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Builders for renovation near Newcastle
I just joined the group and wanted to say Hello and briefly introduce myself and my project.
I live in the North East of England near Newcastle and own a terraced house (1897-99) in a pedestrian street. I have been developing plans to eco-renovate the back of the house (kitchen and bathroom) for the last 3 years or so. It has taken a long time to get there but thanks to a local young architect (also a woman),
I have got detailed drawings and specs. The project includes extending the kitchen, internal wall insulations (kitchen and bathroom), ground floor and a new roof as well as decorating, new fittings etc. The project also includes installing an air source heat pump. The planning application was approved about a year ago.
We’re now trying to find a builder and sent a tender pack to 5 local companies early December. But the response has been very disappointing – some companies have said the project is too small for them so they aren’t interested and others have declined because it’s too technical / complex.
So I wonder whether anybody in this group has any recommendations or could suggest a better approach to find a builder specialised in retrofit.
Many thanks!
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10 Replies
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I can’t help you with people in Newcastle BUT I am doing a very similar project on my house in London. I’d love to chat about insulation (niche, I know) with you. Did you go with eco materials like cork or something else?
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Welcome Poppy Roberts and thank you for such a great introduction to your project.
You’ve touched on such a sticking point when it comes to find the right trades nowadays to undertake the work. I have a large network of professionals in your area I can reach out to for thoughts and recommendations.
How have you found the companies to reach out to so far out of interest and how long did the architect anticipate the work would take
Will definitely help you here and also did the architect have any initial recommendations. Welcome
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this is great snapshot from the recent London borough retrofit guidance for residents that I really like. Also check out our member Judith’s video yesterday that is a wonderful overview of material options too. Your insulation depends on whether its in internal wall or underfloor but so many brilliant options I work with from hemp from (Indinature) to Pavatex (wood fibre) and Diathonite (wall plaster) and Cork is a cork plaster when applied to internal walls with Natural Hydraulic Lime. Be great to know what you are thinking of.
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We came up with a range of local companies/builders: small ones / sole traders were recommendations from friends and neighbours who got work done recently (although most of it was traditional building work) and bigger companies we found on the internet which had some experience in retrofit (although high end / passivehaus type of projects).
My architect reckons it would take 5-6 months to do the works. We did get a quote (but not breakdown) from a local medium size firm which said they would do it in 2 months (but it was double my budget, ie well over £100k).
Met with my architect yesterday and we’re going to approach other traders and maybe try and « assemble » a team rather than go for a single company.
Fully aware material costs have gone up but it seems like labour costs can be quite high as companies factor « training » costs to retrofit/elements of the work they aren’t familiar with…
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Definitely so much to unpack here for homeowners, something I work on on a daily basis.
The issue is builders not comfortable with this work, they will over charge also to mitigate the risk of moving away from the norm (hence the £100k quote), however retrofit measures are more money that’s also the elephant in the room despite the measure being hugely beneficial for the homeowner and property itself.
I have a few questions:
Finance:
Have you looked into any grants or financing as there are a number of 0% interest free retrofit products now from major providers. Some of it is linked to raising your EPC – do you have an indicator of what your architect view is on this and what performance measures is she working towards? if she is a retrofit level 5 coordinator as more and more architects are becoming she will have a benchmark for the project but also I facilitate advice for architects too who need help sourcing the right grants and funding for homeowners.
Yes retrofit skilled training is surging forward especially for the trades with brilliant hands on learning across the country happening but not fast enough.
Buildling a team may be a really effective way to get the work done and puts more responsibility on you to manage the individuals but also supports reducing your cost with the help of your architect along the way. A few women homeowners I know here and in the industry have upskilled contractors to get the work done they want and actually as retrofit work is much easier to measure the success of than a renovation project it has the potential to be better to track and manage.
I work alongside many people in your area from Amy Mooney who runs a great heat pump installation company in Newcastle and is transitioning her clients from gas to heat pumps (company is gas angels). I am going to ask her if she has any contacts in the area for you.
People Powered retrofit do hands on retrofit training but based in Manchester for the construction industry, so was thinking about how they may have recommendations. https://retrofit.coop/training
Am here to help anyway I can with helping you put a great team together too so lets see how we can get this going for you
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Finance – yes I started looking into in. I’m planning to finance my project using my savings and extra borrowings (fortunate enough to have a very small mortgage left to pay over the next 2 years at very low interest rate). What I don’t know, hence getting quotes, is the overall cost of the project.
Combining a kitchen extension and extra downstairs WC with the retrofit of the back of the house (3 rooms) and getting it done by 1 contractor as 1 project made sense to start with but i’m now not so sure as it could make it more difficult to access grants or 0% interest free from lenders (e.g. Cooperative bank).
However it’s becoming clearer that the cost will be higher than my budget (thanks for pointing out the elephant in the room!) so the financing aspect is more important as I’m not prepared to compromise.
Getting a breakdown of costs is the way forward but I’m not there yet. I was also reading about VAT as it seems that some retrofit measures are exempt of VAT or benefit from lower rates – but not the case if part of a renovation project.
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EPC – currently E and with all retrofit measures, it would move to D and then adding renewables could take it to a C. I’m planning to get an EPC assessor on board from the start to confirm baseline, and monitor and validate changes (any recommendations for local ones welcome). My architect has calculated all the U-values for the extension and retrofit elements (range).
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Building a team / upskilling – yes 100%, totally committed to work with local suppliers and also documenting what is being done and sharing what we learn along the way. But it’s quite daunting (it is my first house building renovation project, beyond DIY/deco) and I will really need to make time for it which will be a challenge as I work full time. The Manchester project is amazing, I wish we had something similar in the North East! Any recommendations from them and Amy very welcome. Thanks again!
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A local builder (identified by my architect) is popping in on Thursday to have a look around and discuss whether they would be interested in doing the works and quoting for them. Also looking into a regional project (Warmworks) https://energyadvicenortheast.co.uk/installation-support…/ mainly because they could facilitate access to trusted suppliers. so following a few leads…
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that’s great, it’s so hard one has to assemble a
team will to work together cohesively and do so much of the research themselves. Do let me know how that goes and whether they have some good recommendations!
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