Kitchen extension blog

Page 2 here

Week 1 4th February to 10th February
4th February, Day 1 Not much happened today apart from sorting out access, preparing the site and ordering some skips and a digger. Some 'before' images
The side yard - this space is completely unused. The extension will go from the dining room wall (at the bottom of the picture) to the green chair at the top of the picture	The single story will occupy all the area from the dining room door (the white door on the left) all the way front to the green chair and across the full width of the house. Bi-Fold sliding doors will then open out onto the patio which will be lowered to the same level.
The existing kitchen is nice, but it's all getting ripped out and chucked on a skip (we're keeping the appliances). For the amount the extension is costing and the price of new units, it's folly to save a tiny bit and compromise a lot.
This existing toilet / shower room that's getting demolished.	Looking in from the existing door to the garden. The wall on the left stays, the toilet/shower room on the right goes
And inside the shower room - not much of it, but it is useful	Max wonders how much opportunity these works will give him to chew stuff he shouldn't!

5th February Much of the garden was cleared:

I didn't realise how much space was taken up by the nasty old tree and bushes. Already I have a bigger, wider garden!

7th February With the aid of a digger, they started excavating

Max liked it very much. What better than a big muddy hole for a puppy to roll around in just before be comes bounding up to you, jumping up at you as you've got clean clothes on, ready for work??	The sewage map turned up (Thames Water aren't the fastest to respond to a request) and confirms the run of the drain passes under the patio extension. (The property boundary is in yellow, with the red dots showing manhole covers and lines showing the run).

9th February As they needed to fill a skip before its replacement on Monday, the guys came back on Saturday to dig a bit more.
This is the 4th skip so far from a hole that's only...	... this big! These two pictures look as if one load fits into the other!
Since I mentioned that we would be having kids for the weekend who'd be needing access to the back, they put a ladder up.	Max looked humorously clumsy taking a running leap and scrabbling!
Mini digger MONSTA POWER!!! :)	6 months old and already having delusions of grandeur!

Week 2 11th February to 17th February
13th February - the hole's bigger! So we're in the second week, things are on schedule, there are no surprises and the guys are nice, polite and considerate. I haven't yet ordered the doors, but have been seeking quotes. The options out there are considerable with uPVC, wood and aluminium in a number of different opening configurations, different tracks and different thermal glass types. The thing that's striking me at the moment is how the quotes vary so much, and particularly finding out why. Right then, the pictures of this hole....
Doesn't look so large from this angle..	... but does from this. That's actually 6 skiploads of mud!
In the alleyway, the fence has moved back...	... and a door has been added. This extra area they made was so Max could go outside and do his business without getting in the way or (more importantly for her ladyship) getting covered in mud and bringing it back into the house! Nice and considerate.
So, this is about all there is to see at the moment - a big 'ole with a small digger at the bottom!

15th February - ordered the doors After getting a quote from quite a few companies and learning about the vast options and differences between the products, I chose and ordered some doors. These are from a UK company who are specialise in just these products and manufacture them themselves. The configuration is 4 panels of which 1 will be a 'traffic' door opening to the right and 3 will be sliding, folding doors stacking on the left (outside). They're aluminium, white and the (K) glass has a 1.3U value (building regs require 1.8 min). They are weather resistant to storm extremes, have the highest level of security available (ie. you can't 'lift' them open), have a very small threshold (step at the bottom) and have a 10 year guarantee. This is a quality product (there is a lot of nasty stuff out there) at a reasonably competitive price, which I imagine has something to do with the fact they're not made in Asia and have to be transported over! And their website has an awful lot of information on it - click. Now, about that hole - yep, it's bigger!



Week 3 18th February to 24th February
19th February
Neighbour's fence has been moved back. The red line is the property boundary.	It appears the common drain (yellow) may interfere with the foundations for the extension wall (red). This is a new concern and we need to get the building control inspector to advise.

24th February - the hole is finally big enough!
This picture doesn't really have any sense of scale due to the convex lens, but the width is about 5 meters and length about 10m. It took 12 skips to take this lot away!
	This is over a meter high


Week 4 25th February to 2nd March

27th February - Foundations dig
The foundation trenches are starting to take shape. The common drain is in the way and the building control inspector will advise how he wants them to deal with it when he visits on Friday. The favoured solution at the moment is to build around it, bridging with a lintel where necessary.

2nd March
The foundation trenches are fully dug. This picture clearly shows where the walls will be extended to and how much extra space will be created.

Contrary to what the sewer drain map shows, the pipe is nearer to the house and runs under the extension itself. An application has to be made to build over the pipe, with a lintel.	The drain run in the other sidewall trench is the same.


Week 5 3rd March to 9th March
Page 2 here

Extension blog front page