour reasonably well but then located one that matched the existing "worn" tile almost perfectly.

They were slightly more expensive and harder to get as they weren't stocked locally but we are glad we went for them as they look spot on and you wouldn't know they were new from the road which is what we were looking for, new but in keeping with the rest of the road.



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The roofers had to be delayed by 1-2 weeks while we sourced the tiles and roof felt. We went for a Klober product as it is deemed to be the most breathable product on the market. It was about 3 times the price of a standard felt but as we only needed 4 rolls we thought it was worth it. The roofer said he wished everyone used it and seemed to be impressed with the choice of product. We also went for a fully vented perimeter/soffit and a dry ridge system. I was very reluctant to do this despite liking the idea of the theory of it as I thought it would stand out. I shouldn't have worried as it blends in nicely.

With 15 pallets of tiles a truck load of batten loaded on the new drive and front garden the roofers cracked on with removing the 2 chimneys and doing the roof.

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Door got delivered whilst the roof was underway so I stored it inside until the roof was complete then had it installed to complete the front elevation.
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I removed the old tiled bay, framed it out insulated it and then had it rendered.

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With all of the composite cladding installed the pebble dashers were next to fill in the gaps. I then painted the entire elevation using Dulux weathershield.
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With a few coats of paint, refurbishment of the bay windows, a muck away wagon and a skip to clear the rubbish we were done for the winter and had the scaffold dropped. Before and after pic below showing the progress to date.

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I am fairly happy with the progress to date but there are 3 items that are bugging me;
1) The front door should have been set a few inched back into the wall. The guys installing it said building control don't allow the frames to straddle the skins of blockwork and that it needed to be flush. I was flat out that day so didn't have a chance to change this at the time. It is growing on me but I would definitely do it differently if I had the time again.
2) Ridge to the extension - I should have done this using bonnet tiles rather than standard ridge tiles. I will probably change this in the summer.
3) I should not have gone for gloss black fascias they stand out from teh cladding a little. This may dull down with time.

I really wanted to do the roof myself and am annoyed that I didn't get the chance but in reality with full time work it was an unreasonable expectation. The roof was an expensive outlay that has eaten into our budget that was going well before.
 
After 2 weeks of Covid, I started back with some light work to see how things went. With the summer approaching i thought it was time to get the front in shape and start the soft landscape works.

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I dropped 2 drainage crates under where the lawn is going. This will collect a small part of the roof rain water and a gully for an outside tap. Pipes and crates in then i used left over sand and shingle to back fill which cleared up the driveway somewhat.

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Next up i removed the blocks that were forming the temporary shape of the lawn and the terram i had laid last year but never finished.

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With the blocks out the way i installed a metal edging to form the lawn perimeter. This edging is designed to be paved into on one side so that will work well for when i have the driveway done. I then hired in a rotovator for the weekend. I only needed it for a few hours to really turn the soil over. It was a lawn before so the soil was fairly good condition and the machine worked it well to level the surface and get some air into the ground. This allowed me to measure up what was required for fresh topsoil to bring up to final levels before turfing.

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Using string lines and stakes i installed the pop up sprinkler system knowing they would fit flush with the new lawn. Gave it a test run then distributed the 4T of topsoil to give the final levels. Sprinklers worked a treat and the topsoil was great quality.

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I was about 0.5T light on the topsoil so had a few bags dropped off with the turf to fill the final dips. The rings you can see on the soil are the outline of the 5 sprinklers overlapping to cover the entire lawn. I gave it a good blast in the morning in prep for the turf.
The weather didn't let us down and made for a perfect day for laying the turf. Mrs Padstar even helped out for the day enjoying the weather.

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Turf laid followed by a complete drenching to welcome it to its new home

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After 1 week of decent weather and daily watering, starting to look good and lose the joint lines.
 

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We have had perfect weather for the new turf and after 3 weeks of sun and lots of watering it was looking strong and ready for the 1st cut.

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Before and after shot shows the difference. It looks great and the irrigation system has seen particular interest from people that have been keeping an eye on my progress.
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Are you in a conservation area? I'm impressed all the roofs have original tiles.

What was the judgement as to the condition of the existing tiles? Did you reuse many or did you have to source reclaimed ones in good condition?

Was replacing with modern rosemary style tiles a consideration?

Edit: I have just re-read....these were new "worn" tiles? What brand produces them? I have seen the stained rosemary ones, but not a full worn effect!
 
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The tiles were replaced in full with new. I toyed with just doing the roof to the extension but couldn't bare the thought of doing all the work to the house and to have an issue with the old roof after all the work was completed so bit the bullet and replaced the lot to give peace of mind. Everyone has commented on how well they match the existing. A neighbor is currently having theirs done in the same tile. They were Redland Rosemary in dark antique.
 
The tiles were replaced in full with new. I toyed with just doing the roof to the extension but couldn't bare the thought of doing all the work to the house and to have an issue with the old roof after all the work was completed so bit the bullet and replaced the lot to give peace of mind. Everyone has commented on how well they match the existing. A neighbor is currently having theirs done in the same tile. They were Redland Rosemary in dark antique.

Good to know.

I plan to reroof in rosemarys despite the extra cost. My street is undergoing a painful transition of semis with half rosemary's half large format concrete interlocking as some neighbours replace and others don't.

One house went to the effort of re-roofing their side in reclaimed and looked great, their neighbour then used the concrete. It looks awful.

They ruin the look of the houses in my view....but...I get it...they cost a lot less.
 
The prep work for the rear extension has officially begun. The last few weekends have been spent removing vegetation from the back garden ready for the digger to come in and level it and today was spent gutting 1 of the 2 rear rooms. I large pad foundations needs to be installed in this room to carry the steel column. I bit the bullet and removed the existing floor in full. Some of the existing would have had to be removed or worked around for the foundation so i just thought it would give a better product to remove and then replace in full with the extension floor it will tie into.

Electrics have also been stripped out leaving just 1 live socket in this room.

Chimney breast removed ready to be patched back in (Still to remove the upper level breast in the near future).

Bricking in the old fire place tomorrow now its all cleared out.

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