Frequently Asked Questions
Here, we answer many of the questions most often put to us. If you have any questions about our company that are not answered here, please phone 0203 340 7112 or email info@luxurynest.co.uk.
Here, we answer many of the questions most often put to us. If you have any questions about our company that are not answered here, please phone 0203 340 7112 or email info@luxurynest.co.uk.
You will almost certainly require this approval – regardless of whether the basement extension will need planning permission. Building Regulations exist to ensure that basement extensions meet minimum standards of health and safety in various areas, including:
One especially significant benefit of arranging for our team here at Luxury Nest to complete your basement extension is that we can serve as a “one-stop shop” for all of your basement extension needs. This is in terms of not only designing and building the extension but also ensuring it passes all of the relevant regulatory tests.
We have builders, architects and planning consultants who can provide you with plans and structural drawings essential to ensuring that Building Regulations approval is obtained for your basement extension project, before the work proper on it gets underway.
It will always be cheaper if you don’t have to excavate for it – whether that excavation work would be to create a basement in the first place or increase an existing basement’s headroom. Here is a rundown of various aspects of converting a basement and how much they would cost:
After carrying out a free site survey at your property, we can present you with a fixed-fee quotation for a basement extension, further helping you to budget for it.
There are two different types of value to consider here: the practical value and the financial value. From a practical point of view, a basement extension would enable you to maximise the amount of usable space in your home – and thus can be beneficial if you are currently outgrowing your home.
Then there’s the financial value. You will be pleased to know that a basement conversion could potentially increase your home’s value by as much as 20%.
You are likely to need this Party Wall agreement if the conversion calls for structural changes, such as excavation, to the property. You would need this agreement if, for example, the conversion work will involve:
In any case, the purpose of a Party Wall agreement would be to protect neighbouring properties both during and after construction. However, as the process of striking a Party Wall agreement can be complex, we would certainly advise you to contact us for further advice on the subject.
The short answer is yes, as “tanking” a basement is the process of waterproofing it – and you would need this regardless of how you intend to use the basement.
For your basement extension, we can undertake basement tanking. This process will see us cover the walls in a membrane or another material to ensure that that basement will be able to withstand water pressure from the surrounding ground and, in this way, prevent damp and structural damage.
This is likely to depend on exactly how the basement extension would be created. If it will be formed from turning an existing residential cellar or basement into a living space, it is unlikely to need planning permission provided these conditions are met:
However, if the basement extension work will involve excavating to make a new basement, planning permission would likely be required assuming the excavating will:
Our planning specialists can assist if you are about to apply for planning permission or you remain unsure whether your basement extension would need it.
While you can expect a new bathroom to boost your property’s value by something like 3-5%, we aren’t going to shy away from the fact that a new bathroom can be expensive to get in the first place. Fortunately, there are various ways you would be able to cut the cost. For example, you could:
All of these moves can help to make the installation of a new bathroom more cost-effective. You could find it similarly helpful to have your bathroom installed as a suite rather than buy individual pieces. Our team can install bathroom suites in London properties.
You can do this at a free consultation we would be happy to hold with you over the phone – just ring us on 0203 409 0115 to book the consultation. However, not all of the bathroom installation ideas you have in mind might be practical for your particular home.
This is why we also invite you to, after the consultation has taken place, arrange for us to visit your home so that we can accurately assess its suitability for the bathroom ideas you are considering. This home visit, like the consultation, will be available for free.
Eventually, once we have determined what solution for a new bathroom would best satisfy your needs and preferences while remaining practical for your home, we will provide you with a fixed-fee – but no-obligation – quotation for that solution.
As you try to decide, you should first heed a range of factors indirectly related to the bathroom itself. These factors include:
As combi boilers and older, gravity-fed boilers work very differently, they will need different kinds of shower. Meanwhile, if your boiler tank’s size often leaves you running out of hot water, you should take note that this is one issue you could address with an electric shower.
