Extension cost - rough estimate

robbe

Hi,

Wonder if anyone can give an indication of the cost of building an extension - roughly 30 ft x 10 ft? It doesnt fall within the requirement for planning permission so thats one cost eliminated. I just wonder if anyone else had somethign similar done recently and has a ballpark figure before I start ringing around builders. I am in the Dublin area (so prices probably 30% more expensive that anywhere else!!). It wouldn't be just a sunroom job, part of the exterior wall would need to be knocked and an rsj fitted. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Rob

yop

Rob
The girlies mam is putting in an extension that is very close to that. they also built a block shed (10 ft sq) and put in 3 new bedroom windows + 1 bathroom windows.
The built the extension with 4 windows (about 2ft * 6ft) and a porch door. Also has a fireplace and has 3 velux windows. Slate roof. Knocked through the back wall but girders in place.
The will finish the extension where it has to be painted, tiled, floored and kitchen put in.
Excluding the last points above the contractor is charging here almost 80k which i think is a disgrace.
What this works out is about 145 Euro per sq foot where the going rate to build a house is about 100-110 euro per sq ft.
She got 2 quotes and the other one was even dearer. When you consider that this extension is roughly I think about 40sq ft and it cost 80k ex tiling, painting, kitchen etc and I am building a house that is 2500sq ft and it will cost about 140 to get it to the same stage then you can see the money this guy made!

Lex Luthor

i'd guess anywhere between 40-50k depending on finishes and various builders.

robbe

Thanks, Jesus 80k (I know they did lots more - block shed etc) but 80k!! Had a rough idea it might be say 40k before finishes but thats astonishing. No wonder people move instead of having work done. And this wasnt even a Dublin builder, I assume. Might enroll in a FAS course and save myself some money!

yop

I know I nearly keeled over when she told me the cost, started laughing and told her to get some other quotes, when the next guy came in with a dearer quote I nearly dropped. I guess the way they look at it that builders are too busy building houses and that you will find it hard to get someone to do it so that when you get someone then they charge what they want. Then again in Dublin you may have better choice.

Victor

My guesstimate would have been in the €50-60k range, but it really is a "how long is a string" question. I've seen people spend €150k on smaller kitchens.

tapest

robbe wrote:

Thanks, Jesus 80k (I know they did lots more - block shed etc) but 80k!! Had a rough idea it might be say 40k before finishes but thats astonishing. No wonder people move instead of having work done. And this wasnt even a Dublin builder, I assume. Might enroll in a FAS course and save myself some money!

The official "going rate" is ,I'm told, €2k per sq.metre.
I'm trying to build 18ftx10 ft and was quoted everything from €16k to €40k . €40k is the book price finished fully. Then there's the black economy.

Best advice if you are looking for a builder, Ignore phone book and get yourself down to a few builder provider yards. Each sales assistant will give you a 1/2 doz names and contact numbers, but catch them when there not too busy.

Regards
t

gorm

got an extension done end of last year. 14 x 20 feet, cost €28,000.00 inculding toilet and shower room and 2 velux windows and patio doors. I live close to D15. Builder was recommended to me by neighbours as he lives on estate. NO snag list!! Didn't need to bring him back for anything.

RuggieBear

My father is gettign a small extension to his kitchen and a downstairs toilet installed. It's going to cost over 100k....nearly choked on my pint when he told me that!!!!

Boston

robbe wrote:

Thanks, Jesus 80k (I know they did lots more - block shed etc) but 80k!! Had a rough idea it might be say 40k before finishes but thats astonishing. No wonder people move instead of having work done. And this wasnt even a Dublin builder, I assume. Might enroll in a FAS course and save myself some money!

You really think you'll enrole in a "building and extension course" at fas. Cop on. You need chippies, brickies, plumbers, electricains, roofers, gas men (welder), tilers, plasterers painters, wallpapers, the list really goes on. I've been in jobs where gob****es have tried to build their own extensions, first thing we do is knock it down.

RuggieBear

Boston wrote:

You really think you'll enrole in a "building and extension course" at fas. Cop on. You need chippies, brickies, plumbers, electricains, roofers, gas men (welder), tilers, plasterers painters, wallpapers, the list really goes on. I've been in jobs where gob****es have tried to build their own extensions, first thing we do is knock it down.

Just out of interest (and ignorance) what is a chippie?

