Home extension projects offer a creative and exciting way to adapt and improve your living space to your changing family needs. Whether it’s growing your downstairs living and entertaining spaces or adding bedroom and bathroom space upstairs (or indeed, a bit of both!), house extensions provide an ideal way to adapt and evolve the home you love.
We are firmly committed to delivering your vision of your improved home, individually designed for your changing requirements. We will work alongside architects, engineers and designers at design meetings with you, until you are completely happy that your home extension plans have been converted into the final design, checking and re-checking until everyone is satisfied. In short, as your expert partner, we advise you on how best to achieve your requirements from a design and practical aspect.
As for all our projects, materials for the extension are discussed and where necessary samples sourced for approval. We may suggest to our clients to visit a chosen manufacturer to see the products or with bricks and tiles, we can make up sample boards to give a better idea how they appear when properly constructed.
Can I stay in my home while you are building?
For home extension projects, we understand how important it usually is for a family or an individual to continue living within a property, whilst building work is undertaken. At Mark Rose Homebuilders, we seek to make it as easy and as safe as possible for this to happen, taking care of all considerations. For instance, if required, we will set up a temporary kitchen (with all services) and family area sealed from dust and from the building work, so that normal daily life can continue. In addition, we will plan for materials not to block any access and any vehicles will not block car access for the owners. Where possible, the knock-through to the existing house will only happen at the very last moment. Bathrooms, heating, electric and a full water supply will always be available.
Home security is, of course, of primary importance to us and we will not compromise this at all, in any way: for example, any open areas will be boarded up and weathered in, so that your family feel secure as they would be at any normal time.
What else to consider
Q. Do I require a project manager to run the job?
A. You can, but we believe the expense (typically 10% of the build cost) is certainly not always needed. We will work with you to establish achievable timescales – including goals and staged delivery dates – and sign-off phases, whilst always ensuring that you keep ownership of your project.
By the time we come to commence your building work, contract timescales and costs are all agreed. We will work to the budget agreed when contracts are agreed and signed. We look to have weekly client meetings (or whatever frequency is deemed appropriate), having a two-way dialogue, so that both parties fully understand every stage of the build – where any timescales are subject to pressure, for instance, where we need to request information about a particular product, we will identify when that information is required and stick to that time.
Q. Who will deal with the local authority building regulation surveyors?
A. At Mark Rose Homebuilders, we are comfortable liaising with local authorities on your behalf – we know, for example, at what stage we need the surveyors to come and sign off a particular piece of work; these may include: representatives from excavation departments for foundations checking, energy and environment staff for thermal insulation approval, and building regulations personnel for final building sign off and approval.
Q. What form of contract should be in place?
A. For us, the contract of choice is a JCT (Joint Contracts Tribunal) with start and end dates agreed. This type of contract will also include when stage payments are due, either done by task (foundations, built to first floor, etc.) or by timescale. On completion an agreed percentage is withheld for a period of time allowing any build snagging required to be remedied. A JCT also allows flexibility to include any special clauses, if required for your project.
We engaged Mark Rose Homebuilders to undertake the extensive renovation and extension to our house. The project was completed on time and we are extremely happy with the final result. Mark’s experience and professional approach to his work meant we had very little stress throughout the process. We look forward to working with the team again in the future.’
Gareth Thomas, Partner, EC Harris