Cost on small extension

Hills30

We are thinking of adding a single story small extension to our 1,300 sqft detached house in Dublin. We only want a small additional playroom for 3 kids to have their "stuff" and TV etc. Think we would probably need 100 sqft addition to the back of the house (east facing).
Currently at the back of the house is a living/dining area (6.7m x 4.7m) with two double doors.

I don't envisage a fancy finish, flooring, electric points, a radiator or two, two or three windows.

In an ideal world, I would love to do this for €25K, give or take one or two thousand €.

Whats possible for this budget... Am I on another planet?

tayto lover

I’d like a “ loving / dining area “ in my house. 😁😁
Sorry OP I couldn’t resist.

I got a price of 40 K for something similar with a bathroom included. You probably could get away with it for 25K.

Hills30

aaanndd edited LOL.

That's encouraging... was the bathroom circa 10K of what you paid?

smelly sock

Am i reading this right? 100sq feet? Thats less than 10square meters.

Any more than 15k and run. And id even call that expensive.

Tbh im not sure what benefit you'd get put of such a small room / area.

tayto lover

Hills30 wrote: »

aaanndd edited LOL.

That's encouraging... was the bathroom circa 10K of what you paid?

That was the lowest of the two quotes I have so far. Waiting on another.
The bathroom would entail knocking part of an interior wall too. I got the price for the entire job so can’t answer that question but I would thin 25 K would do your job. Get 3 quotes anyway.

smelly sock

tayto lover wrote: »

That was the lowest of the two quotes I have so far. Waiting on another.
The bathroom would entail knocking part of an interior wall too. I got the price for the entire job so can’t answer that question but I would thin 25 K would do your job. Get 3 quotes anyway.

What was the size?

alan partridge aha

smelly sock wrote: »

Am i reading this right? 100sq feet? Thats less than 10square meters.

Any more than 15k and run. And id even call that expensive.

Tbh im not sure what benefit you'd get put of such a small room / area.

Just over 9m², it seems crazy to do an extension that small.

smelly sock

alan partridge aha wrote: »

Just over 9m², it seems crazy to do an extension that small.

Could be the reason why the pricing or potential pricing would be so astronomical. The builder still needs to have lads onsite and those kind of costs etc. We'd also need to know complexity etc. But to consider spending 25 k on whatis a box bedroom seems nut.

Still waters

Build one for twice the size for 25 grand

Hills30

smelly sock wrote: »

Am i reading this right? 100sq feet? Thats less than 10square meters.

Any more than 15k and run. And id even call that expensive.

Tbh im not sure what benefit you'd get put of such a small room / area.

Im not exactly sure on size... Im very much at the start of this, potentially it could be 50% bigger than this, but we don't need anything huge!

scwazrh

€25k for 10sqm would be a realistic price at the moment for a single storey extension that doesn’t need planning

tayto lover

alan partridge aha wrote: »

Just over 9m², it seems crazy to do an extension that small.

It’s a good bit bigger than the OP’s approx 15sq feet. It also included turning the existing kitchen into a sittingroom and putting the kitchen in the new part.

smelly sock

scwazrh wrote: »

€25k for 10sqm would be a realistic price at the moment for a single storey extension that doesn’t need planning

No i'd disagree. I'm not sure how that could be justified. Obviosuly if there was a new kitchen and some renovation taking place costs could stack up. But 25 thousand euro for a tiny room. Madness. Plenty of lads would do an extension bigger than tha, a lot bigger for the same money.

Spanish Eyes

I think I'd pay a grand to a QS or a project manager. Money well spent, and if it goes South it's their problem.

smelly sock

Spanish Eyes wrote: »

I think I'd pay a grand to a QS or a project manager. Money well spent, and if it goes South it's their problem.

For 10sq meters?

scwazrh

smelly sock wrote: »

No i'd disagree. I'm not sure how that could be justified. Obviosuly if there was a new kitchen and some renovation taking place costs could stack up. But 25 thousand euro for a tiny room. Madness. Plenty of lads would do an extension bigger than tha, a lot bigger for the same money.

Plenty of lads maybe but any companies building to current regs won’t .Im pricing work every day of the week so know the prices currently being charge.

Spanish Eyes

smelly sock wrote: »

For 10sq meters?

Yes, few know who they are dealing with. Worth it for a grand or so.

smelly sock

scwazrh wrote: »

Plenty of lads maybe but any companies building to current regs won’t .Im pricing work every day of the week so know the prices currently being charge.

I'd beg to differ. Lets be honest. At those kind of prices work would dry up fairly quick.

Gumbo

Spanish Eyes wrote: »

I think I'd pay a grand to a QS or a project manager. Money well spent, and if it goes South it's their problem.

Why would it be their problem?

Theboinkmaster

scwazrh wrote: »

€25k for 10sqm would be a realistic price at the moment for a single storey extension that doesn’t need planning

At least €25k - I’m in middle of single storey rear extension at 21sqm in south Dublin, done at high standard and cost is €62k. Cheapest quote was for €55k.

You get economies of scale so €25k for 10sqm would be minimum cost IMO

neiphin

Your east facing kitchen living room gets the sun in the morning
Are you prepared to loose that ?

Hills30

Yes, because of where our house is, we don’t get a pile of light anyway.

It seems opinion is divided on this one for cost.

alan partridge aha

Theboinkmaster wrote: »

At least €25k - I’m in middle of single storey rear extension at 21sqm in south Dublin, done at high standard and cost is €62k. Cheapest quote was for €55k.

You get economies of scale so €25k for 10sqm would be minimum cost IMO

That's crazy. How could anyone build a house with those costs.

