Side And Rear Extension

This thread shows the process of building a side and rear extension on my own house. It's been tough going so far, with lots of late nights and lots of effing and blinding. But, it'll be well worth it.

The Plan

I haven't got the proper drawings to hand, so I'll have to tell you what we're doing. The garage is being knocked out entirely, and two of four of the kitchen walls are being knocked too. The kitchen will become more than double it's existing size. We'll turn what was the garage into the dining room.

My neighbour is also doing a side extension, so we will be doing a shell for him.

Here's a picture of what it was like fairly early on. There was a few things done before this picture, including moving the Sky dish, lifting all the slabs, breaking out some bits and cutting back the decking handrail.




First Stage - Knocking out the garage.

Did this solely with the Makita SDS and the Titan Breaker. There was some seriously solid brickwork here. The problem is, its single skin. So there is no way we would be allowed to build off this. Hence it needs to be taken out.




Day three. Both garages have been knocked out bar their front doors, and the digger driver is here in full swing...excuse the pun.

The groundwork

This stage went out of control financially. It cost a lot more than planned (and budgeted!)

The trenches need to be 1.2m deep and 600mm wide. This is for a pumped strip foundation.

We needed three grab lorries and a skip for all this earth. That was the first big cost jump. I had, foolishly, only planned for two grab lorries. They aren't cheap! It came to over a thousand just clearing away the muck.

If you are proud of your lawn, then don't let a digger near it. Half the lawn is completely destroyed, and will take a long time to get back.




Foundations

Big day this was. Trenchco turned up at 10 past seven for an 8am start. They had a pumping wagon and a mixing wagon. I must say, if you are going to be impressed by technology, then a lorry that can make a live mix of whatever you want from a touchscreen, is pretty bloody impressive.

For anyone who's not poured concrete from a pipe, I can tell you it comes out fast, hard and heavy. You really don't want to be on the wrong side of that hose.

There was some shuttering to make as there is a step in the land (we are on a slope). This was overengineered but I didn't want it collapsing!











Brickwork

The bricky and his labourer started and built everything to DPC in a day.

It's brick on all the outside walls, and block on the inside walls.




And the digger is still here! It was collected the next morning.

Underground Drainage

Had to extend the chamber so it would be in the garden.





Back to brickwork

Bricky cracked on big time once the scaffold was up.




Cellar Space

I got the cellar screeded, and then the bloody mixer conked out. The motors gone.

Bricky has his own, so we are fine for now.

 

Taking out the kitchen

This took all day, whoever fitted it did a bloody good job. I moved some of the units into the existing dining room so at least we still have a somewhat functional kitchen. You cant beat speedfit for this kind of temporary work.





Under the sink unit:


We have a base unit too, but I haven't taken a picture of it.

 

The Steel

There's a timber beam running across the back of the house, so that needed propping up. Three acro's should do it.

You put a lot of faith in these things, when I knocked out the supporting wall I was sh**ing myself.



She's in. Its two steels that get bolted together, makes it easier to lift. It took three of us to lift them into place.






Got concrete poured in place while the steel was still lifted on the acro's.

 

The roof

It's a walm deck roof, using 7 x 2 timbers at 400mm spacing. I had the bricky bring the outside skin up 7inches more than the inside skin. That way, you don't end up with a horrible looking massive facia.

The construction is joists, then ply, then insulation, then OSB, and finally felt. Or GRP if you're Kiab.



The current insulation shortage doesn't help. I was struggling to find enough to cover the roof.

The roof was boarded and got a base layer of felt on today, this was in a rush because there is rain coming tomorrow, Monday the 29th. A bank holiday, but that means nothing to me. I need to get inside sorted and the wiring finished.



No word of a lie, I had the roof covered and ten minutes after a serious bit of rain came down. I had enough time to cover everything and take for cover myself. You could actually hear the hissing of the rain as it it hit the hot roof.

 

Where we are now.


Note the position of where I put the Sky dish now, when your on the decking or in the garden you cant see it. That was the missus idea, which I must admit was a bloody good one.

 

If I'm honest there's no 'programme'. It's just when we get to that stage, then the next stage.

Just to give you an idea how long things have taken so far:

The foundations: just under two weeks
The brickwork: two and a half weeks
The roof: three days - It's still missing the fascia and guttering though!
The wiring: three days
The boarding and plastering (Dot and Dab!): five days.

And all the various small jobs in between which really slow things down, like insulating the floor.

I had a mate in for the dig, he owns the digger which helps.
The bricky was a recommendation, and can't complain.
The plasterer was another recommendation, but I won't be using him again.
They are the only other trades brought in to date.

