EXTENSIONS: Your essential services health check
Keeping a construction project within budget is rarely an easy task. And when it comes to building extensions there are additional layers of complexity that can play havoc with your finances.
One area that’s notoriously prone to cost overruns is supplying the heating, lighting and power to the new accommodation. It’s fairly common to underestimate how many lights, sockets and taps will ultimately be needed in new extensions, and this can often trigger unbudgeted charges for ‘extras’. But the main reason for savage price hikes can be traced back to the design stage, where there’s a natural tendency to focus exclusively on the new space you’re creating. Often very little thought is given to assessing whether the existing power and heating systems will be up to the job of coping with the additional load. And placing extra demands on your existing services can be a bit like piling tonnes of extra baggage into an old car and wondering why it’s going so slow. So before extending your existing services it’s worth giving them
