rear extension quotes, deluded about expectations?

[HERTS P&D]

That is a plan B for the future but not the immediate one.

It would be interesting to hear more figures, details from people in the vicinity of outter London.

That's why I asked if you were North or South London?

Andy

 

[John D v2.0]

For what it's worth, we bought a diy kitchens kitchen which has blum hinges, which are very smooth. I then happened to have one of our IKEA drawers out and noticed it is also Blum runners!
So maybe depends on the range or department, that is one of the bigger drawers and the runner is stamped with a marking saying 30kg.

 

[John D v2.0]

That's why I asked if you were North or South London?

Andy

I'm north if that make any difference, although I'm not the OP

 

[cjard]

With Siemens appliances, quartz worktops and fitting came at approx 16k. The joinery/mechanisms were about 8k with VAT.

John's figure is mental but yours is crazy on the lower end. At least you would not be able to work with that near London. How much of the work did you do by yourself? We want to see photos

I did look at IKEA kitchens as part of the consideration for my build.. It ended up that we preferred the look and colour choice in the handle less Luca style from diy-kitchens.com.. Cost was in the same ballpark, and again "what a kitchen should cost" in my opinion, with the cabinetry about 4.5k, appliances 4.5k and granite tops 2k (all inc). They were also practically the same units that a local boutiquey shop had quoted us 10k+vat for (no delivery, fitting, worktops, appliances, etc, etc). Not certain that it's completely true that kitchens cost the same regardless of where in the country you are: if you order from a co with national reach then sure, like anything else.. If you shop local, possibly not.

How much did I do myself? Pretty much all of it. Turns out this hasn't saved me that much though. Over the life of my build its saved me around 10% so far. I know this because I built mine by myself at the same time that a relative built a nearly identical house using all trades, and know his expenditure compared to mine. its a tough call as to whether I'd repeat the exercise; I loved doing the work and creating my home, but it took a lot of my time away from family. I was hoping for a 20-30% saving, but I think I've probably used a bit more of my budget headroom going overboard on spec for various elements (though I've no desire to bore the forum with the details)

 

[cjard]

£700 per sq/m is unrealistic anywhere.

And yet, it's what I've spent (so far; I do have a few jobs outstanding, materials for which are mostly already purchased, some not) so it must be possible somewhere.. The figure varies wildly depending on whether one includes the conservatory and garage in the metreage, or the cost of the land/plot. In the building magazines they typically exclude the land (which I think is cheating), my figure includes plot cost, but it also includes the garage metreage which alters things a bit. It doesn't include landscaping either, but it does include buying plant/tools/vehicles

 

[noseall]

How much of the £700p/m have you allowed for your labour?

My own extension cost me a lot less than £1000 pm but if you add what the labour charges should be then the figure is about right.