Welcome to DIY journey as I embark on the exciting project of building a small room extension in a small UK city. Join me as we share the step-by-step process. I will share practical tips and creative solutions to maximise space in this compact living space. From design inspiration to construction challenges, I’ll cover it all to help you turn your backyard into a stylish retreat. Subscribe for weekly updates and let’s build the cozy haven you’ve always dreamed of!
Planning your own extension see free resources in my supporting blog article: https://trustedcreators.org/build-a-small-home-office/
In my article, I answer questions like
What am I building in my small UK City Garden
Define your Idea and sketch a plan – Small Home Office
From Idea to Plan – Finding an Architect
From Plan to Building – Finding a Builder – Small Home Office
Questions to ask your builder – Small Home Office
Do I need to make a contract with my builder?
Watch my entire Small Home Extension build video playlist
UK Home extension Frequently Asked Questions – FAQ’s
Be sure to check that out for extra info and help.
Links to prices for items used in my video: https://amzn.to/41vy7D5
✅Some of these links go to one of my websites and some are affiliate links where I’ll earn a small commission if you make a purchase at no additional cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases
🎯Disclaimer: Please see the link for our disclaimer policy for all of our videos on the TrustedCreators, ZulfPhotography and other encompassed channels created by TrustedCreators LTD here- https://trustedcreators.org/disclaimer/
Resources: https://trustedcreators.org/build-a-small-home-office/
In this episode we are on day five I am counting the days of actual work taking place as opposed to uh consecutive days so today we’re going to see the blocks being laid the foundation Dam proof layer being laid quick preview of what’s coming up today you’ll see the bricks
Are going to be laid we’ve got engineering bricks and blocks which are going to go into the foundations that have been dug and that’s going to give you an idea of the process of laying the bricks for your own small UK extension in a small City Garden this was a cold
Day so what happens is the cement was laid we had 2 days worth of break so because we so cold they couldn’t work in the cold so sometimes when Builders say that there is actually a reason behind it so the cement or sand may be frozen
So it can’t be mixed up as well and it’s got more well things to go wrong so what you’ll see today is this is a view of the day they will be coming in which is counting day five of actual work commencing for this small City Garden extension remember if you watch the
First few episodes I’m going through this extension process it’s about 3 m by 6 and 1/2 M roughly speaking there more precise measurements there but you’ll see they laid the foundations with the wheel barrels of premix that came through from the concrete mix truck and
That was after day one it was it was solid it would have been workable but leaving it for two days made it even more uh solid now what I mean by this if you notice here see how cold it is the Sand’s just turned into clumps so that’s why it wouldn’t mix as
Well you can tell now that the foundations are solid you can hear that when tapping it with a piece of wood so we are more or less ready now for the layer of Co bricks so we’re going to have blocks on the bottom which brings
It up to damp roof and the workers were here brought in uh their shovels and things to get this ready so you’re kind of seeing this as things progress so I always have a time lapse in the corner and then I use my mobile phone to take close-ups so they’re making sure the
Boundary lines are marked up and we within the rules so we don’t want to obviously go wider than our garden we left a little bit of space there and kept the wall inside our garden that way we definitely know that we’re within our legal limit so what they did is they
Laid blocks around and measured around just to make sure that the final wall would be as spec cuz the architect gives you measurements that you need to stick to and they’re using cement and sand to make the mix for this so they call this lots of different things they call it
Mck they call it mix Masala Mal all sorts of stuff depending on who the builders are so you’ll see here now they’re just laying out where the corner bricks need to go so they can put a plum line to use for their uh building so they’ve got water
In this mixing crate and they’re going to be mixing that down to make it a consistency and they use fairy as like a plastic is it plaster sizeer is that the right word but yeah they normally you can use fancy stuff but they use fairy which kind of works in a similar fashion
So you’ll see here now they’re just clearing up the middle section where we’ve got like that platform they’ve marked where the walls would need to go uh if you remember the plans from our first few episodes and I spoke through what’s going on you should be able to
Keep an eye on this so it’s going to be a studio room a utility room we’re still deciding yet but I’m thinking of officy type environment so when you get to a few more later episodes you’ll see this and if you haven’t already caught up you
Should catch up on the first few cuz I explained what’s going on and how we got to this stage and again in the resources section like in the description you’ll see a link to a document article where I’m actually putting additional information to help you so if you’re
Going through this process things like the questions you should ask the builders what Architects to use how long this can take how much it costs all these things are going to be broken down in a proper article so you can use that as like a resource again prices can
Change as time changes so don’t use it as a strong guide but it’ll give you an idea of the best practices just so you get like a decent overall process so you can see I the laid the corner block down and that that’s going to be the end
Block and they put that in each corner and they’re going to use Plum lines which basically a thread they put one thread from one block to the other block and that lets them basically go in a straight line and make sure they’re sticking to the the the specs like the
Measurement you can see that yellow line there and overall it was a okay day the weather was nice it was about wasn’t it was cold we are in January remember so it is still cold but as these episodes progress if you’re going in summer it’s going to be very hard to find builders