If your property suffers from low water pressure, you might need to think twice about an electric shower. A power shower, on the other hand, is ideal for homes with low water pressure. We can talk you through various shower options as we help you decide what to include in your new bathroom.
A wet room is essentially a shower forming an intrinsic part of the wider bathroom, with no tray you would need to step over when entering or exiting the shower cubicle.
As a result, wet rooms are well-suited to people who have limited mobility and so could struggle to step over the slightly raised surface of a conventional shower. Wheelchair users can manoeuvre themselves into a wet room shower much more easily than they could a standard shower.
We can install a wet room for you and let you choose from a range of customisable options – like grab rails and shower seats – to include in it. While wet rooms might look high-end, they can actually be fitted relatively cheaply – and we can pass the financial savings onto you.
No, this is a myth. In a home, wet rooms can practically be installed anywhere on timber or concrete floors – provided that suitable floor formers and drainage systems are used.
You might not have realised that even wet rooms in lofts have become popular. While it would be vital for any wet room to be effectively waterproofed or tanked so as to ensure it is watertight, we can install a high-quality wet room in your loft as part of our loft conversion service.
If you would like us to build you a house extension as well as install a bathroom in it for your London home, you can expect to pay roughly £5,000 more for that extension than you would for a house extension sans bathroom.
However, the exact amount you would need to pay could end up slightly higher or lower than this figure, as the price would depend on exactly how you want that bathroom to be installed – including in its finishes, toilet, shower and bath.
This is a form of project delivery where the client signs a single contract with a specific building company, which will have the responsibility of both designing and building the development. Hence, the client does not have to sign separate contracts with separate companies to cover both services.
You might have seen the design-and-build approach referred to as “design-build” or “design/construct”. Whatever you call it, we offer a vast range of design-and-build services.
We have filled out our design-and-build workforce like a football manager will try to put together a football team; in other words, by carefully selecting people with talents in different specialisms, making it easier to cover all of the bases. As a result, we offer these advantages for clients:
That single point of contact makes it easy for you to keep in touch with our team right throughout the timeframe of the project’s development. As a result, we can ensure that the project is kept on the course you intend for it.
We will assign a project manager to your project so that you always know exactly who to turn straight to if a problem arises or you have any questions.
We do what we can to make this easy for you. As we will be in charge of both the designing and building parts of the equation when it comes to the project itself, this affords us an accurate insight into how much different parts of the project – and so the project as a whole – will cost.
Once you have discussed with us what you want from the project and we have visited the site intended for development, we will offer you a quotation for a design-and-build service.
You would not be obliged to accept this quotation. However, it would be a fixed-fee quotation – meaning that, if you do accept it, we will not change the quoted price without seeking and obtaining your permission for this change first.
This could happen if, for example, we find that we need to change the design or specification of the project during the construction period. This need could arise for practical reasons – for example, because certain materials turn out to be more expensive to source than we had originally expected.
However, if this need does arise and we recalculate the project cost, we will not permanently change the quoted price until we have asked you to consent to this change and you have provided that consent.
Yes – as, when you place all of the design and build responsibilities for your project into the hands of just one company, there’s much less scope for conflict between the people assigned to that project. Potentially, fewer resources are wasted as a result.
With design and build teams working closely together, they can also help to ensure that cost estimates are accurate and therefore less likely to generate waste for which you could end up needing to foot the bill.
It’s easy to start – just phone us on 0203 340 7112. We can book you in for a free, phone-based consultation where we will discuss whatever problem you are currently facing with your London property or site and what you would like to get out of a design-and-build service.
Once we have also completed a free survey of the property or site, we will:
The varied portfolio of design-and-build services we offer includes designing and assembling new builds as well as such house extensions as kitchen, bathroom and basement extensions.
Generally, the cost of a single-storey extension for a house in London can be anything from £1,800 to more than £2,300 per square metre – assuming that the extension is of a good quality, like house extensions we design, plan and assemble for our clients throughout the UK capital.
What if you want a two-storey extension for your London house? If the two storeys will be identical in size, one generally accepted tip for calculating the extension’s cost is that you add 50% to the price you would pay for a single-storey extension.
So, if the required financial outlay for a single-storey extension would be £40,000, the price of a two-storey equivalent would be £60,000. If a single-storey extension will include a fitted kitchen or bathroom, you would need to add at least a few thousand pounds to the usual price.
This type of extension would generally be deemed permitted development, meaning that you are unlikely to need planning permission provided the extension meets a range of select criteria. Here are examples of those criteria the extension would need to satisfy:
However, as the planning regulations can be complex when pertaining to house extensions, we would certainly advise you to contact our planning experts for further guidance.
If your house extension proposal does call for planning permission, we can carefully prepare your planning application to maximise its chances of success.
As a house extension represents a significant financial investment, this question is an understandable one to ask. However, it would be useful for you to see that investment as a medium- to long-term one – in other words, one made with the next five years or so in mind.
If you intend to stay in your current home for this kind of time, your investment is likely to pay off – as, over time, the extension’s value will rise in tandem with that of the property as a whole. Therefore, you can expect to make a profit from selling the home – with this extension – years from now.
If you don’t intend to stay in your current residence over the next five years, you could still increase your property’s value by simply obtaining planning permission for an extension without having one actually built.
Various options abound for a house extension’s purpose. Here are just a few of the rooms you could add to your home in the form of an extension:
We can help you to set up your extension to serve any of these purposes or, indeed, others. For example, we can design and build your extension from the ground up as a bathroom – complete with bath, toilet, sink and other bathroom components.
If you have enough money for it, ultimately, the world is your oyster when it comes to whether you should extend outwards or add a second storey. However, if your budget is tight, you should certainly come down more in favour of an outwards extension.
This is because adding a second storey would entail major structural work – including removing the roof (for putting back on later) and strengthening the existing storey to make sure it would be able to take the weight of the second storey.
A wide range of home extension options are available to you when you turn to our team here at Luxury Nest. You can learn a lot more about those options by visiting the home extensions page of our website – and emailing us through info@luxurynest.co.uk.
Yes, through various means. If the extension simply incurs some wear and tear over time, we could restore the structure to its former condition by refurbishing the extension.
If there is any damage to the extension’s roof, perhaps to the extent where this roof starts leaking, our roofing contractors could rectify the issue. These professionals are trained and skilled in repairing both pitched and flat roofs, and can even completely reroof extensions if and when necessary.
When budgeting for a kitchen extension, it would be useful to break down the costs so that you can figure out how much you would be able to spend on each element. That way, if your budget can’t stretch to certain design elements, you could suitably alter your plans.
Here are several different aspects of a kitchen extension you should price:
This will largely depend on the design of your home and any outdoor space the extension would take up. With a detached, semi-detached or even terraced house, a side extension could potentially be an option.
On the other hand, if you live in a townhouse, you should probably look into having a basement extension. Meanwhile, if you want the extension to be to the rear of your property, you should make sure this extension does not swallow too much of the garden.
A good architect – like one from our team of architects here at Luxury Nest – can produce plans and construction drawings to provide to the builder, who is also available from our company. An architect can also ensure that the design will comply with Building Regulations.
The right architect can even suggest design ideas you might not have previously considered for your kitchen extension. We can pay a free visit to your home beforehand to make sure those ideas will be feasible.
This will be influenced by various factors, including:
Generally, a small kitchen extension would take us between 10 and 12 weeks to build, while the timeframe for building a large kitchen extension can potentially be as long as six months.
Nonetheless, it is worth emphasising that all of these figures are only rough guides – and don’t include the project’s planning and design phases.
You can do that by giving us a ring on 0203 340 7112. We offer phone-based consultations for free, meaning that you can start discussing your kitchen extension ideas with us without needing to leave your home. Then, you can have us visit your home – again, for free – so that we can inspect it.
In doing this, we will aim to ascertain how practically possible it would be for us to implement your kitchen extension ideas in your home. If those ideas need adjusting in order to make them more suitable, we will let you know. We will attach a fixed-fee quotation to the design we finalise.
You can reach us in various ways – including by phone on the above number, email through info@luxurynest.co.uk and online contact form.
This is a complex subject, as a kitchen extension is more specialist in nature than a conventional extension. Therefore, it will cost more, too.
In London, where we operate, a conventional, single-storey extension of good quality can generally be expected to cost between £1,800 and over £2,300 in price per square metre.
Due to the plumbing work a kitchen extension would require, you would need to add roughly £10,000 to the extension’s overall cost – at least for a low- or mid-range kitchen.
The good news is that, in most cases, you wouldn’t – as loft conversions in houses tend to count as permitted development. However, not quite all loft conversions would fit into this category, which is why you still need to ascertain whether planning consent would be needed in your specific case.
The full list of limits and conditions to which your home’s loft conversion would need to adhere in order to remain permitted development is very detailed. However, there are some simple examples of the terms your conversion would need to follow. The conversion must not:
Unfortunately, if you live in any of these types of residence and want to convert its loft, you will need planning permission. All of the just-mentioned limits and conditions for a loft conversion to be completed under permitted development rights apply only to houses.
You would also need planning permission for your loft conversion if your home was a house created through the permitted development right to change use, or your home was in an area where a planning condition or other restriction might have curbed the usual permitted development rights.
For any type of London residence where the loft couldn’t be converted without planning permission, we can apply for the planning permission that would be required. We have an impressive success rate in obtaining planning permission for building projects initiated by our clients.
Whether or not your loft conversion needs planning permission, it will need to follow relevant Building Regulations. These regulations ensure that loft conversions are structurally strong and stable, are fitted with correctly-installed stairs and can be safely escaped from during a fire.
Here are some Building Regulations considerations you may have to make, though we would definitely urge you to consult a builder from our team for more detailed advice.
All of the Building Regulations relevant to your loft conversion must be fully accounted for before work begins. Otherwise, the conversion could risk the safety of both the property and its occupants.
Typically, a loft conversion can cost anything in the region of £21,000 to £44,000, though the price of an especially ambitious loft conversion can exceed £60,000.
For example, a basic conversion with just two roof light windows can be priced from £21,000, while adding another two roof light windows to the brief could potentially increase the price to £29,000.
The number of dormers included in the conversion as well as how much floor space it frees up are both crucial factors in the conversion’s cost. Consequently, for an especially large loft, the conversion’s cost can reach as much as £63,000.
You can be reassured that, when you give us the job of converting your loft, we will present you with a fixed-price quotation for the whole project, making it easier for you to budget for it.
As we have specialist expertise in converting basements, we could help you in either case – though it’s not always easy to decide between a loft and a basement for conversion purposes.
If you have a loft that is suitable for conversion, this could prove the easier and more cost-effective option – especially if you will want the loft made into something simple, like an extra set of bedrooms. However, for a conversion, your loft would need at least 2.3 metres of headroom.
If your loft can’t be made into practical, useable space or you have already converted the loft and still need additional space, you could find a basement conversion an ideal alternative.
Basement conversions tend to work best in terraced and semi-detached homes and for projects, like a swimming pool, best developed on a property’s lowest possible floor.
You would certainly think so, given how often a loft conversion features in lists of projects that add value to a home. Indeed, according to research by the Nationwide Building Society, a loft conversion could increase a home’s value by as much as 20%.
This means that, if your home is valued at – say – £200,000, the property could rise by as much as £40,000 in value simply as a result of a loft conversion, which would be a cost-effective project, too.
Naturally, location can be a major factor, as we have already alluded to. This can be especially applicable when you choose London as the location for your new build property, as the UK capital is famed as one of the most vibrant, exciting and cosmopolitan cities in the world.
However, here are several other reasons why prospective tenants can feel particularly tempted by new build homes:
If you would like to learn more about the unique benefits a new build home could bring you as a buy-to-let investor, feel free to contact a member of our team by phone or email.
In a word, yes. Sadly, problems like this can be common in new builds that have not been thoroughly checked in their design at the planning stage or their assembly as the building phase proceeds. This is why we are careful to undertake such checks as we design and assemble new builds for our clients.
We can help you to rectify issues that have emerged with an existing new build home in London. The relevant services that tradespeople in our team can provide include:
If you would like to discuss any of our property repair and restoration services at length with our professional, experienced and dedicated team, please call us on 0203 340 7112 or email info@luxurynest.co.uk.
In various ways! This is largely due to the advanced, modern technology that tends to be integrated in these homes. Many modern appliances have been designed with energy efficiency as a high priority, making it easier for residents of new homes to save money on their energy bills.
There is also the simple fact that, as appliances – such as heating and electrical appliances – in new homes have been fitted there relatively recently, they are less likely in the near future to falter or stop working altogether.
As a result, residents can also often save money on repairs – as any problems that do emerge early with the above-mentioned appliances could only require small-scale repairs. For our clients, we can repair new build homes in London if this move would be necessary.
Yes. You might be familiar with the “smart home” market as a result of platforms like Apple HomeKit and Samsung SmartThings, enabling you to control various home appliances with just a few taps on your smartphone – whether that handset runs the iOS or Android operating system.
Here are just a few examples of appliances that can be controlled in this way:
We can also imbue existing spaces with smart technology, like lofts when converting them.
Yes, it can be – as the home can be designed and built with eco-friendliness in mind right throughout the whole process.
So, for example, when creating a new build home for you, we could triple-glaze your windows to help ensure that more warm air stays in the property during the winter. Similarly, we could use reclaimed – rather than new – wood for the property’s flooring, as the former would take a lot less energy to produce.
However, you should keep in mind that, if you are looking to make your own at-home lifestyle greener, a new build home certainly isn’t the only option you could consider. If you live in London, you could arrange for us to renovate your existing residence to make it greener. We could, say, fit triple-glazed windows and a new, more energy-efficient boiler.
While there’s an element of risk to any investment, new build homes can come with various compelling plus points for buy-to-let investors. For example, such homes are often built in popular locations near areas benefitting from regeneration.
As a result, when you put a new build home on the rental market, the property can end up practically selling – or, more to the point, letting – itself. You can even have us design and build you a London home to your specifications.
While many building works require planning permission, there remain various projects where permitted development rights would apply. These are projects you would be able to initiate without needing to apply for planning consent first – and include, but are certainly not limited to:
However, various exceptions can apply even to various works that, in many instances, would be deemed permitted development.
For example, if you wanted to replace a roof, you would need planning permission for any alterations that would project any further than 150mm from the roof’s existing plane. Meanwhile, some councils have removed permitted development rights for adding an underground living space.
Fortunately, given our experience with planning permission applications, we can help you if you do need one submitted.
The answer to this question will largely depend on the size of the “original house”, i.e. how your house stood when it was first built or, if that was before 1 July 1948, how your house stood on 1 July 1948.
In planning law, each house has its own allowance concerning how large an extension to that house could be before there would be a need for planning permission. Unfortunately, though, any extensions added to that property since it was “originally” built would eat into this allowance.
If you are unsure how your home “originally” looked as per planning law, please contact our team, as we could help you to get to the bottom of this conundrum and so determine whether you would need planning permission for your house extension.
The full list of parameters within which your home extension would have to stay is vast – and exactly what those limits are would be affected by the specific type of extension. For example, slightly different limits apply depending on whether or not the extension will have more than one storey.
However, if you want to have a house extension built without planning permission, here are example criteria this extension would have to meet, whatever type of extension it will be:
Remember that we have a team capable of building a London house extension for you.
The reassuring answer is that, in many instances, you could. However, your loft conversion project would still need to fall within certain restrictions in order to be classed as permitted development. For example, your loft conversion would have to:
Therefore, as you can see, whether you will need planning permission for your loft conversion can depend on how ambitious it is. Whether or not it will require that consent, though, you could easily arrange for us to convert your London home’s loft on your behalf – and we can help you to prepare your application for planning permission should this consent turn out to be needed.
