House Extension on a Budget – What You Need to Know
House extension projects on a limited budget can be constraining a bit.
The team have put together some free tips on how to extend your house on a budget.
4 Free Tips on How to Extend Your House Cheaply on a Budget
So, you want to extend your home to add on some extra room or add value to your property for resale through house extensions.
The idea of expanding out to the back, front, or side of your property, moving up to finish a loft conversion, or down to finish a basement or cellar space is appealing to helping your family find the needed space to stretch out. This is a wonderful dream of a thought, but when your finances are tight and the thought of the cost of extension work makes you anxious, or you’re losing sleep over the thought of the money you will need to shell out, and you don’t know how to go about it, house extension projects and elaborate extension designs on a limited budget can be a bit constraining.
We have put together some free tips on how to extend your house cheaply on a budget when you are ready to begin building an extension.
Cut Costs by Keeping It Simple with Just the Basics
Simplicity Saves Money
Not every complicated detail is vitally important to implement into your house extension design. Keeping it simple is the way to go, and it doesn’t mean the finished project will be boring just because you built smartly and saved money. Elaborate, dream room additions seem amazing, but you can get a lot of extra room on a budget when you keep your extension designs plan simple. Simplicity is really just beauty without the chaos and clutter. Some may even call it minimalism, which is a popular way of life.
Focusing on simple designs does not mean you have to forfeit style. It merely means you will stretch your home extension designs budget to its maximum potential so you can focus on the interior design elements without worrying about going over budget.
For instance, a square house extension design with a simple pitched roof is the least expensive way to go as opposed to designing custom angles or curves or adding unnecessary building and design components. Also, choose construction materials that are available and do not require special orders. You can often still get the look you want without spending a fortune. For instance, if you’re wanting the look of dormer windows on a loft extension, opt for roof lights instead. For kitchen extensions, you can open up an exterior wall with a bi-fold door that will bring in a lot of natural lighting, and fold up out of the way when you want to extend your indoor kitchen, eating, and cooking space to the outdoors.
Do It Yourself Wherever Possible
Do-It-Yourself projects can save you a bundle when you’re building home extensions. Some of the best DIY house extensions money-saving projects include painting, tile work, some flooring installation, adding a window bench seat, or cabinet installation and refinishing work.
Whatever you are handy at, give it a try. The main thing to keep in mind with DIY work is to never tackle anything above and beyond your skills and ability especially when it comes to major structural work, live electricity, or extensive plumbing work. DIY will also require some amount of research ahead of time as well so you don’t run into trouble with discovering your home addition doesn’t comply with local building regulations after you have spent time and money trying save on the work. Of course, there are some areas of adding onto your home that you will not want to scrimp on. Do what you can yourself, and save the expenses for areas you absolutely need an expert to complete.
Know Before You Build
Before you start any DIY work or hire someone to work on your home extension, the best cost-saving step you can take is to plan properly. Do a little local research to make sure you understand and abide by any building regulations or planning permissions for your home and property. If you share a wall with your neighbour, you will need to comply with the Party Wall Act.
Save yourself time and problems which could bring your home extension project to a grinding halt in a hurry by simply discussing your plans with those living nearby. Your best step is to talk with your neighbours before doing any work on adding to your home since it may interfere with their natural lighting or infringe upon their property. Save yourself an expensive headache later down the road by knowing everything expected for you to following legal requirements for your build and planning well.
Be Careful Who You Hire
While there are plenty of reputable builders able and available to help you with your house extensions, be careful. There are also many disreputable contractors who are waiting to take advantage of any willing victim. Avoid being ripped off by always asking for and following through by checking references for accuracy and credibility. Whatever you do, never pay in advance for the promised work for the cost of extension. The time to pay is after you have been invoiced for work and only if you are completely satisfied. If the home extension requires lengthy work, make arrangements to make payments in stages as each phase of the work is complete. Go over every detail of your extension designs including a written cost of extension before any work begins.
Contact us when you want to be certain to hire a competent and reliable professional for more useful information on building an extension, related designs, home extensions, and products for your home using one of our social links below.