greido

A bit of background: I'm 80% through the renovation of my 1930s bungalow in Edinburgh; I've added a large extension onto the back of the house which has incorporated the old living room and dining room, the badly formed upstairs bedrooms have been reformed into 2 large double bedrooms with large dormers and a shared bathroom. The extension is in place, dormers formed, the plasterer is about 50% finished, flooring, kitchen and utility are being fitted in the next few weeks, closely followed by new internal doors, skirtings etc. It's effectively a brand-new house with new heating and complete re-wire, the only things that are not being touched are the brickwork at the front and the two from bedrooms, though both will be completely re-wired and have the new heating installed as well as the master bedroom having an en-suite added. I'm now getting to the finishing touches and have had a number of recommendations to get a composite (plastic looking) front door, every time i see these I just think they look pretty cheap, I hope this is my forever home and was worth >£500k pre-build and I'll have sunk another £300k into it by the time we're finished so I really do not want to skimp on the first thing I see when I arrive home every day, I also don't want to spend around £5k on an Aluminium front door. My Painter has recommended that I just paint the original front door, this might look alright but the rest of the house is energy efficient so it seems daft to skimp on the front door which is pretty draughty. Does anyone have any experience of a similar situation of can you recommend a solution that looks good, is energy efficient and doesn't cost too much? - Any opinions would be welcome, thanks in advance.

I've eventually started my extension in Edinburgh of my 1930s detached bungalow, the wall between my existing living room and Dining room will be removed, as wil the external wall and a relatively large extension will be added to create an open plan kitchen/dining/living space. The new extension section will be approx. 10m x 5.5m, there will be a flat roof on this section with 7.5m sliding doors and two 2m x1m skylights. I had intended having flat glass windows on the roof but both the builder and roofer have both, separately, recommended that I get Cupula windows instead as they will be easier to keep clean and also give an illusion of additional head-height. Has anyone had any experience of Cupulas v flat windows? - If so, what would you recommend and why? Many thanks in advance.

All, many thanks for all comments, I really appreciate everyone for taking the time and making the effort to reply, please see responses below to the queries raised: @Temp: “Do you have any of the discussion in writing?” – No, just email chasers from me with responses along the lines of: “’We’re really busy”, Will get back to you this week”, “I’ve been on holiday”, “will get something to you today/tomorrow”. @Gus Potter: - “if you take say the Blackhall area they were still building the roofs the traditional way” – I’m very close to Blackhall, my house appears to be the same as the typical build as you’ve described. @Gus Potter: “the previous loft conversion you have may be long standing and would not pass muster when compared with the modern standards” – Correct, the staircase is too narrow,900mm, therefore, would not pass current building standards. I have been advised by the architect that if a dormer (to an existing upstairs bedroom) and shower room were added, a new staircase would be required as there would be more than a single occupancy assumed. However, if only a shower room and additional velux windows were added, there would be no assumption of more than single occupancy and subsequently no need to change the staircase. @the_r_sole: Are they registered architects: They are Architectural Designers and Charted Planning Consultants. @PeterW: ‘What is the main issue?’ – Cost is the main concern, not only receiving a >£1,000 bill for ‘a few hours work’ but also the cost estimates I had received previously when discussing the roof replacement were extremely inaccurate, the original drawings were amended to allow for the new roof and these too cost several thousand pounds and are will ultimately be of no use to me as it will not be economically viable to add the new roof. From the outset, the number one constraint of the project was to add value to the property, not to make a profit on it but rather to ensure that any capital outlay could be realised by increased value upon completion…… Basically, not to make a loss on the project. The before the plans were drawn up and submitted for planning, I received a high-level estimate of cost from the architect which turned nowhere near the values of the tenders I received, hence the desire to reduce the cost on the upstairs by working with the existing loft conversion and not replacing the roof. I then suggested only extending downstairs and making some relatively minor alteration upstairs, it was at this point that I was told they could come up with an alternative plan for upstairs that would be cost effective and ‘only take a few hours’ to draw up. Subsequently a few hours became 15 and the new proposal did significantly reduce the cost and the plans received require further work to get them to a detailed state where they could be used for detailed tenders. The updated draft drawings also required further input from a structural engineer If I wanted to progress with the proposal (The Structural Engineer had originally taken 5 months to deliver his drawings and at a cost significantly more than was originally quoted (to be fair, the scope had increased but not to an extent that the end invoice was double the original estimate, I my opinion). As has been stated above by @AliG, architects are not good at estimating costs; unfortunately, as a complete novice when I started this project, I was unaware of this and thought that I was receiving sound advice. @TonyT – “Grind to a halt? The building hasn’t started yet, get a local builder who does this as their bread and butter. A quick search engine search throws up a few that do the planning and all trades in one company chasing architects for months, overcharging, sounds like an expensive mistress to me.. get rid.“ – Sounds like good advice, thanks. My intended next steps are to reach out to the architect to discuss the matter, in all honesty, I haven’t done so until now as I was furious when I received the unexpected invoice and I never like to have a discussion when in that frame of mind, though I can usually get over things a bit quicker than I have with this. Again, let me reiterate my gratitude to you all for your responses and apologies for such a long- winded response.

