house extensions/renovations

[amber_fluid]

I used to work for a construction company that specialised in this sort stuff but I have now moved on but there are couple factors to consider.

1. What is required to be demolished from the existing. Is the house still habitable? You could also negotiate with your builder to do this yourself all you need is a large skip some hammers, shovels etc and a few mates and in a weekend its all over with more $$$$ in your pocket to buy that pool table

2. When comparing prices make sure you request a detailed description of what you are getting. Nothing used to sh1t me more when tendering was customers comparing prices with competitors. People were only interested in the bottom line. If there is no detail in what they have priced then the chances are they will hit you for six with variations for things you thought were included and at the end of the day you fork out more $$$$$$$$.

We have a small 6m x 3m lean-to extension(dodgy) that will need to be demolished............I was thinking of doing it myself to save money but it will really depend on what price builders charge for something like that to demolish??
The extension will be at the back of the house so I'm hoping to still live in the house whilst extending.
Heater, is it worth me contacting your old business for details/costs? you can just pm me with their details if possible?

This thread is obviously a joke, because the Amber i know wouldnt contemplate this !!!

Next you will say that Browny is coming over to help you !!!

mate I wouldn't let him anyway near my house if I was demolishing part of it...........I'd have a compo claim on my hands!!

[Psyber]

Recently I have been over twice looking for a house in SA. I thought about buying a smaller house and adding the one large living room I would like, but at the quoted minimum for extensions of $2000 per square metre + GST I concluded it was better economics to shop for a house already large enough. It proved to be so.

[smac]

About 3 years ago we added 2 bedrooms and a family room to the back of our place. About 35 square metres all up, cost us about $15k. But we cheated a little as my father and brother are builders and 'borrowed' some materials from existing worksites (I have to give it all back when I am done with it ).

I did the majority of work myself, the only professionals I brought in were the flushers (I am just terrible at plaster work) and the floor board finishing (I laid them, just didn't sand and polish them - see plastering skills for more information...).

We didn't have any wet areas in the extension, I did all of the electrical, roofing, air con, insulation, gyprock fixing, floor board laying, painting, guttering, foundation (dug out with a shovel after work over 1 week!) and had my father/brother do the framework, second fix and my cousin did the rendering. Use any contacts you may have and do anything you feel you could do well.

In short... beg, borrow, steal, use mates and put on beers/bbq (far cheaper than trades), have a licenced builder oversee the works to have some quality control and go for it.

Happy to put you onto my father/brother for quotations if you like, send me a PM.

[amber_fluid]

About 3 years ago we added 2 bedrooms and a family room to the back of our place. About 35 square metres all up, cost us about $15k. But we cheated a little as my father and brother are builders and 'borrowed' some materials from existing worksites (I have to give it all back when I am done with it ).

I did the majority of work myself, the only professionals I brought in were the flushers (I am just terrible at plaster work) and the floor board finishing (I laid them, just didn't sand and polish them - see plastering skills for more information...).

We didn't have any wet areas in the extension, I did all of the electrical, roofing, air con, insulation, gyprock fixing, floor board laying, painting, guttering, foundation (dug out with a shovel after work over 1 week!) and had my father/brother do the framework, second fix and my cousin did the rendering. Use any contacts you may have and do anything you feel you could do well.

In short... beg, borrow, steal, use mates and put on beers/bbq (far cheaper than trades), have a licenced builder oversee the works to have some quality control and go for it.

Happy to put you onto my father/brother for quotations if you like, send me a PM.

They couldn't 'borrow' some materials for my house as well? I will, like yourself give them back one day!!
Was yours a brick extension? Surely not for that price even if it was done by yourself and family members.

[smac]

Nah, blueboard/render. Matched the paint up with the existing bricks and it looks pretty good.

[amber_fluid]

Nah, blueboard/render. Matched the paint up with the existing bricks and it looks pretty good.

have looked at the blueboard/render option as we have a rendered brick home but................it's just not the same!! Looked at a house recently that had an extension done with blueboard about 7 years ago and it's(render and blueboard as well) cracking already so that has put me off big time.

[smac]

That would be foundations moving, not the blueboard itself - imagine the cracking if it were brickwork! From what I understood, if the render is applied correctly (quality base coat as well as quality top coat) then it will maintain the integrity of the blueboard for a hell of a long time.

I agree that bricks look nicer, but they didn't fit in our (very low) budget.