Boston

carpenter

robbe

Thanks for the info, BTW there was just the smallest hint of sarcasm in my 'enrolling in a FAS course on building extensions'. Re GORM's post, did the extension involve putting in an RSJ ie knocking part of the rear wall and supporting it or was it a sunroom job?

aodh_rua

pekelly wrote:

My father is gettign a small extension to his kitchen and a downstairs toilet installed. It's going to cost over 100k....nearly choked on my pint when he told me that!!!!

My parents are in the same boat. A bit of an extension to the kitchen and a small extension to the end of the house and it's coming in at the €100k mark.

It will involve some internal walls being knocked through (as per Robbe) and I'd imagine that an rsj will need to go in for one of them as it's load-bearing.

gorm

robbe wrote:

Thanks for the info, BTW there was just the smallest hint of sarcasm in my 'enrolling in a FAS course on building extensions'. Re GORM's post, did the extension involve putting in an RSJ ie knocking part of the rear wall and supporting it or was it a sunroom job?

No RSJ. Where the two back windows were (one kitchen, one backroom) I now have two doorways. (well one double door and one archway). He actually built the extension first and knocked the two walkways last so we where able to use house as normal until the very end. I had a small extention already which was part of original house. He knocked that and encorporated the space in the new extension.

Victor

robbe wrote:

did the extension involve putting in an RSJ ie knocking part of the rear wall

An RSJ isn't always necessary in such situations. Depending on size, forming an opening should cost €1,000-3,000 not phenomenal money.

yop

"Depending on size"
That is it alright, girlies mams house needed one alright as they had a window opening of about 6 foot, but the put in two doorways in it's place with lintels so I am presuming that the loading was too much for 2 lintels to handle.

Farls

Those prices are unreal, i live in the country and just built an extension onto a house i'm currently renovating myself its 12' x 20' inside measurement, i'm going to have it finished, talking foundations, footpaths, double wall, insulated, A-roof slated (insulated too), 2 double glazed windows, dry lined and skimmed then floor in, then plastered outside, in that order for around 4 grand euro.

Now i'm doing the whole work myself, built the walls in 3 days, a week should do the roof or less, then another week or so inside. If your doing these things and have a bit of know how, do them yourself.

Farlz

Btw yop, sorry never got back to you on TF house, been flat out busy with the renovations! will do tho.

tapest

Farls wrote:

Those prices are unreal, i live in the country and just built an extension onto a house i'm currently renovating myself its 12' x 20' inside measurement, i'm going to have it finished, talking foundations, footpaths, double wall, insulated, A-roof slated (insulated too), 2 double glazed windows, dry lined and skimmed then floor in, then plastered outside, in that order for around 4 grand euro.

Now i'm doing the whole work myself, built the walls in 3 days, a week should do the roof or less, then another week or so inside. If your doing these things and have a bit of know how, do them yourself.

Farlz

Ah to be in the first flush of youth.
the prices I quoted are for single 9" cavity walls and one 4" solid block wall wall along party line(fire regs), flat felt roof. I didn't mention windows, so I suppose 2 timber single glaze. Bathroom not tiled.
I got the know how, But I'm starting to slow up now with hip giving a little gip. No side entrance so everything has to be hauled through house.I was told by more than one that time on site would be two/three months.
Now I believe the road from Cavan to Dublin is much improved and if your not doing anything next summer hols ....etc....Lol

yop

"Btw yop, sorry never got back to you on TF house, been flat out busy with the renovations! will do tho."

Not a bother lad, I am still fighting with them over planning so the TF has progressed little!!

Farls

Haha, hopefully next summer i'll have a proper job sorted out with my degree got! I've currently picked out a site that i want to build my dream house on but with it costing somewhere in the region of €400,000 for the site and ajoining land i'll have to get a few more project houses done!

yop i feel for ya on the planning...the rig ma role we had to go though to get planning on two sites here was unbelievable. In the end a nice young chap from longford came out to us and done all our tests/maps etc and pushed all though in a few weeks.

Just looking at that again, 3 months on site?!?! the block work on a standard two story house takes a good blockie and a labourer no more than 2 weeks!

And ye call us cowboys down here!!! :eek:

haha

Farlz

tapest

Farls wrote:

Haha, hopefully next summer i'll have a proper job sorted out with my degree got! I've currently picked out a site that i want to build my dream house on but with it costing somewhere in the region of €400,000 for the site and ajoining land i'll have to get a few more project houses done!

yop i feel for ya on the planning...the rig ma role we had to go though to get planning on two sites here was unbelievable. In the end a nice young chap from longford came out to us and done all our tests/maps etc and pushed all though in a few weeks.

