House Extensions

Most extensions we take on are rear or side returns on existing family homes: a kitchen and dining space opened into the garden, a ground-floor bedroom and bathroom for someone who can no longer manage stairs, or a wrap-around that squares off an awkward plan. The work starts below ground with excavation, foundations and drainage, then moves through structural openings into the existing house, blockwork or timber frame, roof, windows and doors, and finally the fit-out.

The part people underestimate is the join. An extension that is obviously bolted on devalues the house. Matching floor levels, ceiling heights, sightlines and eaves so the new space reads as original is what separates a good extension from an obvious one, and it is decided early, on paper, not improvised on site.

We start at the house, not at a desk. On the site visit we look at how you actually use the rooms you have, where the light falls, where the drains run and what the existing structure will carry. If you already have drawings we work to them and coordinate with your architect and engineer. If you do not, we tell you plainly what is realistic and put you in touch with people we work with regularly.

Planning is settled before anything is ordered. Many rear extensions in Ireland fall under exempted development, but exemptions are lost on protected structures, on houses already extended, and in certain site conditions. We give you our reading at the site visit and coordinate the application where one is needed.

You get a written itemised estimate and a programme before the start date, and the programme is what the trades are booked against. You will know which week the roof goes on and which week the plasterers arrive. Where the extension breaks into the existing house, we plan the disruption in advance — temporary weatherproofing, protected routes through the house, and a strategy for the kitchen if that is the room being taken away.

You deal with one person for the whole job. Variations are priced and agreed in writing before the work happens, never presented afterwards. At the end there is a walkthrough with you and a snag list that gets closed out before the final payment.

Groundworkers, blocklayers, roofers, electricians, plumbers, plasterers, tilers and glazing suppliers are all booked, sequenced and supervised by us. Carpentry is done in-house — structural timber, roof, floors, stairs, doors and second fix — and joinery covers panelling, built-in storage and fine trim where the design calls for it. Kitchens and interiors are installed, scribed and levelled as part of the same programme rather than handed to a separate fitter afterwards, and painting and decorating finishes the job with surfaces properly prepared.