Costs
What Building Work Costs in Bexley and Nearby
Every figure we publish, in one place. Extensions, loft conversions, garage conversions, chalet conversions and renovations, with what moves each number and what our quote does and does not cover.
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Why this page exists
Most builders
will not tell you
Look at ten builders' websites covering Bexley, Sidcup and Dartford and you will find almost no prices on any of them. The reason given is always that every job is different, which is true, and the reason it is really left off is that a number invites comparison.
We would rather publish the ranges. If your budget is thirty thousand and an extension starts at fifty, you should find that out in ninety seconds on a website rather than three weeks into a conversation. And if the figure is workable, you can have the rest of the conversation knowing roughly where you stand.
Everything below is what we actually charge, taken from work we have done, not a national average. The ranges are wide because they are honest. What follows the table is the part that matters more, which is what moves a job from one end of its range to the other.
No deposit is taken on any of it. The survey and the itemised quote are free, and you are billed in arrears.
The figures
What each kind
of job costs
Eight rows covering everything we build. Timescales are on site, from the first morning to handover, and exclude the drawings and approvals that come before it.
House extensions
£50,000 to £140,000
10 weeks to 8 months
Single storey rear, side return, wrap around and double storey. The bottom of the range is a modest single storey rear extension on a level plot with good access. The top is a double storey wrap around with a steel frame, altered drainage, a new kitchen and the original ground floor reconfigured behind it. A small single storey runs ten to twelve weeks on site. That last one runs closer to eight months.
Loft conversions
£60,000 to £85,000
8 to 12 weeks
Rear dormer, hip to gable, rooflight and mansard. What the roof is made of moves this figure more than the size of the finished room does. A cut roof from the nineteen thirties reorganises. A factory trussed roof has to come out and be replaced on steels.
Garage conversion, integrated
£15,000 to £18,000
3 to 4 weeks
New front wall in matching brickwork, a window set to the elevation, the opening formed through into the house, an insulated inner leaf and the floor built up level with the hall.
Garage conversion, with a utility or shower room
Up to £25,000
3 to 4 weeks
The same work with drainage added. Drainage is the single thing that moves a garage conversion from the first tier to the second, and the distance to the existing soil pipe is what decides how far.
Garage conversion, detached with a new roof
Up to £33,000
4 to 7 weeks
A detached garage is a small building being brought up to a standard it was never built to. Where the roof has to come off and be rebuilt insulated, that is what takes it to the top tier.
Full chalet conversion
£180,000 to £250,000
14 weeks to 9 months
The largest figure on this site and the largest change. A new first floor at full height across the whole footprint, two or more bedrooms, one or more bathrooms, the ground floor opened up structurally, a new kitchen, new services throughout and the original house refurbished to match. Fourteen weeks at the shortest. Eight or nine months where the whole house is converted and refurbished.
Renovation, one wall and a steel
From £2,000
A week upwards
The smallest thing we take on. An opening formed in a load bearing wall, the steel sized by an engineer, the padstones built, the wall made good and building control signing it off.
Renovation, whole house
Up to £150,000
Months
Everything short of an extension. Layout, kitchen, bathrooms, wiring, plumbing, heating, floors, joinery and decoration. The range is honest rather than useful, and nobody can price it from a description.
Extensions and chalet conversions carry the widest timescales on the list because the same words cover the smallest job we do and one of the largest. Everything else sits in a much tighter band.
What moves the number
Six things that decide
where in the range you land
Two houses on the same street, having the same extension built, can be thirty thousand apart. This is almost always why.
Ground conditions
Foundation depth follows the ground rather than the drawing. Mature trees, made ground, chalk and river gravels all appear across the area we cover and any of them can add a metre or more to the dig. This is the single biggest reason a groundworks figure moves after a job starts, and it is why we dig trial holes at survey rather than pricing off an assumption.
Access
Whether a lorry can reach the back of the house, or whether every barrow load travels through the hall. On a Dartford plot with a side gate the muck away, the concrete and the material all land where they are needed. On a Welling terrace with no side access the same work takes longer and costs more, and it is a line in the quote rather than something buried in the rate.
How much structure comes out
The new walls are rarely the expensive part. Taking out what was already there is. A six metre opening in an original back wall is a different beam from a three metre one, needs padstones and a temporary support scheme, and has to be sized by an engineer and inspected.
Specification
Two extensions of identical size can be twenty thousand apart on glazing, floor finishes, kitchen and bathroom fittings alone. Sliding doors cost more than bifolds, a roof lantern costs more than rooflights, and an island with stone on it costs more than a run of units. None of that is structural and all of it is yours to decide.
