13 tips to kickstart your extenson project

Adding an extension is one of the most popular home improvement projects, and for good reason. If you love your home but you’ve outgrown it or use it in a new way (many of us are now working from home more than we did) then extending gives you the opportunity to create the home you need without moving. But how do you go from knowing that you want to extend to actually embarking on a project? Who should you talk to? How do you establish a budget? Of course, each project will have its own nuances but there are some key considerations to bear in mind, whatever your project.

Here, we’ve pulled together some top tips to help you initiate a successful pre-build process that will help you start your extension project on the right path.

1 Let’s talk budget

One of the first steps to take is to be realistic about money. “Before taking the plunge it’s a good idea to work out roughly what size extension you can afford,” suggests Ian Rock MRICS, author of the Haynes Home Extension Manual. Most extension projects cost around £1,500- £2,000/ m + and Ian agrees: “A ‘sticky note’ calculation of at least should give you a rough guide for build costs.” So that means a very general estimate for a 30m single-storey kitchen extension could be somewhere between £45,000-£60,000, plus VAT.