Extensions in Rugby, priced in writing before anything starts.
Most of the extensions we build in Rugby are single storey and at the back, on the interwar and post-war semi-detached housing out towards Bilton, Hillmorton and Overslade. That stock suits it: there is usually side access wide enough to get materials through without going via the house, and enough garden to work in without the job taking over the whole plot.
The terraces closer to the town centre are a different proposition. Access is often through the house or down a shared entry, which changes the sequence, where the muck away goes and how long the messy phase lasts. We would rather tell you that at the quotation stage than discover it in week one.
A typical rear extension runs in the same order each time: set out and dig the footings, get them inspected and poured, build up to damp proof course, oversite and floor, then the shell, roof, and openings formed into the existing house. First fix, plaster, second fix and snagging follow. Removing a wall between the old and new space usually means a steel beam and structural calculations, which we arrange rather than leaving with you.
On the newer estates at Cawston, Brownsover and Houlton there is often an estate management company or a covenant on the deeds that has a say in what you can build. That is worth checking before a designer draws anything, and it is the first thing we look at on those.
Many of these extensions fall within permitted development, so no planning application is needed. Permitted development is not an exemption from Building Regulations though, and a full plans application is still required. We arrange and meet the Rugby Borough Council inspections and see the work through to sign off.
What an extension costs depends far more on the ground and the specification than on the floor area: what the footings find when we dig, how much of the existing house is opened up, and what goes into the roof and the glazing. Our extensions service page sets out the specification choices and what moves the price, and we put a figure in writing before anything starts.
Four things we commit to on every job, rather than four things we say about ourselves.
Permitted development is not an exemption from Building Regulations. We arrange the Rugby Borough Council inspections, meet the inspector on site at each stage and see the work through to sign off. We do not make the application itself, and we will tell you what is needed and when.
Free, and you get it before you commit to us. Party walls and skip licences are raised at quotation stage, not three weeks into the dig.
The same people do the groundworks, the brickwork and the fit out. Nobody hands your job to a subcontractor you have never met.
You get a straight answer rather than a padded price. It costs us a job occasionally and saves you a great deal more.
Process, specification and what moves the price are set out on our extensions page.
The answers that genuinely differ from one Rugby street to the next.
An extension generates more spoil than most jobs, and where it goes decides how the first fortnight runs. On the semi-detached housing with off street parking we can usually keep a grab lorry or a skip on the drive, which needs no licence and keeps the road clear.
On the terraced streets there is often nowhere but the road, so the skip company applies to Warwickshire County Council for a highway licence and needs at least five working days. We build that into the programme rather than treating it as a surprise.
Part of our wider building work in Rugby.
Send photographs and a rough brief, or call and talk it through. We will tell you if a job is not right for us.
Southfield Construction (Rugby) Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company 14209138.