The joists went in as soon as the walls were high enough, and got the steel in as soon as the rear wall was high enough.

I've been going at my own pace though, which means working seven days, all day. This had been a long time in the planning, as we had to make sure we would be financially okay with me taking three months out of work - except faults and small jobs.

I would say a few things: Prepare for costs running wild and long nights. Make sure there's always a cold one in the fridge, and make sure the misuses can make a good cuppa - sometimes it's the only thing keeping you going.
Oh, and the radio on full blast all the time!

 

Overengineered!

It was the creaking of the beam as the acrows were taken out that worried me - not a nice sound.

 

The Roof Construction:

The roof was formed by throwing a steel across from the house wall to the new wall, as the same level as the brick wall.
The roof joists were notched into the RSJ, then the furring pieces on top - with 18mm ply covering the lot.



You've seen the base layer, here's he finished felt:

There's some stuff stored up there for now, and the flashing hadn't been finished the time of this photo.






And the weather was not too bad!

 

Another update, with lots to catch up on.

Inside now. Before the plastering could begin I had to batten the old ceiling down, bringing it to one height. This was done with 2 by 4's. Then pulled the cables through for the downlighters.


Then the plastering started. Its all 12.5mm dot and dab, with multifinish plaster.






While the plasterer was working in one end of the room, I got on with the plumbing for the radiators. I'm using buteline with copper rad leds.



Then insulating the floors. This was 100mm Celotex nailed in-between the joists. The difference it makes is unbelievable.

 

Then got the lead on the roof done, yes the lead went on after the plastering was done inside.




The lead was done on the day of the Grenfell tower fire. I could see the black smoke on the horizon. It was disturbing to say the least. RIP to all the victims.

Then I had a good tidy up inside, and patched all the chases in the old walls that weren't plastered, and ran over them with the RO150.



Now I'm moving into the garden so the misses can paint.

 

The garden. We are going to pave the back with three rows of 450mm slabs. If I knew how much work it took and time, I would have had someone else do it.

Drainage. There's a gully on one side for the downpipe, and a stub stack on the other side for the kitchen wastes.



£350 later, with a new mixer, I was able to shutter around the sides of the paving area.





Got some posts in for the stairs on the back door.



To save a bit of money, we decided to break up all the left over brick from the kitchen walls. This is what took the most time, as we came up about a foot, to match the height of the gully and chamber.

Started by putting down a weed membrane. Then I would break a bucket full of bricks down to 40mm lumps, and throw them in the paving area. This became very tedious, particularly on the forth day of doing it. When I get round to the driveway I'll be sure to buy Mot.

Built up three inches at a time, chucked in some dry sand and cement to fill any gaps, and then went over the lot with a borrowed whacker plate. Then the three inches turned to two. Then repeat the process till we are two inches from the desired height.



Then I covered the top with MOT. This was about three inches in the end, just to give the mortar bed something to really stick to.

 

Then the slabing came. I am really out of practice here. I took a full day to lay eight slabs.

The second day I flew along and managed to find the perfect mix. I did manage to mess up the slabs around the chamber though, the chamber lid sits about six mil higher than the slabs. Oops.

We went for a grey, red and yellow pattern. Previously there was a yellow and red pattern, but we didn't have enough slabs to cover the area. The yellow and red slabs are the original ones, they were pressure washed a few days prior to laying. The grey ones I had left over from when I paved my parent's garden. Again, trying to save some money here and there.


Because of the fall on the gully, the pipe coupler sat higher than the bottom of the slabs. I notched the slabs and chiselled them out, which worked perfectly. (on the second try)


Rather than rebuild the decking stairs properly, I used some galvanised strapping to re-attach them. There is a reason for this bodge, being I wanted to start the kitchen before finishing outside.



Speaking of kitchens, look what arrived!


I covered the window as the van reg and branding is in it!

Dog is inspecting the paving!


As a novice to paving, I thought the gully turned out alright.



This is how it's been for a while now, as I've been fitting the kitchen and doing small jobs here and there. It's not amazing, but I'm not a paver. I'm quite happy with how it turned out, or should I say 'better than I expected'...



I'll be continuing this in a few weeks, finishing the top slabs and then putting slabs on the front, adding a step and running a two slab path down the garden. It is all dependant on how quickly inside gets finished.

 

This morning I did a few small jobs, including installing the waste and feed for the appliances. Again, I'm using buteline and copper, but with the bute on show.




Last night I built a dwarf wall that'll separate the kitchen and dining room, while still letting all the light through.


And boarded:


Then I (attempted) to plaster it. This didn't turn out to bad, a bit of filling and sanding in patches will be needed though.



And a sneak peek of what's to come in a few days: