Renovations

How Resi is making house extensions easier than ever?

Advertorial – This is an advertorial blog post for Resi and all opinions are my own.

If you’re thinking about extending your home you’ve come to the right place. It could be to add more space, to make your home more functional for you and your family, or it could be to add additional value. Extending your home is a really, really exciting time often packed full of decisions, processes and exciting design ideas to create the home of your dreams, oozing style and that’s practical at the same time.

I can speak from my own experience of extending our kitchen and dining room three years ago to create an open plan ground floor kitchen giving us a large family space and modern kitchen looking straight out onto our garden. I loved the process from start to finish, and truth be told I haven’t stopped renovating since.

Our completed House Extension
Our completed house extension.

Once we had decided to extend our home, we quickly set about meeting architects and builders, which is where it did get slightly confusing – particularly because we hadn’t done anything of this size before. 

Some of the things I felt at the time was that we didn’t need an expensive architect to create complex designs for us, as we didn’t have the budget for it. I was also quite clear about how I wanted our extension to look.

Then there was the chicken and egg situation. A builder can’t quote a project without the designs in place (and not accurately without a building regulations package), but we obviously wanted an idea of build cost before we invested in drawings and the planning process.

These were just some of my thoughts and I’m sure that there were many more. After all, renovating, for all the fun, can be a bit of a head-scratcher – especially if it’s your first time.

This is where Resi can help….

Luckily, some platforms have stepped up to tackle this confusion – including the home improvement platform, Resi.co.uk.

They have created an all in one service, which makes creating designs and starting your build really simple. Whether you’re after a rear extension (like ours), a side extension, or a wraparound, they bring together all the services you need into one place and even provide free resources to help you explore your options. This helpful Home Extension guide is a great way to work out which style of extension is right for you – and the budgets involved.

I think many homeowners (myself included) will find the backstory to Resi to be pretty relatable. It was founded by Jules and Alex, two female founders who both attempted their own renovations in 2015. When one ended up £2000 lighter with no drawings to show for the effort and struggled to get answers before buying a new fixer-upper, they decided the industry needed a shakeup, with a simple service in place that could get people extending without all the headaches.

Designing your home with Resi…

To get your ideas on paper and through the planning process, they’ve created four simple steps.

Measured Survey

This is the starting point and the first vital step in your house extension journey. During this stage, all the existing measurements of your home will be taken, along with many photographs to allow the designers to fully visualise your space. These measurements are turned into a set of existing drawings of floor plans, side elevations, sections, site plan and a roof plan that your local planning authority need for planning approval to be granted.

It’s an important foundation to the rest of your project and unlike traditional practices, Resi uses commercial-grade lasers to carry this step out. This means they create a digital twin of your property from which the existing drawings can be created, and also allows designers to reference as they map out your project – without the need for further site visits.

Proposed Design

Next comes the exciting part, this is where the Resi designers create your house extensions plan for you. At this stage, you will work with your designer over a briefing call and tell them what you want your project to look like and how you want it to work for you.

During this exciting meeting, you’ll need to think about future layouts, exteriors and glazing (which is really important, always go big on glazing if budget allows). Speaking of budget, it’s during this stage that you’ll set out your ideal budget so that the designs can be drawn to meet this. You can get an idea of how much your build will cost with this helpful construction calculator.

Resi will be on hand throughout this part of the process and also advise whether you need to submit a full planning application, submit a pre-application or whether your project can fall under Permitted Development.

Once your drawings are ready you’ll then receive your first set of draft drawings and a Resi designer will talk you through them over the phone using their screen share function. During this time you can discuss any initial changes and ideas you have, plus you’ll have time afterwards to put together a consolidated set of your changes.

Then once your final design package is approved by you it’s passed over to the planning stage.

How Resi is making house extensions easier than ever.
Typical exterior elevation you would receive as part of your design package.

Planning Permission

Depending on your planning route – Permitted Development or Full Planning Approval, you’ll be informed of the planning fee and once this is paid the Resi Planning team upload your application to your local planning authority. Then you just need to sit back and wait, and whatever the verdict is, Resi will help you through the next step.

Building Regulations

The last stage of the process is to get your project in line with UK Building Regulations to create a safe and healthy environment for you to live in; this includes structural integrity, thermal performance, drainage, soundproofing and fire safety, and all homes must adhere to this. To ensure your home falls in line with these regulations the Resi team will put together a building regulation package allowing this to be used by your chosen contractor, as well as introduce you to specialists in your area, such as structural engineers, CCTV drainage surveyors, etc.

How else can Resi help you…

In addition to the Resi Design package, Resi can also help with other two vital parts of planning and managing your home extension which is really helpful for anyone about to embark on a house extension.

First of all choosing a contractor, where do you start? Reviews, meeting builders, seeing their previous work and looking at their financial credentials, and are they trustworthy? The list goes on.

Resi can help you manage this by introducing you to vetted contractors within the M25 region and they can guide you through the tender process to help you find the right builder for your project. Amazingly, this service comes at no additional cost which is great, giving you peace of mind and making this step feel so much easier.

Finally money, I cannot stress enough how important this is and something that is discussed from the very outset. The Resi Finance team (should you need it) can help you find the right financing route for your project as they have access to over 400 lenders to help. They’ll even help advise on insurance, meaning your home stays safe both in the short and long term.

If you’re about to start a house extension project I really hope you found that useful? Good luck with your renovations and I promise that it’s all worth it!

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