Your family is growing; you want a hobby room; you’re ramping up your investment’s value – we all know why you are looking into building an extension on a house. But apart from getting your head around the cost, there’s one thing that makes clients more nervous than anything else when planning an extension – how long it will take from start to finish. Well, we’ve been doing it for so long that we know a thing or two about it. So let’s dive in and answer: How long does a house extension take?
We know it’s your home; your castle. You live, sleep, play and breathe there. So you want to know how long your daily life will be disrupted by those house extension plans. First, the good news – because in most cases, you won’t have to move out even for a moment, especially with experienced home extension services who plan for:
- Phased construction/staggered work
- Segregated construction areas
- Scheduled work hours
- Good communication
- Temporarily facilities
- Adapted daily routines.
But the actual start-to-finish planning & construction timeframe for your home extension still matters – to your budget, your convenience, your peace of mind, your holiday plans, and your sanity!
So without further ado, let’s dive into what you can roughly expect when you’re building an extension on a house:
1. Design
Before anything else happens, clients meet up with a extension design consultant to chew over all those rough requirements, ideas and goals for the house extension. The meeting itself only takes a couple of hours, but that leads into a 1-3 week period in which the design concepts are fleshed out in detail. During this period, communications go back-and-forwards between the client and the consultant to ensure every box is ticked.
After that, expect another 2-4 weeks for any revisions and adjustments before a final design is drafted and contracts can get signed and sealed.
2. Permits & planning
The building designer is now tasked with going through the process of all those applications, requirements and approvals to get everything sorted from a regulatory and paper-procedural point of view. This takes place within a 2-6 week period – leading into what can actually be one of the longest phases of up to 3 months if you’re unlucky.
That’s because permit applications for extensions and liaison with the council can take quite a while to go through – and it can actually blow out beyond 3 months if an inexperienced team is at the helm.
3. Building
Phew – it’s time to start hitting nails with hammers! It will take about a week just to prepare the site, including all assessments and preparation for the work. An experienced construction team will be meticulous in ensuring as few hiccups as possible occur once the power tools are fired up.
Once the construction team is good to go, the concrete slab or sub-floor takes 2-4 weeks, leading into another:
- 2-4 weeks: To put up the wall/roof frames, giving your extension its basic structure.
- 1-4 weeks: Leading into ‘lock-up’, during which time the walls, roof, windows and doors are all taken care of so that the site can be completely protected from both a security and weather point-of-view.
- Up to 6 weeks: To put the shine on all of the non-structural details – like the architraves, skirting boards and bathroom fittings, turning a construction site into a liveable space.
- 2-3 weeks: Before the final certificates, handover and handshakes (and champagne cork-popping!) can occur, there is a period for all of those last-minute finishing touches and a final inspection.
Looking at building a house extension?
Remember, all of these timeframes are rough, average estimates – but a less-than 6-month period from that initial consultation all the way through to handing over the keys to your brand new extension is most certainly the norm.
And that’s especially the case if you put your faith in Melbourne’s home extension specialists right here at RFT Solutions. Our mission and promise are value for money, outstanding service and superior building solutions, and we take care of absolutely everything, including design & drafting services, all permits, sifting through builders’ quotes … and sipping that champagne with you! Take the stress out of building, extending or renovating your home by getting in touch with RFT Solutions today!
