Win £1,000

2Assess your needs and wants for your home and consider whether it can be done without the most expensive building 1 Work it out } }Find more ways to save while renovating on our reno hub page works, i.e. an extension or anything requiring planning permission. A dream open-plan kitchen might be achieved by Create the luxury look of real marble moving or removing with laminate panels an internal wall and you can fit yourself. repositioning doors to Contemporary yet create better flow. You timeless, they offer could even change rooms boutique hotel chic around. If one half of a on a B&B budget. through-lounge is seldom Veneto Marble laminate used, repurpose it as a panels, from £180.28 kitchen diner, and move per panel, Showerwall the living area to a cosier space. Also be aware of the ceiling value of your street. Money spent on an ambitious renovation that doesn’t add the same or more in value could be money wasted.

Take control

Another person’s treasure

An easy way to save money on a renovation is to do as much as you can yourself, including the project management. You could save between 10 and 20 per cent of the overall cost if you oversee it rather than leaving it to your builder or contractor. You’ll need to be organised, as you’ll be hiring trades, sourcing materials, and scheduling jobs and deliveries in order and on time. If you’re not on site, visit regularly and be just a phone call away, ready to answer questions or troubleshoot issues.

If you’re gutting the place, see what you can repurpose or sell on through sites like Facebook Marketplace or Gumtree. Even something like hardcore can be freecycled, and you could save on the cost of hiring a skip to take it away. If you’re digging foundations, see if the spoil can be reused for landscaping work rather than paying for it to go to landfill (standard rate landfill tax is £98.60 per tonne). Topsoil could just cost haulage if you can find someone who wants it. Old metal can fetch a reasonable price at the scrap merchants, particularly copper pipes.

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Think ahead

Plan as much as you can and ensure your design spec is as detailed as possible to try and avoid hidden costs. Unforeseen problems on site with plumbing, roofing or drainage can be expensive and cause delays. Walk through the spaces to decide things like how many light switches and sockets you’ll want so cables can be chased down walls or through ceilings, and where you want windows, built-in furniture and boilers to be. These are costly to have installed and expensive to change if something is in the wrong place. 4

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Selling on Ebay? End the auction on a Monday night. Buyers often window shop over a weekend then bid after work the next day

This hardwearing carpet can be fitted without underlay. Use offcuts to make rugs and runners. Sisal Antilles in Bonaire, £55.80 per m2, Fibre 8

Kitchen clever

The kitchen can be expensive to renovate, particularly if you’re replacing all the units. If the carcasses are good, switching the doors or painting them, and adding new handles and a work surface, are cost-effective updates. If you’re creating a new layout, buy flatpacks and fit them yourself to save thousands in labour charges; Checkatrade estimates it costs £1,400 - £2,100 to fit a family-sized kitchen. If you want a high-spec designer look, scour used kitchen sites for quality second-hand or ex-display kitchens from top brands – reusing is a sustainable way to shop.

Panel splashbacks are easy to fit yourself, take less labour than tiling, and can turn an imperfect wall into a showpiece. Bushboard Alloy splashback in Urban Cluster, £270 for 3050x600mm, Wickes

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Bag a bargain bathroom

Don’t let the bathroom drain your cash. The golden rule of economical bathroom renovation is to try and use the current sanitaryware arrangement so you can connect to your existing water pipes and soil pipes. A classic white suite can be sourced quite easily and cheaply as most online bathroom suppliers have regular sales and offers. The companies selling used and ex-display kitchens also deal in bathrooms, if you want a cut-price designer buy. You can also fashion a unique look by searching salvage yards for cast-iron tubs or colourful sanitaryware, or creating retro storage from upcycled furniture.

Handy helper Grohe’s new QuickFix is an all-in-one package for DIY home upgrades. Free with products in the Start collection of easy-to-install basin mixers, QuickFix offers a QuickTool to install the mixer, QuickGuides installation manuals, and QuickVideos, with step-bystep advice you can access via a QR code on the box.

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An architect’s professional input and creativity can be worth the fee as they know cost-effective ways to get the look you want, and how to avoid mistakes

Fake it to make it

Whether it’s flooring or wall coverings, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and financially astute. Luxury vinyl or porcelain tile can look convincingly like more expensive natural materials, such as wood, and give you the boarded or parquet flooring of your dreams for less. If you’re watching the pounds, a marblelike ceramic or porcelain tile adds the richness of the real thing. For worktops, a premium compact laminate can have all the appeal of real stone, and be a durable alternative.