Once a planning application has been sent to the council, it is likely to take them 8-10 weeks to process. However, due to the large number of planning applications the council is bound to receive regularly, there could easily be a delay in processing your particular application.
We can sympathise if you are impatient. However, unfortunately, there is no way – at least at the moment – you would be able to speed up the planning application process.
Contrary to popular belief, it is not sufficient to simply obtain verbal consent from neighbours. Once the council has received your planning application and informed your neighbours about your intentions, these neighbours would still be entitled to formally object to them.
They could do this during a 3-week consultation held as part of the planning process. If any of your neighbours do make a comment, the council will take this into consideration, though it will not significantly affect whether or not your application is approved.
Retrofitting is a service we can provide as part of refurbishing a house. Essentially, it’s about equipping an old residential property with modern technology to help that home more effectively meet contemporary challenges, such as cutting down on carbon dioxide emissions.
Here are some features we can install or upgrade in a home as part of a retrofit:
Once we have retrofitted your home through measures like these, you can expect to generate appreciable savings on your energy bills over time. We can also implement energy-efficient features like those listed above when installing rooms afresh, like when building kitchen extensions.
Our retrofitting solutions are available for small-scale refurbishments as well as through what we refer to as a whole house refit.
This is a very understandable question to ask, as you could feel as though the two terms are often used interchangeably. However, “renovation” typically refers to restoring the condition of something damaged, while “refurbishment” can mean cleaning, equipping or retrofitting.
In might be helpful for you to distinguish renovating as taking objects and components that already exist – such as windows, doors, cabinets or pieces of furniture – but have picked up wear, tear or even worse damage, and returning them to an “as-new” condition.
Meanwhile, refurbishing could be seen as adding new items and components – like, yes, windows, doors, cabinets and furniture – to a space in order to revitalise it both aesthetically and functionally. Our team can undertake both renovations and refurbishments of London properties.
This will depend on the nature of the refurbishment, as “refurbishment” is a broad term that can refer to many different types of work.
Generally, you probably won’t need planning permission for work that only involves changing the property’s outer footprint, whereas you will almost definitely require Building Regulations approval for any structural work or electrical installation.
Thankfully, there are various types of refurbishment projects, like single-storey extensions and loft conversions, which can often be undertaken without any need for planning permission.
If you are unsure whether the refurbishment work you are considering would need this permission, we can investigate the matter. If it emerges that planning permission would be required, we can apply for that planning consent on your behalf – and we have an impressive track record in seeking and obtaining planning permission for our clients.
This will depend on many different factors – including what the refurbishment work will involve and how long it will take to complete. This is why, for each of our clients, we are happy to visit their property for free, allowing us to accurately assess what would be required for the refurbishment work sought.
Here are just some general figures for what you can anticipate paying for certain refurbishments:
We make budgeting easier for our clients by offering them fixed-fee quotations. Hence, once we have presented you with a quotation, you won’t have to worry about the stated price of the refurbishment work abruptly changing at a later point and potentially, as a result, throwing your continued attempts at budgeting into disarray.
For home remodelling, here is the order in which all of the required renovation jobs would – and should – usually be undertaken:
We can complete all of this work for you, even adjusting the above order of work if necessary.
You might already have a general – or perhaps even detailed – idea of what you would like to achieve with a property refurbishment. However, you should still speak with a number of people – including builders, architects and the local authority – about your proposal.
Builders and architects can help you to decide how feasible your refurbishment idea would really be in practice, while the local authority can let you know whether you would need planning permission. However, you may be unsure whether you would until finer details of the work have been firmed up.
It’s easy to get in touch with our builders and architects, allowing you to gain their expert input on what kind of refurbishment would best meet your needs and preferences. We can provide phone-based consultations and site surveys – both for free.