Bungalow Renovation

[Petay]

Hello All,

First of all I wanted to say ‘Hi’, I’ve been a PH member since they first started but not used the forums much! Looks great, with loads of advice and a good community.

I’m looking for some advice on our bungalow renovation regards to budget please, we’ve designed the below (before and after plans in images) to be as ‘simple as possible, using as much of the original as we can whilst giving a much bigger foot print and living space (currently only one small bedroom upstairs due to poor previous work/design). Total footprint before is approx. 144m^2 (inc garage and gap between house and garage), total footprint after renovation approx. 216m^2.

The rear double height extension will be simple block work and the whole job will only need five steel sections to pic up the larger floor spans.

I was hoping around £125k might see us to the point we can move back in (plastered but no flooring and paint). Is that realistic or am I dreaming haha?!

I will be project managing this to try and keep costs down a bit.

Thanks all for your help and advice. See the before and after plans below:

Before:


After:

[mattman]

Having done a similar project are the start of lockdown I’d suggest you are about 40-50% off on your budget. Materials have gone through the roof price wise in the last couple of years. The only way to get a true idea is to get 4 or 5 builders to quote.

We went from a dormer bungalow to a house by ‘just’ removing the roof, building up a metre or so and putting a new roof back on. Same footprint as the original bungalow. We had quotes ranging from £200k to nearly £300k and had to work with the builder to chip that down.
I thought raising the roof was out of budget but was actually easier for the builder to pull down and start again then trying to join to existing.

We saved a fortune by picking up stuff in the sales, bathrooms, tiles, paint etc as we saw them rather than knowing exactly where it be used. For example 5 tins of F&B paint reduced to £3 a tin at B&Q because they were dented. Big saving. Ex-display cloakroom set at Bathstore for £20 - sometimes you just need to be lucky.
I’d also recommend buying your windows and doors yourself rather than the builder so you get exactly what you want and at a decent price. For example we used Alulux for the corner opening bi-fold doors, they were around £5k rather than the £12k the builders preferred company quoted.

We went from this 3 bedroom (upstairs) dormer bungalow which looked quaint until you tried to live in it with 2 teenagers and had a virtually unusable upstairs due to low pitch and hideous 80’s flat roof extension


To this with 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms upstairs. Getting an architect who knew what they were doing made a huge difference - he moved stairs and rooms around and made the whole house flow properly so it really works as a family home.


We’re now working on putting more greenery back at the front to soften the lines.
Also check with your insurers whether that amount of flat roof will effect your policy, some don’t appear to like it.
Because of lockdown, we also lived in it during the build - not something I would do again so budget for a rental place to

Edited by mattman on Tuesday 26th April 21:10

Edited by mattman on Tuesday 26th April 21:13

Edited by mattman on Tuesday 26th April 21:15

[Sheepshanks]

Petay said:

I was hoping around £125k might see us to the point we can move back in (plastered but no flooring and paint). Is that realistic or am I dreaming haha?!

I will be project managing this to try and keep costs down a bit.

Bear in mind that, at least in my experience, builders think ex-VAT so if your £125K becomes not much over £100K as far as a bulder is concerned.

[Petay]

Thanks Mattman. Your house looks incredible, really smart!

Thanks for the advice. I forgot to mention that I was previously a carpenter by trade and so I’ll be doing a lot of the work myself, I’m hoping that will allow us to further reduce the cost (fingers crossed).
Great advice on the sale items, we’ve got a couple of years until we plan to start so will start looking for materials etc as soon as the planning approval comes through.
Do you mind me asking what time frame you were unable to live in your house was please? I’m hoping for ours that we can avoid breaking into the current house until the extension is 90% done and the roof has to come off.
I’m sounding very optimistic I know, but honestly, we don’t have the budget to pay someone else to do it all so I’ll have to knuckle down and make it work somehow.
I’ll keep this tread updated when we finally make a start.
Thanks again and hope you’re enjoying your epic new house 👍🏼👍🏼

[Andeh1]

Really good project!