Outside the box

This typical Victorian terrace was unaltered after 20 years when the owners bought it. The dilapidated two-storey, two-bedroom property only had one bathroom, which wasn’t suitable for modern family life. One positive was that it had an unusually deep rear garden, which they took advantage of…

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‘The owners had seen the extensions neighbours and friends had added to their homes and felt that the typical style wouldn’t make the most of the space,’ says Olga McMurdo, director at MOST Architecture. ‘They felt that none of the reconfigurations they had seen were as good as what they hoped GLORIOUS GLAZING to get from their new house. How you frame and position the ‘The couple were expecting extension’s glazing will have an impact their first child, and looking to on the finish. For a sympathetic addition create a family house – big to a period property, timber or imitation uPVC enough for play, and filled frames can help you achieve this, while metal and with light. They wanted the composite frames can set the old and new apart. kitchen to be roomy and A highly glazed space can overheat, but if you give comfortable, and close to careful consideration to the positioning of patio the play area, where they doors and roof windows, you can achieve natural could watch their kids. The brightness and benefit from passive solar gain that won’t be excessive in the warmer months. Choose garden was long enough fixed units to save on costs, especially if you’re for a very sizeable extension, installing roof or clerestory windows – which would still leave these will offer natural brightness outdoor space. while maintaining privacy for ‘The house is located in you and your neighbours. an area that recently received designated status, which significantly limited what could be done. None of the neighbours have received permissions for an extension of more than three metres deep, and some had to work through an appeal process or give up the ambition entirely. To bring the light in we deployed several tactics – the full glazing to the

B E F O R E rear; the clerestory window at high level perpendicular to the rear elevation of the house; and a conical skylight, which guided and amplified the light into the back of the kitchen. I had to carefully detail the skylight and hand sketch it for the main contractor’s joiner to create the complex geometry.

‘The unusually large kitchen island, in the shape of a soft-cornered triangle, lets space flow around smoothly, and allow different zones to overlap without friction. The design included a tree grown in the centre of the island, exploiting the additional height and light of the conical skylight above. Special furniture details allow easy access for treatment or replacement of the plant.

‘We achieved lots of storage for the client, and convinced them that they’d benefit from a utility room. We created that in part of the plan which couldn’t benefit from the natural light anyway. Intelligent space planning is a prerequisite to quality living, with plenty of storage and back-of-house spaces that have good functionality and easy access.

‘The olive tree they chose for the breakfast island has grown and is doing really well!’

Before you start

qDo I need planning permission?

ANot if your extension falls within permitted development (PD) rules. In order to do so, it will need to: > Cover no more than half the area of land around the original house; > Extend no further than eight metres beyond the back of the house for a detached, or six metres for any other house (subject to a prior approval application, and providing you’re not in a designated area); > Exceed four metres in height, or; > Exceed three metres in height within two metres of a boundary. Check out planningportal.co.uk for more information.

qHow much will it cost?

AYou can expect to pay from around £40,000.

qDo I need to hire an expert?

AAn architect or designer is not necessary for simple designs, but could save money on complicated projects.

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Planning your project down to the very last detail, or as much as you possibly can, is truly one of the best ways to save money. This is because there are unlikely to be any changes that will have an impact on the budget. Knowing where all the light switches, armchairs and shelving goes means the electrician can pull cables to where they need to be; the same applies to the plumbing, too. You should also try to build with traditional materials that trades know how to work with and buy standard, off-the-shelf windows, doors and kitchen units. These can be adapted, painted and accessorised to help your space look unique. If possible, shop the sales – but make sure the cut price won’t affect guarantees.

USE IT WELL Most of us dream of an extended kitchen and dining room leading to the garden, where we can open the space out during spring and summer. However, since the pandemic, rear extensions have also been effectively serving as a separate room offering space for another lounge, bedroom, play area or WFH office space – something to think about when you’re planning your project.

Costs & contacts

Project cost £100,000 Architect MOST Architecture, 020 3135 0145, mo-st.com Construction time Nine months

Going eco

Choosing to build an extension that’s more sustainable not only benefits the planet, but will pay you back in comfort levels and reduced bills. With energy prices on the rise, an eco-friendly addition is now more appealing than ever. Take a look at reusing salvaged bricks: you can try to save some from the demolition phase or source them from specialists. If you’re building with timber, a sustainably sourced frame can help you on your way, while eco insulation – in the form of rigid cork or recycled denim – will increase your thermal efficiency and green credentials.