I am thinking of buying a house which doesn't have a garage so I will need to budget for an extension on the side of a conventional semi detached house.

I would want to make it a two storey extension - double garage with 2 bedrooms above.

Anyone got an idea of cost? Would £30k be about right?

i've got planning in atm and a quote for £25k

Much of the price of a build is filled by variable prices of finishes.... is it a standard brick? is it still in production? same for roof tiles. can you get second hand tiles? you using lime paster or conventional. You opening the eaves? do you need gables etc?

I would assume that you are going to be requesting the services of a architect. Ine June RIBA run a charity thing called 'Architect in the House' where you can get basic advise for a charitible donation. Usually in June though.
Having said that go to architecture.com find an architect and have a chat. Many will be happy to do all sorts of services and offer help other than simply drawing plans!

What you need to do is figure out eh basic floor area you need and find someone who has a copy of Spons or Laxtons, which should be able to give a basic cost per m2 for Gross Internal Floor Space (GIFA).

I'm a Quantity Surveyor, so this sort of thing is my general bread and butter - but I work in the rail industry and we don't tend to have general building price books hanging around (I can give you a quote for a level crossing though!)

I'll have an ask around the office to see what the general consensus is (probably £350 per m2 dependant upon finishes, but with it being a garage, the overall finishes will be fairly low in cost per m2)

[Edited on 20/9/06 by StevieB]

As already said depends on finishing and what you do yourself.
My small extension was priced at 12K for the building warrant. All done by myself/mates and furnished (utility room/ wc / shower for circa 6K.

Mine was 2 storey (garage, and bedroom above) and single storey acros the back. Extension itself was about £27k but it's the stuff like light fittings, tiling, flooring decoration, extra furniture, new patio etc that is all on top that eats the money!

Count on £500 per m2 of floor space including finishes. That's a bit cheaper than a house costs to build new, which reflects the fact that you already have all services etc. in place.

Working on an assumption of 4m x 8m floor space, 2 storeys = 64m2:

£32,000

quote:

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Originally posted by StevieB
Count on £500 per m2 of floor space including finishes. That's a bit cheaper than a house costs to build new, which reflects the fact that you already have all services etc. in place.

Working on an assumption of 4m x 8m floor space, 2 storeys = 64m2:

£32,000

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Aboardman,
I think thats misleading. Please put more stress on the fact that an architct can spec to a rought budget.
Many actually do come in on budget and will certainly give a good baseline rate.
I have seend houses built with garages for the kind of money your practise is quoting (minus land) so it sounds something 'a bit special'.

sorry i was been a bit harsh on architects there and have amended my reply.

yes the prices we have received back are very high and are nothing like the figure we had thought for this work.

I'm a Quantity Surveyor - I'll reserve judgement on how good architects are at managing budgets!

I had the same thought about an extension, A builder friend recons £35k-£45k for garage with bedroom and bathroom above. We decided to go for another house with garage.

My mate's an architect, I'll not tell him. You should hear his opinion of QS's (and engineers)

I'm quite aware of people's opinions of QS's - I actually enjoy being the necessary evil that gets paid more than everyone else because I'm rare.

I can live with it

[Edited on 20/9/06 by StevieB]

Why is this second entry here!

[Edited on 20/9/06 by StevieB]

I see his point now

Not that it helps you at all......

I have just about finished having a professional contractor add a(nother) 7.5 M long double garage and a small extension to one end of my house.

Face brick outside, plastered inside, tile roof, 3 wooden internal doors, 2 wooden windows, gutters, 4 fluroscents, 5 outside lights and wiring. Total cost came to more or less R2900 / m2 - say 210 UKP /m2 at the moment.

Still have to pay for the 4.88 m wide electric roll up door and driveway paving.

Gotta love living in the colonies!

Cheers

Fred W B


[Edited on 21/9/06 by Fred W B]

Sorry,wasnt having a go.
Just doesnt meet my experience with pricing.

tbh the who QS/arch/structs argument is more over liability and pride than quality of work.
I will admit I'm still at uni (trying to make contacts during the summer!) and the one thing they try to push after the design and then enviromental issues are the fact that we all have to work as a team. we all do our own bit to get the job done.
although in practise life is more flort(sp?) with thingschanging often (usually by builders and customers! hehe

Everyone does work as a team, but in reality are always suspicious of each others intentions:

Architects want the best design with their name on it - costs a lot

Quantity Surveyors want the cheapest building with their name against it - looks crap

Project Managers want their ego to be backed up by their project - the architects best design with the QS's best cost.

Health and afety people want everything safe and clean - they up the costs, ruin the design and put hurdles in front of the PM's plans. They tend to be nice guys though

Cross discipline banter is fun, proper 'in-fighting' in the project team is rare, unnecessary and a bad experience all round. Working in a good, cohesive team where everyone is on the same page is the best experience you'll ever have.

The word is fraught, just being helpful not picky. You can all do your bit but the builder will always have the last say. Keep checking those cavities are clear and make sure he's putting the ties in

Nah,the client has the last word unusually telling as fewer people as possible especially when theyve run of of resources.

I work for a major contractor in the Rail Industry - no cutting corners there! Everything engineered to 300% and all tolerances checked, checked again and double tested!

The best prject I ever worked on was one where the client had £1m and made out he had £10m for a leisure centre. The Architect designed what the guy wanted, all really nice marble finishes etc. As the QS firm, we had to try and play middle man and explain to the client that it's not the architects fault that he can't have the £10m scheme for his £1m budget.

It ended up as a practical shed with a square pool, ceramic tiles and a few showers!

[Edited on 21/9/06 by StevieB]