by Ian Rock
A
fter all the excitement of our (somewhat
premature) ‘extension warming party’ weekend
recently, the focus is now firmly on getting
ready for the final building control inspection.
Before releasing any outstanding payments to
contractors, you need to know that building
control are fully satisfied and have issued your
completion certificate. As it happens, we’re still
sitting on retention money (2.5% of the contract
sum) that will shortly become due to the main
contractor who built the shell of our extension. The
payment will be made subject to them rectifying any
defects that come to light during the six months’
defects liability period since they finished. However,
defining what precisely constitutes ‘completion’ at
the end of a project can be something of a grey area.
For compliance with the Building Regs, the sort of
things that would be essential to someone moving
into a new home, such as interior decoration,
skirting boards and tiling the walls and floors, can
normally be left for another day. What really matters
at this stage is anything to do with safety — such as
risks from falling, electrocution, inhaling poisonous
fumes and ensuring occupants can escape from fire.
The main outstanding jobs, including fitting
the new kitchen, I’d mostly planned to undertake
myself with occasional back up from the student
wing of the Rock family when they return home
for the summer holidays. There are also a number
of smaller bits and pieces that still need finishing,
such as the staircase handrail and balustrades. But
recently it’s proved remarkably difficult to source
suitable labour to mop up all the little jobs.
Jason, our joiner, is on holiday for the next few
weeks and local handymen seem to be uniformly
booked up for weeks in advance. This is one
area where employing a main contractor to take
responsibility for the whole project offers a
distinct advantage. Since necessity is the mother
of invention, I resolved to do most of this work on
a DIY basis, which at the end of the day is oftensimpler, and certainly cheaper, than laboriously
tracking down local trades, negotiating prices and
explaining what you want done.Specifying the new kitchen
As big purchase decisions go, the process of
choosing a new kitchen can actually be a bit of a
minefield for the unwary. Perpetual sales promotions
offering ‘up to 50% off ’ are virtually universal and
rarely constitute more than an attention-grabbing
stunt. Look a little closer, however, and it soon
becomes apparent that many competing retailers
are selling pretty much the same stuff, just packaged
differently. Nonetheless, it’s possible to come up
with a stylish kitchen without splashing out at the
premium custom-made end of the market.
The first steps – designing the layout and
planning the size and type of base and wall units- should be reasonably straightforward. Perhaps
the harder task is divining the right ‘look’, since
the primary role of the modern kitchen is arguably
aesthetic. Decisions include whether to opt for
Ian getsstuck into some of the extension’s DIYprojects while
he makes key decisions on the new kitchen and Juliet balconies
TheBuild THEExTEnsionDiARY
I’m taking on the smaller
‘grey area’ tasks to save time
iAnRoCK
is a chartered
surveyor and
director of http://www.
rightsurvey.co.uk.
He is currently
extending his
family home
by 100m^2THEnEwKiTCHEn
ian specified his
kitchen, complete with
integratedappliances
andoakworktops,from
a localDiY shed. He
duly fitted the kitchen
himself — a task that
took around a week.