I've had architect plans drawn up for an extension to my 1930s bungalow in Edinburgh, the plans for the extension are fine but there is poorly planned previous loft conversion upstairs that could potentially be rectified whilst the single-story extension is built on the ground floor. To cut a long story short, the architect assured me that the cost of replacing the roof and reconfiguring the rooms upstairs would be relatively cheap...... Turns out the builder’s tenders did not agree with that assertion and subsequently made the project financially unviable meaning that despite having planning permission and building warrant in place, I need to amend the upstairs plans. I spoke to the architect and stated my desire to add an en suite and a few extra Velux windows upstairs to keep the costs down but they then stated that they could come up with a cost-effective solution that didn't involve replacing he roof, it would only take 'a few hours' and I'd have the drawings by the end of the week. After several chases, two months passed and I eventually got the plans which did not significantly reduce the build costs and only cemented my thoughts that minimal work on the upstairs was the way forward, however, I've now been hit with a bill for 15 hours labour so my cost cutting exercise is being billed at >£1000. I did not agree to this and was led to believe it was a quick amendment and the drawings produced have not addressed my queries and further drawings would be required (at a cost) to get a detailed tender and structural queries have yet to be addressed. What are my options? - The bill does not seem proportionate to what are drawing amendments and I never agreed to commission work on this scale. Apologies for the rather long-winded post but I wanted to provide some context. Thanks in advance for any advice or opinions offered.

Many thanks for the replies, I'm very grateful. Are the tiles from B&Q of decent quality? - They look fine to me but I was a little worried about how robust they are in the long term; this is a property I intend holding onto for a long time so don't mind paying a little extra to get tiles and bathroom suites that are durable. The kitchen floor tiles were laid around 18 years ago, they were expensive at the time but still look great today, I just want to be confident that I will get the longevity from a cheaper B&Q tile.......... Any thoughts or experiences would be appreciated.

I should have added, I will need to source floor and wall tiles too for both the bathroom and En Suite.

Hi, I'm looking to upgrade the bathroom and en suite in an HMO Property I have. As this is an investment property I'm looking to keep the costs low but I need it to be durable and look great, can anyone recommend a good supplier for the following items: Bath Bath screen 2 x Sinks 2 x toilets 2 x vanity units Shower tray Shower cubicle/enclosure Many thanks in advance.

Guys, many thanks for your replies on this, very much appreciated and certainly gives me food for thought but from the advice above it would seem that utilising solar panels would indeed be beneficial in the long run.

Hi, I’ve recently joined and looking for some real-life experience on Solar panels; I’m building a flat roofed extension onto my house and the flat roof will essentially be dead space, therefore, I thought I could possibly utilise this with Solar Panels? I know very little about these and I’d be very interested to get peoples view on the value of installing them now or as a measure to future proof the house? – The way things are going, electric cars are going to become the norm and as I understand it the country currently cannot produce enough electricity to cope with future demand which will inevitably lead to increases in prices (simple supply and demand) therefore, should I be creating my own electricity in anticipation of this and also potentially running electric underfloor heating rather than gas powered plumbed heating? Any thoughts or opinions on the above would be most welcome.

Hi, I’ve recently joined as I’m about to embark on my first build project; I’ve been planning for some time now and the plans have grown in scope but hopefully I’ve not bitten off more than I can chew! – Planning permission has been approved by Edinburgh City Council and the Building Warrant Application has now been submitted so the next steps are to engage with builders to request detailed tenders. My house is a 1930s detached bungalow that requires a great deal of modernising, it’s previously had a loft conversion in 1990 which provides two bedrooms, one is large, the other tiny and both are severely compromised by eves. Downstairs there are currently two double bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen, Dining Room, Living Room and a dilapidated conservatory. The changes I plan are as follows: Downstairs: No changes to the downstairs bedrooms, except one will get an en-suite. Existing kitchen is small so will become a utility room Existing living room will become the kitchen, extending into the dining room and into an open plan living room with 7.5m bi-folding doors and two large roof lanterns, the overall area will be approx. 76m2. The staircase going upstairs will be replaced as the existing staircase is too narrow for the latest building regulations. Upstairs: The roof will be replaced allowing much better use of space as I can utilise the loft and also remove the worst offending pitches by altering angles and utilising a flat section in the middle of the building. Upstairs will have 2 large double bedrooms both with en-suites, a walk-in wardrobe and an office built above the garage. The garage is already attached to the house but will be replaced to allow the office to be built above it. There are a number of areas that I still need more information on so will be hammering the search function on the forum, main areas I will be seeking guidance on are as follows: Recommendations on good value and good quality retailers/wholesalers for Kitchens, appliances, bathrooms, floor coverings, lighting and also advice on what specifications of windows and doors I should be looking at and also advice on central heating, underfloor heating and opinions on solar power.