More house questions - ideas of costs?

Not used it personally but I have heard people talk about this site https://www.ratedpeople.com:443/

To have my house extended the building I choose was absed on whom ahd down the extensions on properties nearby. I choose the mid priced one. It was supposed to cost £30,00 but went slightly over due to the electrician being a ***. We doubled the size of our house -literally.

We're having an extension built at the moment, it sounds quite similar to what you describe. It's a large garage built onto the side of the house with a bedroom with ensuite and walk in wardrobe above. Our is costing around £64,000. Our builder gave us an estimate and he will keep costs to that estimate unless there are any major unforseen problems. We did have to pay a bit extra because the buildings inspectors came out and told us our next door neighbours tree was going to cause a problem and so we had to have it removed and pay a structural engineer to write a letter to say that it would be ok once the tree was removed. Other than that we haven't really had any unexpected costs. Although we didn't quite realise how much things like tiles and bathroom suites etc cost until we started looking into it.

When we were looking for builders we contacted several and asked them to come round and look at the plans and give us a quote. We then chose based on cost and also our feelings about them and if we could see ourselves working with them.

We've used this site to find our gas fitters.

http://www.checkatrade.com/

I don't know how to add a link to the photos but there is an album full of photos of our extension on my facebook page to give you an idea of what we are having done.

Hi PB, not sure if this much help but we had a kitchen extension done not long after we moved into our house 5yrs ago.Before we committed to buying the house we had our old next door but one neighbour (who's a builder) come with us, and gave us a very basic price for the extension. That gave us an idea on how much to offer for the house, etc. We actually knocked £18,000 off the asking price.
We budgeted £22,000, and thought that we would be able to do the extension, new kitchen, re-carpet all of the house, new bathroom, plastering, the whole lot. How wrong were we. We had to buy a new boiler, and you just don't think about all of the little things that add up, plumber, electrician, etc. In fact my brother is an electrician and did the installation for us, he saved us £1,000.
Our original kitchen was tiny, and the builder just built around it.(we kept one existing wall) He did say that the original foundations on the kitchen weren't deep enough, so he strengthened them (somehow), and then dug deep enough through the rest of the extension should we wish to build on top. He did suggest that we also did a double extension, and said that contrary to popular belief, the cost isn't double, but once you factor in all of the extras, windows, doors, plastering etc, we just couldn't afford it.
We had to apply for building regs for the extension, and if we'd have doubled up, would need planning permission also - so you need to factor that in.
We asked 3 different builders for quotes, which ranged from £12,500 - £22,000. The builder we eventually went with was actually our old next door but one neighbour, who we would have probably have always gone with anyhow, but we wanted to see what the other local builders came up with.
One good tip, I can give. When we moved in and got settled into our local pub, we actually found quite a lot of local tradesmen. Plasterers, painter & decorators etc - all of whom we've used to help us out - mates rates.
Just to give you an idea of what we did, pics below:

Finally, bear in mind the cost will differ on where you live. We're in Lincolnshire. The extension cost £12,500, the kitchen £4,500 (that's purchased and fitted), again finding our own fitter. So you can see it didn't leave a lot in the kitty for the extras. The entire extension and new kitchen took just over 6 weeks - Feb - April.
5 yrs on, as I said, we've taken out the old advocado green bathroom, new fireplace, carpets, wood floor, fitted bedroom, new driveway, garage, sofits & fascias, patio, decking. It's now more or less a new house. Bloomin expensive, but worth it.

Sorry, this is so long, not sure if it's helped. My one advice will be, set a budget, then add half to it as a contingency. Unfortunately when you're doing major building work, you need to expect the unexpected.

Thanks so much everyone for the tips and links. Daffy are you on my fb or in the 2012 fb group? I am JE and would like to be able to see your pics if poss.

Navychick thank you for the words of warning and all the photos. I love your new kitchen! Your outdoor area looks great too. I am surprised at how quickly you were able to get all that done. Hopefully ours won't be that much as we aren't touching the bathroom or kitchen (that we know of).

Thanks ladies and gent!

I added you on FB yesterday and I'm in the 2012 group. I'm CT.

Thanks!