Just looking at that again, 3 months on site?!?! the block work on a standard two story house takes a good blockie and a labourer no more than 2 weeks!

And ye call us cowboys down here!!! :eek:

haha

Farlz

What...I beg your pardon...What ya mean? Not only am I highly insulted, sir,but you wound me with your implication that I would even consider offering you an invitation...nae the great honour of allowing you to leave your perspiration in our fair capital. My God, the presumption of some people. I trust I've made my position clear.......(unless of course you change your mind)
Seriously, best of luck with exams.
As regards your dream, I've looked for a smiley but I can't find one with green eyes.
Regards
t

Farls

haha, if ya want i'll bottle it for ya!

Farlz

tapest

Farls wrote:

haha, if ya want i'll bottle it for ya!

Farlz

Aye and coming from what N.Tobin calls "the doom and gloom county" , ye probably have a fair price in mind already. LOL BOO hehe

t :rolleyes:

yop

"yop i feel for ya on the planning...the rig ma role we had to go though to get planning on two sites here was unbelievable. In the end a nice young chap from longford came out to us and done all our tests/maps etc and pushed all though in a few weeks. "

Thanks lad, things have progressed with the planning now to a stage where they are recommending the app for refusal so we have wasted 9 months, but I will be appealing it!! They suggested us cutting the L shape off the plans but that now means we lose a bedroom, dining room and sun room which we are not impressed with.
gluck with the exams

surfboy

aodh_rua wrote:

My parents are in the same boat. A bit of an extension to the kitchen and a small extension to the end of the house and it's coming in at the €100k mark.

It will involve some internal walls being knocked through (as per Robbe) and I'd imagine that an rsj will need to go in for one of them as it's load-bearing.

My God I cant believe that price. Im thinking of buying some land and building myself in the next year or two. I cant believe that price. One of my friends is just having his house finished, about 4 weeks left now, and the total price is 110k. This was in Co Louth, not using dublin builders.

Farls

Just to mark your point on using the RSJ and seemingly the cost it's adding to your extensions. I decided (brainwave :eek: ) yesterday to put an extra room over the extension i built on, this will mean putting an RSJ say 14' in and running the joices into it for the ceiling in the extension to be able to bear the weight, the RSJ is adding on about €180 to the price of the work.

Which is making little or no difference to the overall price of the extension, of course i'm not taking into consideration the matericals i'm going to have to use in the attic space to make this a room but still as you can see these builders are taking things beyond a joke it seems

Farlz

yop

builders taking the pi*s, don't talk to me. Went tiling the kitchen floor for them yesterday, i think these lads used their eye line to build the blocks, within a 3 ft lenght the wall had bellied out 1/4 inch and back in a 1/2 inch.
the floors were so uneven that on 10x10 tile the first 4 inches were level then at the ohter end of the tile u could put 2 spacers on top of each other and it would still not fill the gap, unreal!!

Farls

Was there no skirting board on the floor yet? it's a nightmare doing the second fixings in some of the houses now their going up so fast that the time needed to get all this right just isn't spent thus everything needs a wedge here and a spacer there!

I spent today doing the roof on the old part of the house, got all the old tiles off and the lats, got the new felt on and lats over it and the house is over 60 years old but finished too a higher standard than new houses going up around the place.

// this thread is being totally hi jacked!

Farlz

yop

What was this thread about again Sorry for hijacking alright!!


Nope no skiriting board at all, only plastered last week. It is not my extension but fk if it was I would lose the plot! !

magpie

Would the €2000 per sq/m guesstimate hold true of a primarily wood/glass extension?

rooferPete

Hi Ye All,

This thread makes for interesting reading, the majority of enquiries we are getting relate to building works carried out in the last eight years.

Some of the disasters we have come across would make you cry and people have taken out big loans for these jobs.

A "Real Contractor" will charge anywhere from €130-00 > €160-00 per sq foot for extensions, have any of you noticed how many contractors today are advertising using no proper addresses and "Wash n' Go mobile telephones ?

I suggest you do your home work, make sure all payments are representative of the works completed and don't depend on friends of friends to advise you as to good building practice.

There is too much money involved and the contractor is not necessarily making a fortune out of extensions, they handle a lot of money but I have seen them being blackmailed by their staff looking for more money.

The sooner this madness stops the better for all of us.

Kind Regards,

Peter Crawley,

www.crawleyandsons.com