I'd echo what mattman is saying though, my layman's estimation would be closer to £175-200k with you doing a bit of the work. It's a tough climate to build cheaply in right now.

[Mark Benson]

Another tip to keep costs down is to buy a van.
We bought the cheapest runner we could find for £1000 then kept an eye on Facebook, ebay etc. for stuff we knew we'd need.
When we did ours in 2019, lots of people seemed to be getting rid of perfectly good stuff that was impossible to collect in a standard car, so wasn't selling.
We got a double width glass shower screen for £1, 7 oak doors for £150 and a 1920s claw foot cast iron bath for £80 for instance.
We also used it to fetch stuff for the builders at short notice, meaning they didn't have to break off work to do it themselves.

Once we were finished we got the brakes done, MOT'd it and sold it for around what we paid for it, but it saved us arond £5k in costs.

[mattman]

Petay said:

Thanks Mattman. Your house looks incredible, really smart!

Thanks for the advice. I forgot to mention that I was previously a carpenter by trade and so I’ll be doing a lot of the work myself, I’m hoping that will allow us to further reduce the cost (fingers crossed).
Great advice on the sale items, we’ve got a couple of years until we plan to start so will start looking for materials etc as soon as the planning approval comes through.
Do you mind me asking what time frame you were unable to live in your house was please? I’m hoping for ours that we can avoid breaking into the current house until the extension is 90% done and the roof has to come off.
I’m sounding very optimistic I know, but honestly, we don’t have the budget to pay someone else to do it all so I’ll have to knuckle down and make it work somehow.
I’ll keep this tread updated when we finally make a start.
Thanks again and hope you’re enjoying your epic new house ????????

Thanks! I've always wanted a double fronted house - this was our only chance.

We lived in ours throughout - we started just before lockdown and was meant to take about 16 weeks - took nearer 7 months due to all the restrictions.

Its doable, but a pain, everything is dusty, everything leaks and you end up constantly moving furniture and boarding up gaps. As we were building up, the roof had to come off quite early so had a few weeks with lots or tarpaulin as our roof, it also meant we had to move everything downstairs which sort of worked until my son had to return from uni due to covid as well - so ended up living in the shed for 3 mths!

My other tip i just thought of after seeing Mark's tip on the van - Facebook MarketPlace and/or Freecycle - its amazing what people will take if its for free - we saved loads on skips by offering the old roof joists, bricks, pallets, fittings etc - mostly free to collector to get them away

Good luck with the project!

[Andeh1]

Mark Benson said:

Another tip to keep costs down is to buy a van.
We bought the cheapest runner we could find for £1000 then kept an eye on Facebook, ebay etc. for stuff we knew we'd need.
When we did ours in 2019, lots of people seemed to be getting rid of perfectly good stuff that was impossible to collect in a standard car, so wasn't selling.
We got a double width glass shower screen for £1, 7 oak doors for £150 and a 1920s claw foot cast iron bath for £80 for instance.
We also used it to fetch stuff for the builders at short notice, meaning they didn't have to break off work to do it themselves.

Once we were finished we got the brakes done, MOT'd it and sold it for around what we paid for it, but it saved us arond £5k in costs.

Or an old volvo estate so you can use it at the local tip to get rid of stuff.... Though post covid restrictions & vehicle registration might make this harder these days!

[Petay]

Thanks all for your replies.

The budget seems to be getting further away with this crazy inflation currently happening 😔!
Thank you for the good ideas on how to save some cash. I have a very old estate but once that finally gives up I’ll likely invest in a van.

We’re still working trough planning, endless bat surveys seem to be the current sticking point. I’m hopeful we can get that resolved in the next few weeks so the LPA will actually take a look at our application.

Once we get a bit further down the road I’ll try to keep this thread up to date.

Thanks again 😁

[WindyMills]

Probably not the answer you're hoping for, but that's potentially a lot of work. Pending what the works are exactly, wouldn't be surprised for nearer to £300k, given how pricing is at moment.

