Building your own extension

 My 1st Extension

I have always wanted to build my own home. But the lady of the house would not commit. So what can you do?

How about buy a house with enough space to pretty much double its size.

Good Idea just need a new House !

This is what we started off with, Standard square house with double garage. When we bought it it was with an eye on that garage as there is enough room to build on.

I had to convince the missus that although i have no experience, i don't know which way up a brick goes and i have never done any pipe work etc in my life that i was sure this is a good idea.

Convincing done!

I bought a A0 pen plotter as started to put together some drawings. They are not that bad and got an architect to put them in for planning. The plan was a little ambitious as the ground space is nearly double.

Yahoo! planning accepted. Double check the missus is on board and down with the garage.

Keep as much of the old stuff as posible

Clean and tidy (that wont last long)

Move the electrics and gas into a little outdoor cupboard

.And brick up half the old washroom and down stairs toiled (I forgot to mention that to the boss)

time to check the footings, a visit from the building inspector reviled a little more than i banked on. Oh dear now i had not expected that. The house is built on piles, and my new bit will also need to be on them. 

Im a Pint half full man, so no worries, jus find a bloody piling company that will do it without me needing to mortgage my ass.

It just happens i fell on my feet here, i found a new company "AllFoundations" just starting up and gave me a reasonable price, includes piling digging out, concrete and muck away

Here is the little piling machine, 

An them making an minor adjustment to one that did not understand where it was supposed to go.t Messy work but plenty of tea and helping out always pleases the work folk.

Ow and did i mention we recently had a little one, Just what we need 

But another hand is always welcome :)

After piling the trenches were dugout and steel added

I had to have 2 of these beasts.

End of pouring and cleanup

A day or two later time to put down a few bricks, Now that looks nice and level. My dad told me to piss off (being a builder) as mine were all over the place.

So no more brick laying for me.

I was told to use a block and beam system for the floor even though the main house floor is just a concrete slab. but if you don't do as your told the man from the council stops being your friend. so again a bit of googling found a company.

And yes i did do that bit

After my fiasco of the bricks i decided to get a few friends in who are builders to erect the walls. To be honest that was always on the books. The rest though is up to me.

I did explain to the misus that it would take a while, so planning on the scaffold being around for about a year or two i bought my own

Rather than have a box, i decided on a pattern around the new build, ill add the same to the garage and wall to help it all blend in

The roof was going to be a little special. I had been looking through images on google and spotted some really nice hotel with great architecture, I can do that!

To get this look i need scissor trusses, the truss company did all the calculations for snow and wind loading which will allow me to raise the inside roof line and put a pitch on the ceiling.

I can then build the internal beams without worrying about loading as they will be decorative.

Have you ever decided to do a job, and you forget how hard its going to be on some of its tasks. Getting the trusses up to the top is not a one man job. pity i had not thought that one out, i must have lost at lease a stone getting them up to the top. (Hey but whose the dady now!) 

I bought some books on how to put them together, once you start its pretty easy,

I also went around some of the building sights to see what they were doing, I got some funny looks but worked out how to do the valleys.

Even the building inspector mentioned the size of the job all being done on a building notice.

But he also mentioned that the work quality was pretty good and wished many of the other builders could do with upping there game.

With the roof water tight its time for the slates, I re-claimed all the garage slates and fetched some of the rear to cover the front and side due to the discoloration. Pretty simple interlocking tiles, Cut the end ones and used a hand grinder to cut the valleys

Salvages some of the floor joists for the front to keep it all looking similar. And a minor update for the sky tv.

I also found a company who manufactures the plastic windows, so talked direct and got windows for the whole hose inc glazing for 3k. An putting them in if the scaffold is their was simple enough.

The weather is getting cold again so time for inside chores, To start with i need something to walk on. And some electrics

With the floor down, cables in and pipes for radiators i started to think a little bigger. Its possible to add things later but will require additional cables and pipes etc. So at this point i also added a ton of Computer cables, Additional Copper piping for toilets (that's another project for later). additional lighting, Audio and a feeder pipe to allow even more cables later.

Up until this point the main house has been bricked off so no dust etc into the bosses place. that all about to change!

Old bathroom

into the hall.

onto the landing

and the kitchen.

the whole place is a bit untidy and its probably the worst time of the job, where possible i did one area at a time but its tricky. I cant plaster but its easy to do a dot and dab plaster board job. this makes the job simpler for the plasters, and quite a bit cheaper.

I did mention all the cables ! and look at the old truss wood being used for the framing.

The race is on to get all the boards on the walls now as my ears are begining to ache from all the nagging. Before i can get the bedroom done i have to build the beams. The ones im aiming for are laminated, I went to a wood yard and selected all the best planks, planed them super flat and built the beams. They need sanding and a layer of varnish but that will allow the boards to be placed.

I got a frend of a frend who can plaster to zoom around all the rooms, (about a weeks work) but it realy does transform the place. 

The main bedroom

 and once painted

Front room

The old main toilet was way to small so that will be an en-suite, One of the tiny box rooms will be converted into the master bathroom.

Im getting good at this plumbing business.

And tiling, check out the pretty pattern, took allot of cutting with the grinder to get that right, just hop i never need to remove it.

B&Q for most of the paneling.

Opening up the new kitchen area

its a thick wall due to it being the old outside wall

As you have probably noticed i very rarly take the easy road. so the kitchen floor is no diffrent. I designed a pattern of varying tiles 

And the insert was set at a 30 degree angle 

Down to wickes and found a full kitchen on offer, but when are their kitchens not on offer.

I thought the green went well, 

Its almost usable now, my ears are getting better.

You may be thinking anyone with time on there hands can do this. But i do work full time, I only employed the chaps to put in the footings, guys for the brickwork and a plasterer. And one other chap to fit a new gas boiler the rest was just me and a bunch of books. 

Job Done !

time to sell the scaffold.