To work throughout like uh summer cuz they’re going to be all Chu block busy so getting them just before the season starts if they’re willing to work in like adverse conditions cuz it is kind of cold then you’ve got decent Builders um overall you need to keep an eye on
Them basically no matter how good the Builder is it’s always good to keep an eye on what’s going on where things are progressing what’s going on and each day in the morning we’ll be like okay so what’s the plan today what we doing and uh when they’re talking about walls I’ll
Mention things like okay do do you remember that the doors going here inside side we’re going to have a partition wall here maybe we’ll have a utility room so there might be a sink there so do you need to know that for the work you’re doing today and just
Reminding them of little things like that as well as like the spacing and things like what kind of spacing you want it’s always good to have that in mind and if you leave it too late sometimes they may have built past the point so they’ll have to do more work to
Go backwards so you rather tell them a few steps in advance like for example when they were here I said to them do you know that the door’s going to go 2 m away from the bottom wall and etc etc and then they said okay yeah make sure
We adjust for that when we’re doing the wall so we know the spacing they’re mixing um mck as we’re going along so cement and sand in their wheelbarrow and you’ll see they make light work of this you kind of the bottom wall went down quite quickly within like 2 hours the
Lower section all the way around was done main thing here is going to like a good layer of uh Foundation down so because the foundation cement is dried they put a nice layer of thick uh mck which is basically like the mix of concrete and sand and they started
Laying the blocks and it’s like like a consistency of like you know when you make cakes and you put the icing on the cake the thick stuff like is it called icing it’s not called icing is it but yeah I also likeed how they break their blocks the these blocks are concrete you
Basically get a chisel and you Hammer through these and you go all the way around you mark it and it gives you a precise cut so little things like this are handy to see if you’re thinking about doing this yourself it is back breaking work cuz it’s all Heavy blocks
And things so where possible try and get Builders and if you’re planning this yourself maybe consider if you’re quite handy get certain elements of of the work done by Builders and the remaining bits that you want to do you can do yourself just consider it and check what
Your pricing is obviously your budget and how much you want to spend and what kind of time frame you’ve got cuz obviously the builders are working at a lot faster speed than what I would because they used to do this day and and overall in terms of Builders there’s two
Builders any one time one’s mixing the stuff one’s laying the brakes and sometimes there was three Builders there remember this in the uh castings section so at some point I’m going to make video episode breaking down the entire cost of everything so keep in mind how many
People were working there how many hours they spent there the minimum wage is about just over10 so if you’re you know paying someone if they’re been working eight hours a day uh and you paying minimum wage that’s 80 quid already for one person and if they’re going to spend
At least four or eight weeks making the whole entire process then at least you’ve got a gauge of what kind of pricing that could be considered for a job so it’s like Common Sense kind of things but again if you get a price for the entire build that you’ll get a
Better price if you explain what you need doing all the equipment that’s going to be used making sure that you’ve got the right type of equipment to pass uh the inspections by the inspector also I learned during this that the architect I’ve got he is the actual inspector as
Well so he’s like allocated to come and check the phases of the bill so remember when we did the foundation holds the I thought someone from the council come and check it cuz we did an application to the council but that wasn’t really the case someone from uh the inspect uh
Inspector didn’t actually come who came was my architect so the architect who drew up all the plans is who came to check the foundations and he said yeah okay they they’re correct he walked around look at him and then he said now you can pull the cement that was like a
Couple of days ago uh when we cemented it and once he’s Bean now this is the point after that when he’s approved it that we’re building these damp walls so what will happen now is they’ll build these walls the bottom brick and Engineering bricks reason the front side where he currently breaking our
Engineering breaks I’ll explain in a second but yeah so the inspector came and and he had a look and he said fine so now what you need to do is let me know once you’ve got to Dam proof level which is basically these two blocks with some uh Dam proof memory which is
Basically like a plastic sheet thin long sheet that goes on top of the brakes and the middle section where the platform is where I’m standing here that will all be dug out and there’ll be insulation and cement in there to make it Dam proof so after that bit is when the inspector
Comes again so the reason on this side we have engineering brakes is that uh floor level is slightly higher not this side the side behind me where he’s currently doing it so that wall uh that ground will actually be sloped down and it’ll be lower which means you’ll see
Some of these engineering bricks so that’s why they used engineering bricks because they’ll show so they don’t want that to be blocks they wanted it to be engineering bricks so it looks a bit nicer so little things like this you’ll be able to tell if the the builders know
What they’re talking about and they give you like little tips where they’re doing things specifically for a certain reason going forward and again with Builders it’s just the case of giving them leeway expecting certain things to be done to standard as as well as obviously if it starts raining or something’s changed or
The bricks are more expensive and the prices change you need to get to a point where you know what things are costing how much they coming in at and that’s where the resources section I mentioned in the description will help you because you can go and look at my article where
A breakdown all the things that you should be asking Builders before you get to this point because that way you’ll be a be able to cover the basics you know how much you’re paying and if things change or it takes too long for the build process to start and things end up
