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Hi all
Me and her indoors were planning on moving house put our house on the market aaaaand then C19 arrived and it's made us rethink somewhat.
So now we're thinking of extending our house in Newport.
Its valued at around 235k currently and we owe 35k on the mortgage.
Some of the neighbours have already extended but with the advances in Cladding/Steel/Glass etc thought something different could be feasible.
However I don't possess the knowledge or experiences needed to plan out what is possible with our property so wondered if anyone had any recommendations with regards to
Property development/architects
In Briz/Sarf Wales
TIA
Dirtyboy
My brother is an architect in Newport, and a member of this parish. I will call his attention to this thread.
We had an architect do the initial design for an extension and knock out on our house. Architect was ok. What was tricky was that the architect produced this massive spec which went into great detail. We thought this was what the builders wanted. WRONG. They all took one look and thought sod that and didn’t even bother to quote. Be sure what you want and get the builder and structural engineer involved early would be my advise.
Hi Dirtyboy,
I am an architect and can backup what TheDTs said. I've been looking for builders myself recently and my drawings scare off most of the ones I have approached.
Extensions are difficult insofar as they occupy this strange middle ground where they (can) warrant an architect, but are normally too small to attract serious builders. Evidently, you don't want to pay the premiums associated with a main contractor who has insurance and regulatory frameworks to worry about, but at the same time you don't want to be at the mercy of a builder who will just do what he wants to do because that what he knows how to (unless of course you know and trust a builder who is a proper craftsman).
When we first moved into our current home and had some works done, the builder (who seemed great at first) installed rooflights in the wrong places - completely compromising how we can use our loft space, built walls that are neither plumb nor square, built the ceiling to our new bathroom at 2100mm (door height), and ordered and installed an expensive (£2000) aluminium door backward - opening inward into a kitchen counter rather than outward onto an outdoor patio. (Unlike timber they cannot be rehung.) The list of things he got wrong was larger than the original scope of works. He had the audacity to try and make me pay for correcting his mistakes. All this was despite very clean, clear, and not overly detailed drawings.
The most ideal situation for an extension would be to work with an architect to help identify and articulate your desires, then to have a builder with whom your architect could freely and openly communicate. A decent builder has experience and know-how that an architect would be stupid not to listen to, so an architect could help ensure a builder understood your requirements whilst ensuring the builder understood that there would be a flexibility to detailing and an openness to his knowledge.
I will pm you as I am not too far away.