extension - advice please, which options to take

[Cannon]

Hi Luckystar, sorry to hear you're going through what we went through a few years ago. However there is always light at the end of the tunnel if you have a budget and a sympathetic engineer. While our engineer charged us high fees as mentioned in my earlier post, it got the job accomplished and well finished within a tight deadline. He looked after everything from the full building spec to finding the right builder from several choices to keeping to our budget. His first few consultations were free along with a fairly accurate costing before we agreed. This is important as you really know where you stand then. He worked to our budget. Communicated promptly to any questions we had and the builder responded promptly to his requests. This guy was a Godsend. If you negotiate a good fee with him from the beginning and have him on side you could have your extention completed in a couple of months and save on all this agony.

 

[picorette]

3 weeks is not unreasonable if you want a good design, rather than a copy and paste. She would have had to draw up the existing house first, which takes a while.

Best thing is to speak to her, and if she doesn't take your call, leave a message with a deadline. That should gets things moving, as I'm sure she doesn't want to lose you as a client

 

[luckystar]

Hi all, back again! I can't believe it's almost a year since my original post.

Things have moved to planning permission at long last; I should have a decision in a couple of weeks. Then the fun starts ;-)

No decision on a builder as yet, I think when permission comes though (fingers crossed) we will go to tender.

Now I am getting nervous. Part of me thinks in the 'current climate' I must be mad to even consider spending so much money. But hey, I suppose it has to be done eventually!
Have builders prices really come down a significant level?
Because so many are going out of business is there more that should be considered i.e. is there insurance for these types of eventualities?

 

[onq]

Hi Luckystar,

Glad to see things progressing for you.

Looking back on this thread, you have already received plenty of good advice to see you safely on your way, so no point repeating it.
Perhaps I'll jsut remind you to consider using an architect or QS to source builders, as they may have relatively recent knowledge of ones they have used.

Update: I recently priced a new build house in Dublin and for the bare house - excluding site clearance, siteworks, boundary treatment, private road and attenuation chamber - it worked out at circa €85/sq.ft.
This does not reflect the costs of extending a property, because there will be hidden extras - tying in with services and marrying in foundations, new beams etc. - but it gives you an idea of what's achievable.
€100/sq.ft for good competent work is do-able and you may get below this.

This is a good time to get prices, but the warnings I have issued over the past year here on AAM and over on Archiseek are now bearing fruit as main contractors who have engaged in tight pricing go to the wall.
Some have not paid their sub-contractrs in order to keep going [as seen on a recent TV exposé] and this has left a lot of sub-contractors all around the country in severe financial difficulty.
They are in difficulty not because of bad practices or below cost selling but because they have not been paid monies due, monies the main contractors have billed the employer for.
This increases the risk that they could go under while working for you if the4y are carrying previous debts, even on a reasonable price for the work.

Whether it is better to wait for a year [you have five years in which to build] or build now is up to you, but [famous last words perhaps] I would be surprised if the rate of builder's price reduction continues.
This is still a very expensive country to live in, from the cost of public transport to the cost of a pack of cigarettes [€8.50 as opposed to €4.00 in Italy, for example] to a packet of crisps [15c markeup].
There is only so much a market will take before it reaches rock bottom and in my opinion, the spate of large contractors going under shows this point may have been passed.

One final thing - the interest rates for borrowings may go up next year.
I would urge you to try to fix or ring fence your repayment rates in some way.
Otherwise you could be in difficulty depending on how thsi work stretches your current status.

ONQ.

[broken link removed]

All advice on AAM is remote from the situation and cannot be relied upon as a defence or support - in and of itself - should legal action be taken.
Competent legal and building professionals should be asked to advise in Real Life with rights to inspect and issue reports on the matters at hand.