Costing a little bit more at least you can find out okay when we gave you the quote the bricks were I don’t know £1 each but now because it’s taken you two months to get approval they’re actually 130 each so if you’re using a 3,000 bricks 30 P you know times 3,000 you’re
Paying a little bit more extra now because of that um so there’s little things that you need to consider so you’ll see here they’re mixing the cement putting it on each of those bricks and then laying out the bricks which is always uh interesting to see it’s like a smooth process and the
Worlds walls are nice and Plum and they looked perfectly fine to me uh one thing you will have is uh there’s always bu Builders do this in their own particular kill away so everybody has their own routine the way they do this so there’s no right or wrong it’s just whatever the
Builder is used to and he’s experienced with is how he will do it you always get other builders or brick is telling you to do it specific ways or different ways but each do their own as long as the wall is built in regulations and it’s
The right uh his Plum and his right uh depth and measurements then you’re perfectly fine and you’ll see here that the they had cement bags like they ordered so there’s about eight cement bags and there was like four five big ton sand which is building sand so
They’re using those uh equipments uh to go through this process and as things progress and the wall start building I’m assuming more things will start coming so those are the deliveries that will come through to you with all the equipment so you see this is the lower
Section of the wall and it progresses up to the further section on the left hand side where you see the red brick is where the the door will be to enter into this extension room and it’s detached from the house so it’s actually like an office room when I say detached I mean
There’s no internal entry from the house into this room you’ll have to come out and go into it I wanted it separate to like the internal house entrance so that way everything’s there’s more walls to use basically and it’s you don’t have to go through the house to get into this so
The little consideration which you would be at the architect stage and the planning stage uh I’ll also give you a link to an app that I find useful for like laying out internals of the the extension it’s got like Lo little handy bits on it gives you an idea of where
You can put things and it’s got measurements and things so I’ll put you that in the resources section I need to put a note uh to remind myself to give you that it’s like an app which is Free by the way so you don’t have to pay for
It uh so it lets you play about with different settings and making sure you’ve got enough space for everything you want so you see this is the end wall here which would be the bottom of the extension and it’s all within L spect the back there you’ll see it’s double
Blocked because the ground level is higher anyway so you won’t see any of those blocks which is why they use blocks and not engineering H bricks so they slowly progressed around and passed through the different stages of basically building it how long can this take well this is like
A 3 to 7 m 3x 7 m so blocks if you have good weather and they give it a good stint I think in eight hours you can get it done if you got two Builders uh one’s making them Mar one’s laying them down if you got three Builders they probably
Do even better but here because they were between little bits there to dig out the uh extension um foundations and that was done they started the blocking and a day and a half went by where they fully uh did all the block and there is also further sections to
Come which will be the uh Dam proof course so I’m going to I’m thinking about making the dam proof course a separate video cuz this doesn’t get too long this is already about a 15 minute video and so I will be showing you more elements of this but you can see that
The blocks here they’re laying down the blocks they’re putting down a nice bed of mortar mock or whatever you want to call it these days they call them all sorts of names and laying the the Blocks individually into them making their way down and laying both sides so obviously
That’s made us a nice uh Square section to be uh ready for use and there’s the internal wall coming in so remember when you’re making your extension you’re going to lose quite a little bit of space because you’ve got your outside wall you’re going to have insulation in
The Middle where putting the cortex no not cortex what’s that stuff called celex the the block uh the silver back not insulation is like a block form type thing that’s going to go in the Gap in the middle of the wall it’ll be 50 mil
And there’ll be 50 mil air space Max has come to give us a quick inspection and you’ll see that this was after day one so they did like a day and a half so this is day one I took Max for a walk in the morning and this is day two now so
This is day two where they continued to build out the internal wall to finish that off and then this day they also did The Damp proofing as well as taking out the middle the platform where the the cement mixer is all of that needs to come out where the slabs are so that’s
Going to come out as well so you’ll see here there’s a remaining blocks we’ve got left over which they had two pallets of blocks but they used those on the second layer so maybe we’re left with like 16 blocks which are going to be used up anyway but there was a multitude
Of different settings and you know setups how they did it but you can see the double wall coming in so we’re losing more or less nearly a foot now because you’ve got 150 mil uh well 100 Mil say 300 mil is each wall That’s 300 600 mil that’s nearly what’s that so
That’s 500 mm that’s half a meter kind of more or less you’re losing half a meter with both walls so your room’s going to be a little bit smaller and there are new regulations coming in that they want to make the Gap even bigger so keep that in mind but don’t worry next
Up we’re going to be putting in the actual damp proof plastic so you’ll be seeing that in the next episode so make sure if you’re not subscribed already subscribe you’ll see how amazing this is they put like actual damp proof plastic down to stop moisture coming up from the
Ground into your walls which stops like things like um moss and stuff growing on your walls and fungus and all that stuff where you see patches but you’ll see that on the next episode so hopefully click on the video and you’ll see the next one here see you on the next next one