[amber_fluid]

That would be foundations moving, not the blueboard itself - imagine the cracking if it were brickwork! From what I understood, if the render is applied correctly (quality base coat as well as quality top coat) then it will maintain the integrity of the blueboard for a hell of a long time.

I agree that bricks look nicer, but they didn't fit in our (very low) budget.

couldn't you have borrowed the bricks as well.

[heater31]

That would be foundations moving, not the blueboard itself - imagine the cracking if it were brickwork! From what I understood, if the render is applied correctly (quality base coat as well as quality top coat) then it will maintain the integrity of the blueboard for a hell of a long time.

I agree that bricks look nicer, but they didn't fit in our (very low) budget.

it depends what suburb you are building in. Some Adelaide suburbs (eastern mainly) are shocking for building on and it should be designed to cope with movement. If the boards are fixed correctly in accordance with the relevant manufacturer's specs and then the render in the same manner it should be able to withstand the soil movement a bit better.

[TEX07]

We have been looking into extending our house over the last two-three months and had a couple of the bigger builders come out and give us a rough quote for what we wanted, basically one more room plus ensuite. By the time one had left we were looking at around $130k for what we were after, this was for 2 rooms, ensuite and walk in robe. Yes we could have knocked down our house and build new on our land for not a great deal more but we are really happy with our house and have done heaps of work on the rest of the house over the last 4 years so that wasnt an option! Take into account having to live in a worksite for 6-12 months, a 18 month year old boy running amok, all the hidden cost we hadnt thought of yet (floor coverings, curtains etc) We decided to do the outside stuff on our house, new pergola, fix our roof and gutters etc. We now have an area outside that will be like an extra room and a house that will look really great from the outside. We have now decided to find an older house in the area we like on a good size block, rent it out for a few years, knock that one down and build on that land and then rent ours out. Just seemed all too hard to stay and do the work to ours IMO.

[amber_fluid]

We have been looking into extending our house over the last two-three months and had a couple of the bigger builders come out and give us a rough quote for what we wanted, basically one more room plus ensuite. By the time one had left we were looking at around $130k for what we were after, this was for 2 rooms, ensuite and walk in robe. Yes we could have knocked down our house and build new on our land for not a great deal more but we are really happy with our house and have done heaps of work on the rest of the house over the last 4 years so that wasnt an option! Take into account having to live in a worksite for 6-12 months, a 18 month year old boy running amok, all the hidden cost we hadnt thought of yet (floor coverings, curtains etc) We decided to do the outside stuff on our house, new pergola, fix our roof and gutters etc. We now have an area outside that will be like an extra room and a house that will look really great from the outside. We have now decided to find an older house in the area we like on a good size block, rent it out for a few years, knock that one down and build on that land and then rent ours out. Just seemed all too hard to stay and do the work to ours IMO.

It is a tough decision which we have thought about over a period of time. We have done a fair bit of work on our house already so we don't really want to go backwards.................we do have a 6 month old daughter though we need to consider when it comes to the mess and crawling around shortly.

[gadj1976]

Interesting thread.

Eventually, i want to build a second storey (1 room) on our house with a small balcony, full glass frontage. (it would be a great view)
love to know what the approx ball park figure would be?

I guess it would cost much more for a balcony, stairs, etc. rather than building on at ground level? the house was built 1981, I will have to get some quotes done one day.

AFL, whatever your extension plans are, add a bathroom. Apparently you have to have wet facilities in your upstairs extension so I've been told.

So yeh, the extension will be pretty pricey but it'll look sensational once done.

There is a house a few streets away from mine that's done the upstairs add on and it looks fantastic! I don't know at what cost it was though.

[amber_fluid]

Interesting thread.

Eventually, i want to build a second storey (1 room) on our house with a small balcony, full glass frontage. (it would be a great view)
love to know what the approx ball park figure would be?

I guess it would cost much more for a balcony, stairs, etc. rather than building on at ground level? the house was built 1981, I will have to get some quotes done one day.

AFL, whatever your extension plans are, add a bathroom. Apparently you have to have wet facilities in your upstairs extension so I've been told.

So yeh, the extension will be pretty pricey but it'll look sensational once done.

There is a house a few streets away from mine that's done the upstairs add on and it looks fantastic! I don't know at what cost it was though.

I looked into extending up as well as out.............the cost of going up was crazy..........I could have built 2 houses for the same price!!
Only looking at building out now.

