My 1st House Extension

We purchased our house almost exactly 1 year ago (3rd May 2019). It is a 4 bed detached property that had not been touched for maybe 40 years. It was always going to be a big project but one that will hopefully give us a house we can enjoy for years to come.

After a lot of head scratching and playing around with ideas we had the plans drawn up and submitted to the council for approval. We received planning permission for a small front single story extension and larger rear extension the day before the country went into lockdown.

On top of the extensions, the house needs a full refurb inside and out (not just cosmetics). I have done a few refurbs before and am confident in my ability but as you will see from other threads I lack in experience and know how in areas so need help (lots of). I am not a builder but work closely within the industry and love all things to do with construction. I believe most things can be done yourself but that they will take far longer and you may not get them right the 1st time.

Given the current situation we will probably start the rear extension later in the year as it will involve more trades and interaction (plus it gives us more time to sort ourselves out). As the front extension and internal alterations are far simpler and within what i consider to be my own ability (even though it may be a 1st for me) i would like to do as much of it as possible myself. This is not a cost saving exercise but a labour of love. I will get tradesmen in as/when required.

The aim is for a high level finish maintaining the older look of the property externally coupled with a modern high spec finish internally.

I will document the progress and costs etc on this thread if there is any interest.

I have found this site very helpful and welcome any comments and constructive criticism (preferably no abuse).

Thanks in advance for any help given along the way and to those that have helped so far.

 

I spoke to our BC inspector and she confirmed that they could add a few extra visits in to allow the 2 extensions to be carried out separately. With this confirmed we served the Section 6 Notices and used the bank holiday weekend to start the prep work.

The existing porch had to be removed before we can dig the footings so this was job #1. The bank holiday allowed me to complete this (just) with a bit of friendly motivation from people walking down the street. Everything was removed and cleared away just before i ran out of time. The timber beams and posts were the trickiest which i only just got finished before i ran out of daylight. This will now allow me to mark out the footings and get them dug.

 

I am now fully committed!

I marked out the footings and had a bit of concern over the location of existing services in close proximity to one of the footings. I spent the next few days preparing myself for some hard work digging them out but then found a local machine and driver at a very reasonable rate so saved my back and got him in to make light work of it (with me on the wheelbarrow).

He had to sit for a while whilst i went and got a breaker as the porch slab was to thick for the excavator to lift. Once that was broken out the rest was a very simple exercise. I got a trench dug at the same time for the new water main.

I managed to sell the old porch door and windows a few days prior so the net cost of the dig ended up being £80 which was a big win plus i didnt have to take the porch to the skip.

It now looks a right mess but i have the BCO out tomorrow to hopefully sign off the dig so that i can call in the concrete.

 

Good work chap...

 

Things have been busy at work so i have not had a huge amount of time to work on the house but i have finally got to my 1st milestone of pouring the footings so i will give a quick update.



After the footings were dug the drive was left out of use so i needed to get the water feed in and the trench filled so that we could park the car.

I managed to get the new water supply laid, connected and back filed in 1 day. I have connected it temporarily to the house until it is re plumbed as service routes internally are likely to change.



After a bit of a panic about footings close to services i introduced a small pad so that i can lintel over the existing services maintaining access and the required spacial requirements. I contacted British Gas to see if they wanted to replace the old steel pipe but apparently they have internally lined it when they replaced the main in the road a few months back.


I panicked the night before the concrete pour as it was the 1st time i have done something like this but i shouldn't have. The pour went great. I used a local volumetric concrete firm and they were great. I will be using them again. £412 for 3.6m3. They were able to reverse onto the drive and pour directly into the footings. The wagon was on site for about 30 minutes, with me then working the concrete for the next hour. Everything is now ready for the blockwork. I plan to order the materials this weekend for delivery next week.

We also made a decision on the style of new front door so that has also been ordered from a local joiner and due for delivery in 4 weeks time.

Thanks to everyone that has helped in separate threads, without your input i would find it hard to enjoy and do this.

 

don't forget to keep us up to date on this thread. keep seeing snippets of the project in your other threads

 

Blockwork is now up. I decided not to attempt this myself for a number of reasons. I have a few internal smaller walls that i will do myself but i thought this would be a bit too much for me. It took a 1+1 4 days to complete which included a few hours or removing and replacing the garage door lintel as i didnt like the original. It was too high and looked out of place down the road.

I have also hit my 1st budget milestone. I had hoped it would have taken longer to spend it but i have had some large fees to pay and have purchased quite a few tools to enable me to do the work rather than employ people so its actually not that bad.

A few other bits that are going on that i will update as they progress
- Front door is being fabricated this week.
- I am currently installing some lintels above the existing front door to open up that wall
- Materials were delivered for the roof structure so i hope to start on that next week

Needless to say i am well chuffed with the progress.