Services
Where drainage has to move, where the consumer unit is, whether the boiler can carry more radiators and whether the incoming main is up to it. On older houses this is often the item nobody budgeted for, and it is priced at survey rather than raised in week six.
What is behind the walls
On a house of a certain age, opening up occasionally finds something nobody could have seen. A previous alteration done badly, rot, an unsupported wall or asbestos. We tell you the moment we find it, with a price and the reason, before anything else happens.
What is in the price
What the quote covers,
and what it does not
The gap between two quotes is usually not the building work. It is what one of them has quietly left out.
What our quote covers
Labour, materials, plant, skips, scaffold, our own team on site and the management of the job from first day to handover. Building control inspections are arranged and attended by us. Every item is priced separately so you can see what each part of the work costs rather than being handed one number.
What it does not
Architect's drawings, structural engineer's calculations, the planning application fee and the building control fee are all paid by you, directly to the people providing them. Party wall surveyor's fees where they apply are the same. We are not marking those up and passing them on, and we would rather you saw them as separate.
Kitchens, bathrooms and finishes
We fit them. Where you buy them from is your decision, and the difference between a mid range kitchen and a high end one is frequently larger than the difference between two extension sizes. The quote carries a realistic allowance and you can move it in either direction.
VAT is not something we discuss on this page
Ask us directly and you will get a straight answer for your specific job.
How you pay
No deposit,
on anything
This is the part of how we work that people check twice, so it is worth setting out plainly.
No deposit, ever
Not on a £2,000 job and not on a £250,000 one. You are never funding the start of your own build, and there is never a point where we are holding money for work that does not exist.
Billed in arrears, never up front
Payment follows completed work rather than a calendar. The quote is itemised before anything starts, so you know what every part of the job is and what it costs before you agree to any of it.
The survey and the quote are free
We come to the house, measure up, look at what is actually there and price it properly. There is no charge for that and no obligation attached to it.
The quote is itemised
One number is easy to write and impossible to check. Ours breaks the job into its parts so you can compare it against another builder's line by line, and so you can see the effect of changing your mind about something.
Questions about price
Eight straight
answers
Why is the range on each of these so wide?
Because the same three words cover very different jobs. A single storey rear extension can be three metres of straightforward work on a level plot, or five metres with a steel frame, relocated drainage and a new kitchen inside it. Narrowing the range without seeing the house would mean guessing, and a guess that comes in low is worse than no figure at all.
Can you give me a price over the phone?
No, and neither can anybody else honestly. What we can do on the phone is tell you which of the figures on this page your job is likely to sit near, and what would push it up or down. The actual number comes after somebody has stood in the house.
How does your quote compare with a cheaper one?
Read both line by line. The usual differences are foundation depth assumed rather than measured, scaffold and skips left out, building control not allowed for, and a kitchen or bathroom allowance set unrealistically low. A quote that leaves those out is not cheaper, it is incomplete.
What happens if the price changes during the job?
It changes in writing, with the reason, before the work is done. The two things that cause it are something found behind the walls that nobody could have seen, and you changing your mind about something. Neither is unusual. Both get priced and agreed rather than appearing at the end.
Do you price the drawings as well?
No. The architect and the structural engineer are appointed by you and paid by you, which keeps their advice independent of the builder. We work from their drawings and calculations, and we are happy to say what we are seeing at survey so the brief they get is a realistic one.
Is it cheaper to do several jobs at once?
Usually yes, and sometimes by a lot. One set of scaffold, one set of drawings, one dig, one team, one period of disruption. A loft and a rear extension done together cost noticeably less than the same two done three years apart, and you live through the mess once.
Do the figures on this page include everything?
They cover the building work as described in each row. They do not include the professional fees and application costs set out above, and they assume a normal house rather than one where something unusual is found once it is opened up.
Which of these gives the best return?
For pure cost against space gained, a garage conversion, by a wide margin. It already has foundations, a floor, three walls and a roof. What it does not give you is any more footprint on the plot, so the right answer depends on whether you need a room or you need the house to be a different size.
There is more detail on each kind of work on its own page. House extensions, loft conversions, garage conversions, chalet conversions and whole house renovations.
Next step
Get a real number
for your house
Everything above is a range. The only way to turn it into a figure is for somebody to stand in the house and measure it. That costs you nothing and commits you to nothing, and the quote that follows is itemised so you can see what every part of it is for.
Or call 020 3576 5639 or 07766 161063, or message us on WhatsApp.