Cracking on with the plan we had already spoken to two builders (before getting planning permission or having any plans drawn up), with one quoting a simple 4 figure sum to carry out the conversion, the other 5 figures that got 20% larger when I indicated I may want a proper invoice and receipt!
Stadium Studios would install the kitchen so the builder needed to complete all conversion works and fit out with all the electrical aspects, including all lighting, electrical sockets, switches, as well as heating to the new room and drainage, the network and aerial sockets etc too. In effect all services to the points needed in the new dining area as well as the kitchen so that Stadium Studios could fit the new kitchen in place with power and drainage in the correct places already.
It is at this point that we contacted several more builders, as well as going back to the two original ones, and provided the plans that had been approved by local planning.
In all we saw 7 builders, with prices varying by a significant amount – the two who initially quoted both increased their quotes, one by three-fold and the other by £9000 plus vat!
We asked all to quote for the standard conversion but also to add the option of moving one of the kitchen doors by 450mm…we asked all of them to quote for radiators in the dining room and a couple of them to quote for the additional option of underfloor heating instead.
Most came in over a 2-3 week period, with some checking by text if we had made a decision at various points (in fact one texted Sharon only 2 days ago on the 27/5/2018 – almost a month after the majority of the work had been completed by the chosen builder. He wondered why we hadn’t chosen him when all we had received was a quote by text!).
Another came back 5 weeks after being asked to quote to ask a question about a door and whether we were keeping it or not, it took another 2 weeks to receive the quote by basic email, by which time we had chosen someone else.
Quotes most were mostly single page affairs and gave no detail. For a job worth £20000 to £35000 we found this extremely odd (one of those was £9000 at first quote, ending up at £25000!).