BryanF

alan partridge aha wrote: »

That's crazy. How could anyone build a house with those costs.

The thread title refers to small extension.
The poster mentions economies of scale.

alan partridge aha

BryanF wrote: »

The thread title refers to small extension.
The poster mentions economies of scale.

That's fair enough we know this, but the poster who's paying 62k for their extension works out at €275 per sq foot. To me that's crazy.

Wesser

I paid 42 k for a approx 12 sqm extension last year.
This included a steel beam which allowed me to turn 3 dark and dingy rooms into 1 large 42sqm kitchen diner and living room, a pitched roof with velux windows new kitchen and new bathroom. Now i have a stunning living area flooded in sunlight. I dont count the cost per sqm i just see how well it functions and how happy it makes me.

luketitz

I converted a garage earlier this year, similar sized space for the exact same purpose (kids playroom for all their excess bits n bobs!) with a bathroom too for €18k, so it is doable.

We used a great QS (snip]) to itemise the costs and a sound builder(snip) to build to spec - wouldnt hesitate to recommend both after shopping around, but obviously there's loads out there

Gumbo

alan partridge aha wrote: »

That's fair enough we know this, but the poster who's paying 62k for their extension works out at €275 per sq foot. To me that's crazy.

I know people that spend €3 on a coffee. That’s crazy to me.

alan partridge aha

If the customer is happy with what they got at a certain price fair enough. They'll be living there.

Theboinkmaster

alan partridge aha wrote: »

That's fair enough we know this, but the poster who's paying 62k for their extension works out at €275 per sq foot. To me that's crazy.

Supply and demand - the top level builders in Dublin are all booked up for next 6-12 months.

I had 6 quotes last November so I know for the standard of work being done/detail I am paying current market rates.

Still waters

Theboinkmaster wrote: »

Supply and demand - the top level builders in Dublin are all booked up for next 6-12 months.

I had 6 quotes last November so I know for the standard of work being done/detail I am paying current market rates.

Thats a serious price to pay per square foot but its all up to the client and what they're happy to pay i suppose, have you a particularly high spec outlined, I'd love to know the profit margin at 275 per square foot

Gumbo

Still waters wrote: »

Thats a serious price to pay per square foot but its all up to the client and what they're happy to pay i suppose, have you a particularly high spec outlined, I'd love to know the profit margin at 275 per square foot

There may be the same or less profit margin on 275 as there is on 100.
In Dublin, labour rates are higher. Demand is bigger.

It’s why the price per square foot doesn’t work on a macro level. It’s a beer,at calculation to male a decision on a spur of the moment to see if you can roughly afford to build a 20 Sq. m extension or a 40 Sq. m.

For example, only 2 weeks ago, I was called out on here for picking the evening herald as a paper for a planning ad here in Dublin At a cost of €220. Another poster posted that I picked the most expensive paper in order to increase costs while they quoted a paper from down the country that could do it for €40.

Totally missed the point that in Dublin, you have to use a national paper currently as the small local papers are not doing print runs. And even the free papers, The Gazette for example are €150 for basic planning ads too.

Theboinkmaster

Still waters wrote: »

Thats a serious price to pay per square foot but its all up to the client and what they're happy to pay i suppose, have you a particularly high spec outlined, I'd love to know the profit margin at 275 per square foot

It's the current market rate for high spec in south Dublin.

Still waters

Theboinkmaster wrote: »

It's the current market rate for high spec in south Dublin.

So price per square foot/meter is not a reliable guide unless talking about builders finish or a basic finish, price for high spec finish is not something that we can use as a rule of thumb

Theboinkmaster

Still waters wrote: »

So price per square foot/meter is not a reliable guide unless talking about builders finish or a basic finish, price for high spec finish is not something that we can use as a rule of thumb

yes completely agree.

Just a small example would be the 2 velux windows im getting - UK10s. getting triple glazing with lowest u value so the glass is about €800 more I think than standard glazing.

BryanF

Still waters wrote: »

So price per square foot/meter is not a reliable guide unless talking about builders finish or a basic finish, price for high spec finish is not something that we can use as a rule of thumb

The last really small extension I did was ~12m2 but we were opening up and opening out a kitchen living dinning area of the existing house. So when people say the extension coat €x per xm2 the devil is in the detail

Gumbo

Still waters wrote: »

So price per square foot/meter is not a reliable guide unless talking about builders finish or a basic finish, price for high spec finish is not something that we can use as a rule of thumb

Price per square foot is irrelevant. It’s something you do to determine the ballpark of where you are with a budget before starting the whole process.

For example. A home owner rings me to lodge a planning application for a large extension I ask about budget. If they say they have 10k for a job that will cost ballpark 30k there’s no point lodging planning for what they currently aspire to.

smelly sock

Just to wade in here. Expensive kitchens amd premium materials will obviously see costs going up massively. Knocking out an opening is also fairly costly. That's fair enough.

I think when posters throw up prices and the size of the extension they really need to put in a little more detail too. It's of no use saying " 10sqm @ 25k" and leaving it at that. At that price it has to include a wall knock out or refurb of existing layout etc.

My point was that I cant see how 10sqm is in anyomway beneficial.

Wesser

10 sqm is hugely beneficial. Especially if your adding it onto another room and changing the layout completely. But even by itself 10sqm is great!

smelly sock

Wesser wrote: »

10 sqm is hugely beneficial. Especially if your adding it onto another room and changing the layout completely. But even by itself 10sqm is great!

Agreed if its part of a reconfiguration. Then the costs make sense to some degree.