[TEX07]

We have been looking into extending our house over the last two-three months and had a couple of the bigger builders come out and give us a rough quote for what we wanted, basically one more room plus ensuite. By the time one had left we were looking at around $130k for what we were after, this was for 2 rooms, ensuite and walk in robe. Yes we could have knocked down our house and build new on our land for not a great deal more but we are really happy with our house and have done heaps of work on the rest of the house over the last 4 years so that wasnt an option! Take into account having to live in a worksite for 6-12 months, a 18 month year old boy running amok, all the hidden cost we hadnt thought of yet (floor coverings, curtains etc) We decided to do the outside stuff on our house, new pergola, fix our roof and gutters etc. We now have an area outside that will be like an extra room and a house that will look really great from the outside. We have now decided to find an older house in the area we like on a good size block, rent it out for a few years, knock that one down and build on that land and then rent ours out. Just seemed all too hard to stay and do the work to ours IMO.

It is a tough decision which we have thought about over a period of time. We have done a fair bit of work on our house already so we don't really want to go backwards.................we do have a 6 month old daughter though we need to consider when it comes to the mess and crawling around shortly.

The guy that did our quote for the work also included changing our kitchen to open plan, his comments were you can do without everything except a bathroom when renovating, he wanted to put a temp kitchen in our dinind room! You should have seen the cook she thought that was a ripper idea!!! Seriously the little one was a major consideration for us simply because of what he can get into! yours being 6 months will mean she will be crawling and pretty soon after walking! What a nightmare with all the mess around! I wouldnt envy that if I was in your shoes. Having said that we are probally a bit over the top in terms of clenliness at our house and both of us hate mess and things all over the place so that is where my opinion of that comes from really. One other factor we thought of was that the work we were planning was really just a quick fix and that we will probally end up wanting something else done then had to go through all the crap for something that really isnt what we want for the long term. If you feel that the work you would do would keep you happy for a really long time then I would go for it. We think ours will only just do so building our house from scratch seems the better option.

[TEX07]

Funny thing Amber the cost for us to build up wasnt as bad as we were expecting to be honest, i think we had a decent floorplan or something to that nature that made that a reasonable option
again the only reason we decided against was the hassle really.

[amber_fluid]

Funny thing Amber the cost for us to build up wasnt as bad as we were expecting to be honest, i think we had a decent floorplan or something to that nature that made that a reasonable option
again the only reason we decided against was the hassle really.

on average it is alot more expensive to build up as opposed to out but you must have got lucky with your house and its layout. I know we didn't!! The wife is really worried about the mess it will create. Because of our house layout we should be able to board up the back of the house so the extension won't effect us too much and our daughter should be safe.

[TEX07]

Funny thing Amber the cost for us to build up wasnt as bad as we were expecting to be honest, i think we had a decent floorplan or something to that nature that made that a reasonable option
again the only reason we decided against was the hassle really.

on average it is alot more expensive to build up as opposed to out but you must have got lucky with your house and its layout. I know we didn't!! The wife is really worried about the mess it will create. Because of our house layout we should be able to board up the back of the house so the extension won't effect us too much and our daughter should be safe.

I should say it was more expensive but we were expecting double and it wasnt near double which meant we didnt lose any space outside for the boy and entertaining. you are lucky if you can stay out of it we would not have been and would be living in it! we even considered buying an invetsment property and living there while the work was being done.

[gadj1976]

Interesting thread.

Eventually, i want to build a second storey (1 room) on our house with a small balcony, full glass frontage. (it would be a great view)
love to know what the approx ball park figure would be?

I guess it would cost much more for a balcony, stairs, etc. rather than building on at ground level? the house was built 1981, I will have to get some quotes done one day.

AFL, whatever your extension plans are, add a bathroom. Apparently you have to have wet facilities in your upstairs extension so I've been told.

So yeh, the extension will be pretty pricey but it'll look sensational once done.

There is a house a few streets away from mine that's done the upstairs add on and it looks fantastic! I don't know at what cost it was though.

I looked into extending up as well as out.............the cost of going up was crazy..........I could have built 2 houses for the same price!!
Only looking at building out now.

Our next door neighbours canned the idea too. They are going forwards rather than backwards now.

Thanks for the PM AF, I'd be keen to see the progress via photos over email if that's ok.

Cheers

[AFLflyer]

Thanks for the comments guys. Im really shocked at how expensive this house extension idea can be! I would really like to go up some day, so i better save my cash! not keen to move.

anyone got any actual prices and photo's for a second storey extension, I would be interested to know and have a look!
cheers.

[Psyber]

I'd wait a few months until the slump really bites, and then get some quotes when they are desparate for jobs.