Refurb always has mission creep. It'll be things like the roof to the front. So little will remain that you'll get:

"it's difficult to tie in, it'll look out of place when done, can we re-tile the whole lot for an extra £200?"
...
"there's no insulation under those tiles, is it worth another £200 to chuck some in."

It might be similar cost, (or cheaper) to knock down and rebuild...(you claim VAT back at end)

[Petay]

Thanks Windy Mills.

I’m planning to do virtually everything myself, with some help for the time/safety critical jobs (roof/electrics etc). The roof is planned to be completely removed and replaced over the new footprint as cutting into the existing will take a lot more time.

I would agree that the current climate makes the pricing a lot higher but we’re not planning to start until 2024 properly so I’m hoping things come down a bit between now and then.

I’m working on a materials list now and will send it out for various merchants to quote for the business essentially.

Thanks.

[covmutley]

Here's my thread, if that helps:

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Think we were about £110k. This is in south wales, and before the recent materials price increase.

Doing it yourself will obviously give you a substantial saving.

[Petay]

covmutley said:

Here's my thread, if that helps:

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Think we were about 110k. This is in south wales, and before the recent materials price increase.

Doing it yourself will obviously give you a substantial saving.

Thank you, this is an amazing help. I’ll have a proper read through when time allows but a quick scan of your thread looks like a similar scale job and amazing results 👍🏼👍🏼

[nunpuncher]

Nearing the end of a light renovation of a bungalow and by "light" I mean no real building work and no extension of the existing property, just moving walls internally, windows, plumbing, electrics, new kitchen etc and that's cost roughly half your budget. Going on that I would say your budget is around half if not close to a third of what you are going to need as the plans look like a very extensive conversion to me.

Materials are what has really stung us. I've even done quite a bit of the work myself removing walls and putting up partition walls to try to keep costs down but it seems like nothing costs less than 4 figures these days.

[rustyuk]

If you are costing for just materials then £125k should cover it. Are you planning on working whilst you are also doing the building work yourself?

You are likely to destroy most of the existing interior and flooring and also need to cost landscaping too. I've never know a build that didn't turn the garden or patio in a mini Somme

[Petay]

rustyuk said:

If you are costing for just materials then 125k should cover it. Are you planning on working whilst you are also doing the building work yourself?

You are likely to destroy most of the existing interior and flooring and also need to cost landscaping too. I've never know a build that didn't turn the garden or patio in a mini Somme

That’s basically it, material cost plus about £10k to cover some hired help (I’m lucky to have close mates in every trade so they’ll come and check my work and do anything I’m unable to do). I’ll be working around the day job for the first year, getting all the new block work in place, then taking 5/6 weeks off in one block for the roof.

I had assumed we’ll destroy the ceilings too and once the roof starts coming off we’ll need to move in with our family close by for a while. I’ve assumed the aesthetic finishing (floors, paint, kitchen etc etc) will be done once we’ve moved back in so I can do it over a number of months (around the day job again!).

Will be a busy few years once planning is approved and sorted 😂

[Petay]

Morning All,

Been quiet for a long time, you might be wondering why! One word: Planning!! It’s been a whole year and four drawing iterations but we ‘should’ finally get a plan approved by the end of next week. It’s vastly different than the first plan, nicer looking but more complicated and less usable space by quite some margin. Either way, I’ll just be happy to get something agreed after so long (delays have been monumental on the LPA side, this latest plan was validated mid October 2022 with no objections to the plan they are finally getting around to processing it!).
So, here’s the updated elevations:

Edited by Petay on Thursday 23 March 08:55

Edited by Petay on Thursday 23 March 08:56

[Petay]

[westberks]

good luck with finalising that; hopefully the delay will have given you time to revise things rather that make mistakes along the way

[Petay]

westberks said:

good luck with finalising that; hopefully the delay will have given you time to revise things rather that make mistakes along the way

Thank you, keeping my fingers crossed!

It has given me a lot of time to think about it all and research/scare myself on material pricing! Starting to work through the order of work plan now