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:

[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 👍🏼👍🏼

[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 😁

[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.

[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 👍🏼👍🏼

[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]

[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

[Petay]

B'stard Child said:

Petay said:

Looks much nicer to my eyes than the original drawings

Keep us updated on the progress it looks like a nice build thread to follow

Thank you. I agree, it’s much more pleasing to the eye (apart from I can’t get over the grinning face on the south elevation!). My only disappointment is planning not allowing the storage over the top of the garage, this would have been a big benefit with the reduced storage capability on a dormer bungalow.

Like I mentioned, I’ll just be happy to have something that will be a vast improvement on what is currently here.

I’ll keep you all posted as things get approved and work begins.

[Petay]

Ranger 6 said:

Looks good - we're just finishing ours, similar to you we went for the main works done and carpets decorating to come.

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

Just had a quick look through your thread, looks fantastic.

Did you get a contractor in to do the work or were you managing the project yourself?
It’s a huge difference and I love the porch area in particular.

[Petay]

Ranger 6 said:

Thanks

Yes, we had a main contractor who did the core works and managed the subbies. I fly a desk so have no construction ability at all.

We lived on site so were very ‘hands on’ throughout, which caught a few things in good time and we were able to tweak all the way through.

We’re very pleased with the porch. It’s a real talking point and I watch the people walking past and pointing!

Good luck with yours - where in the country are you?

Fantastic, sounds like it was a fairly good experience for you. The results are brilliant.

Do you mind me asking how much it set you back? I’m in the process of researching material prices now, managing to save thousands with just shopping around but still eye watering!

We’re in Devon, what about you guys?

I’ll be managing the entire project and doing a huge amount myself with the exception of foundations, rewiring, plumbing and some help from my old chippy mates when it comes to the roof being rebuilt - it’s very daunting but I'm excited to get started hopefully later this year with the demolition side of things.

[Petay]

Hello All,
Happy new year!

Sorry for the radio silence, it’s been a busy time getting planning sorted and starting to plan the project, I also got carried away with a play area for the kids and a 5m x 3m ‘shed’ in the garden (that I decided to do a proper job of with foundations, block base with timber frame/flat roof).

Anyway, onto the big job: To date (started a week before Christmas, all this going on around the family and day job) I have completed the following with a total expenditure of a little over £5k (inc all removal of waste etc):
Planning approved (4th attempt and 13 months+).
Various surveys for small wildlife(planning enforced!).
All structural drawings, including drainage.
Building regs payment for the project.
Garage demolished.
Dining room (old extension) in the process of being demolished.

Next steps:
Foundations and drainage to be completed prior to end of February.
Commencing block work in March.

Here is the final design and some pictures of the mess so far:

[Petay]

Morning All,
So, where do I start… oh yes, British weather! February saw five times the average rainfall in Devon, which is when I started the foundations!
Needless to say it’s been challenging for a number of reasons, torrential rain coupled with our ‘hard ground’ being much deeper than anticipated (anywhere between 1.2m and 2.2m!!), meaning the cost of groundwork has almost doubled what I predicted. I’m not too concerned as I knew this was the most unpredictable part, I’m just still drying over my bank balance haha!
Here are some progress shots, we got all approx. 50m of footings dug out and poured (with BC sign off) in a total of 8 days. We did have to do this over two digs as after the first week, with trenches caving in and grab lorries taking more water away than soil (180 tonnes have been collected to clear the site), I’d had enough and had to return to the day job.
Regardless of all that, we (me, my uncle driving the digger and a mate helping on the concreting days) got it done. I’m now the proud owner of 44m^3 of gen 3 concrete footings.
Next step is to get blocks, stone, sand, cement and insulation ordered to start the new walls in a few weeks time (or whenever this rain moves on).
Thanks for reading and rest assured, I’ll be doing a full cost breakdown at the end of all this, maybe an interim one after steels are in.

[Petay]

gangzoom said:

The rain has been relentless hasn't it!! We were lucky to get a break in the weather around NewYears allowed the roof to be competed.

Amazing effort doing the work your self, just remember to mention that every time you mention cost just to make us lazy office workers feel better .

Have fun, we have just ordered all the bathroom fittings this weekend, ground works and steels are things I'm glad we are done with on our build!

It really has, we were unlucky as the forecast changed the day the digger/dumper were arriving so I just had to crack on as best as possible.

Glad you managed to get your roof done, are you all dry now?

Haha, I’m an office worker by day too… this just takes up my weekends, evenings and holiday time for a while. But thanks, appreciate the encouragement mate.

Good luck with the fitting out at your place, must be great to see the light at the end of the tunnel.