An extension is a great way to add value to your home and provide that much needed extra space. Whether it is an extra bedroom, a kitchen extension or you want to lengthen your front room, you need to prepare carefully. Home extensions can end up expensive, but if you take care in the planning stage, you can eliminate many of the hidden costs.
Designing your extension
The first step in planning any home extension is to identify exactly what it is you want. You need to be realistic. It is highly unlikely you’ll be able to turn a two-up two-down terrace into a five-bedroom house. Therefore, identify how much space you have and how best to utilise it. You may find you are restricted by planning laws, or by the existing design of the property as to what you can do, so ensure you know what is possible and what isn’t.
All home extensions require a proper plan, so hire an architect that has experience in the type of work you want doing. You need to ensure you clearly communicate what it is you want, and be specific. Some people like to draw up a rough plan themselves to help explain exactly what they want. The architect can then use this to draw up proper plans.
Plan your budget carefully
Never plan to spend every penny you have on your home extension because any problems or hidden costs could leave you with a half-finished project. Always have some spare cash for the unforeseeable. Don’t just consider the cost of the project and materials, but think about extras, such as the plumbing, electrics and any equipment hire, You may need to have a lot of ground dug up, so contact a digger hire company such as Scot JCB, who will be able to quote you the price of hiring excavators and other heavy equipment.
Planning permission
Never build a home extension without first getting planning permission. Your local authority has the power to get you to pull down any extension if you don’t have the right approval, so make sure you liaise carefully with the people at your local planning office. If you require planning permission, make sure you start the process early, well before you sign contracts, as local by-laws may restrict the types of materials you can use and the overall design of the extension. If you live in a listed building, you may not be allowed to alter it at all or you may be restricted to ensuring it is in keeping with the original aesthetic. It is also a good idea to speak to your neighbours too, explaining what you intend to do because if they object you may find getting planning permission is a lot harder and more time consuming.
Find a good contractor
Make sure you find a contractor that you trust and are happy to work with. Speak to people you know that have had extensions built and get recommendations, and don’t be afraid to ask for references or examples of a builder’s work. Make sure you are clear in your communication and explain exactly what you want. In addition, ensure you are both clear about the costs and who is paying for what and when. Most builders will require a deposit to pay for materials or may want regular payments throughout the project’s duration, but never pay for the entire project up front, as this could lead to problems if the contractor goes out of business.
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If you are planning a renovation, new build, extension or conversion project this year or even if you are simply planning on remodeling what you already have then these are our tips for great trades shows to visit.
The National Homebuilding & Renovating Show
Birmingham NEC 21 March – 24 March 2013
More than 450 specialist companies will exhibit in the UK’s biggest dedicated self-build & renovation event.
Show features include:
- Tricks of the Trade Theatre – Presented by DIY Doctor
- NEW Big Ideas Theatre
- Do It Yourself Zone
- Traditional Skills Demonstrations area
- Home Improvement & Interiors Pavilion
- Eco Home Theatre
- Construction Systems Showcase
- Seminar and masterclass theatres
- FREE one to one consultations with experts in The Advice Centre
Go to the National Homebuilding and Renovating Show website for more information.
The Ideal Home Show
Earls Court, London, 15 March – 1 April 2013
This is the 105th Year for the show, and it is a marathon exhibition with its eight dedicated show sections:
- Interiors – Ideal Home Magazine Room Sets
- Home Improvements
- Gardens
- Food & Housewares
- Technology
- Woman
- Shopping
- Show Homes
and not forgetting:
- Gregg Wallace Seasonal Restaurant
Website for the Ideal Home Show.
Grand Designs Live
ExCeL, London, 4 May – 12 May 2013
Based on the Channel 4 TV series, and presented by design guru Kevin McCloud
Over 500 exhibitors
Stands, seminars and shows covering interiors, gardens, home improvement, self-build, renovations, technology and shopping.
More information is available at the Grand Designs Website.
The National Home Improvement Show 2013
27-29 September at London Olympia
Website
Show includes: Talks and demonstrations by industry professionals including DIY Doctor
Hundreds of trade stands, all directly relevant to the Home Improver and self-builder
The National Home Improvement Awards – allows the public to vote for their choice
The organisers make a donation to Centrepoint - a Charity committed to helping young homeless people regain control of their lives
More information on what is happening at the show from the National Home Improvement Show website.
DIY Doctor at the National Homebuilding Show
Free tickets to see us at the NEC
If you want to come and see DIY Doctor on the Tricks of the Trade Stage at, at Birmingham NEC between 21 March – 24 March 2013, click here for free tickets to The National Homebuilding & Renovating Show
Mike Edwards From DIY Doctor is pledging the kettle challenge – to only boil the water he needs.
Simple, but effective as he likes his coffee!
DIY Doctor, Be Energy Smart and Green Reviews have teamed up to make a difference for Climate Week.
What is Climate Week?
It is an initiative that inspires us all to make a difference to the climate by making changes in our lives, these changes can be a simple as avoiding using carrier bags, or as energetic as cycling to work. The idea is that you pick the things you can fit easily into your life, in the hope that these ideas will stick with you throughout the year and then inspire you to make more green changes.
When is Climate Week?
Climate Week runs from the 4th – 10th March 2013. Why not go to the website and set up your profile, you can then pledge donations – which are in actions rather than money.
What can I do?
