House extension questions - what should you be asking?

These can be sub-divided into three distinct and separate areas. The first concerns pre-planning.  What should you be asking yourself? What is it you personally want from the house extension - make a concise list.  Secondly are the house extension questions you should be putting to your prospective designer or architect.  The final questions will be to your house extension builders.

Simply having an idea for a house extension is not enough  commitment to see it through.  All homeowners considering an extension need to be asking themselves a series of questions and challenging their motives for the works.

I often go to see prospective clients who haven't any clear idea of what they are trying to achieve for the final extended home.  Many seem to simply focus in on the works itself forgetting that it will be the 'whole modified home' they will be living in rather than just the extension.

Interviewing and questioning your prospective house extension designer or architect is the next phase of the house extension question process.  The more questions you ask about the design details and trying to explore what their vision is for the extension based upon your overall brief of requirements should start to reveal just how pro-active and experienced they actually will be after engaging their services.

Once all the design process and applications have been achieved and you are ready to obtain builders tender prices, the questioning can sometimes stop by the homeowner.  You need to ensure that your final selected builder will also be supportive and pro-active for you during the works on site.  Therefore you need to ask them all the relevant questions that may be concerning you outside of the contract conditions. 

These could be things like where will the tradesmen park their vans, will my prize roses be protected at the beginning of the drive,  will any of my services be off for any great lengths of periods?  The homeowners list of potential issues and worries can be endless but many people are too scared to air them to the builder for fear of seeming obsessive.  As a general rule, the more the builder knows about your concerns, the easier it is for him to be pro-active and prevent or reduce these issues from becoming a reality.