What to Consider Before Taking on a House Extension

If you have found yourself in need of some more space around the home, why not consider a house extension to make the most out of garage, yard or basement space which you may have. Undergoing a house extension can not only give your home more room, but also add a great amount of value to your home.

Last year I had my garage renovated with 2 new bedrooms added and the work was completed to an extremely high quality by the guys a Community Builders Tulsa. The process however, was not without its challenges and I wanted to offer you some tips on what you need to consider before you decide on your home extension.

Budget

Naturally you will make a budget based on what it is that you are looking to do, but it is vital that you keep some to one side. Almost every house extension, or any building development of this size, will go over budget an you need to ensure that you have the money to cover when the cost begins to rise. Many different factors can influence the price going up, anything from inflated prices for materials, unforeseen structural problems or even bad weather. The best advice would be to take 80% of your budget and keep 20% to one side.

Stay or Go

You also need to start thinking about whether you will stay in the home whilst the work is being carried out, or if you will leave for the duration. I cannot comment on what it is like to stay in the property as we took the decision to stay in a hotel for a few months. The reason that we did this is that when nobody is living in the property, the contractors can go about their job far easier, which ultimately increases speed. I imagine that staying in the property would be wrought with problems, interruptions, and all manner of noise and mess. If you are able to stay with family and friends, or stay in a hotel like we did, I would most definitely recommend it.

Planning  Permission

One of the biggest mistakes that I made was to give the green light on the building work, before we had been granted planning permission for the extension. The permission was actually held up by a very small detail which could be easily changed, because we had started the work however, this change ended up costing a great deal of money, and time. The lesson which you should take from this then is that you should absolutely not even entertain the idea of getting started with the building work, until you know for certain that you have the planning permission signed, sealed and delivered. In most cases, planning permission is denied for very small details, which are very simple to fix, wait for the permission and then start your work, learn from my costly mistake!