It is all going on at the DoNation website. Go to the page set up by Be Energy Smart to make a pledge – BeEnergySmart: The Great Green Climate Challenge. You will see the pledges already collected, and the ones we have pledged to do. Click on the ‘do something’ button and you will be given a list of choices.
There are loads of ideas for different pledges, including:
- Filling up your kettle only as much as you need to – and get that cuppa quicker!
- Cycling to work – get healthier and save carbon!
- Feed the Earth – making compost for the garden
- Smart Drive – accelerating and braking smoothly to save fuel.
- Sharing things with neighbours and friends – a great pledge for DIY enthusiasts!
You are bound to find something that suits you, maybe something you keep meaning to do, or something so simple you hadn’t even thought about it before.
If you want to be more ambitious you can make up your own challenge – let your imagination run wild!
A reward for your efforts
Be Energy Smart, DIY Doctor and Green Reviews have teamed up to offer you a great green giveaway. If you make Climate Week pledges, we will enter you into a draw to win a fantastic Roberts SolarDAB radio. All you have to do is pledge to do something to reduce your carbon footprint between now and the 10th March.
The winner will be able to listen to high-quality music in truly sustainable style, with the world’s first solar powered DAB radio. Each pledge you make gives you another chance to win, so pick as many as you can!
Who is involved?
Members of DIY Doctor, Green Reviews and Be Energy Smart teams will be make their own pledges too. They will be using their blogs and Twitter to keep you updated with how they are doing, throughout the week.
Be Energy Smart is a brilliant independent energy-saving advice website. They have loads of information about Eco Friendly products and you should check out their simple free assessment tool to find out exactly which energy-saving improvements could save money in your home. www.beenergysmart.co.uk
Green Reviews is a fab one-stop-shop for reviews of just about any green product you can think of, from washing machines to solar panels. www.greenreviews.co.uk
You already know that DIY Doctor is the UK’s best-loved DIY advice website, with friendly, down-to-earth advice to help you through any Home Improvement and DIY tasks. www.diydoctor.org.uk
The competition will close at midnight on the 10th March, and we’ll be notifying the winner on the following day. Good luck!
Why not tweet your pledge, to let us know how you’re doing? @DIYDoctor
How can DIY Doctor be free?
This is a question we often get asked by users of our site. We make DIY Doctor a free website for our users by selling advertising space.
This is the same as most websites, but we always try to make sure that the products and services we list on our site are of interest to our users.
Video is the new black
London Fashion week is over, but we are all slaves to fashion in some way. The internet is no exception, with videos being the latest high-growth area of many websites.
Streaming sites have made it really simple to upload videos, and have become very popular places to learn new skills, and check out new products. DIY Doctor is no exception to this craze, and we love making videos to help users complete Home Improvement jobs and choose the correct tools for the job.
DIY Doctor has started using a new publishers revenue company, Coull Vidlinkr to help to increase our revenue by collecting sponsors for our YouTube videos, which review DIY products, or provide instruction guides on how to perform a particular home improvement task.
Making money from our videos this way means we can use the funds to make more videos, and so continue to increase our video library for our users.
An easy way to monitise videos
Once we installed Vidlinkr on the DIY Doctor website, it automatically picked up our YouTube videos and added a link to pre-approved tool suppliers pages. We are happy to recommend the links on the video, knowing that they are relevant to our users, and offer them good value for money.
This enables the viewer to purchase products recommended by us, and ones that are necessary to complete the DIY task, straight from the video.
“An easy and seamless experience. Integration of videos and products is a quick and very simple process that could be easily completed by someone with little or no previous experience.”- James Gardner, DIY Doctor
Early Results
These have been very encouraging for us and we can recommend the services offered by Coull Vidlinkr to anyone who needs to make money from their blog or website. Although we would be careful to stress that the content must be of use to your readers and users.
- Strong clickthrough rate: At 2.7%, DIY Doctor’s strong clickthrough rate shows how a relevant call to action within a video can engage viewers.
- Superb conversion rate: At 8.2%, their excellent conversion rate, from clickthrough to purchase, highlights the way viewers use video as a resource in their consumer journey. It drives demand for products.
- Average commission per transaction: The average commission earned by DIY Doctor per transaction was £1.89, reflecting the earning potential for bloggers using Coull Vidlinkr.
How it looks
This video link, below, shows that the users experience is subtle enough to be informing without being annoying.
Let us know what you think – click on the comments link at the top right of the page.
DIY Doctor will be on the Tricks of The Trade Stage at the National Homebuilding and Renovating Show at the NEC in Birmingham next month.
The show starts on the 21st March and runs until the 24th March 2013. Mike Edwards from DIY Doctor will be running a series of talks and demonstrations including how to plaster, how to lay tiles and how to avoid cowboy builders.
Are you planning a build?
The National Homebuilding and Renovating Show organisers have asked us, to ask you, how you intend to use finance to fund your build, renovation or extension, for the coming year. So if you have a moment to fill in their survey, they are offering a chance to win 1 of 5 prizes of £100 worth of high-street shopping vouchers.
The National Homebuilding and Renovating Show have partnered up with Experian for this survey. The idea is to examine the use of credit and financing on the homebuilding and renovating industry.
For your convenience the survey has been designed to make it easy to fill in on what ever device you prefer to use. You can complete it using a PC, Mac, iPad and most smartphones.
It will be very interesting to see what the research reveals – so if you have the time Please follow this link to complete their survey.
We would also like to see you at the show – so if you want free tickets as DIY Doctor guests then please click on the image below.
