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Is Renovating Your House Worth It? Renovating is worth it when you like your location, your house has good structural bones, and the problem is really the layout rather than the size or the site. Moving is worth it when the plot itself cannot give you what you need, however it is rearranged. Between those [...]
Where to Start With a House Renovation Start with a survey. Before you choose a kitchen, pick a paint colour or even fully decide what you want the finished house to look like, you need an honest, professional assessment of what the building actually is, structurally and in terms of its services, because every decision [...]
Renovating a Period Property: What to Expect Renovating a period property costs more per square metre and takes longer than renovating a modern house, because older buildings were built differently, breathe differently, and are often protected by planning controls a modern house never faces. None of that is a markup. It is the honest reflection [...]
How Much Does a House Renovation Cost? A full house renovation typically runs from a five-figure sum for a single-room or cosmetic refresh to a six-figure sum for a whole-house strip-back with structural work, rewiring and replumbing. The honest answer is that no two renovations cost the same, because the price is driven by decisions [...]
How to Choose the Right Renovation Company The right renovation company designs and builds under one contract, employs its own tradespeople rather than a shifting chain of subcontractors, puts a named Site Manager on your project day to day, and gives you a fully specified quote before any work starts. Insurance, references and a written [...]
Does a Loft Conversion Add Value to Your Home? A well planned loft conversion can add up to 25 to 30 percent to property value, according to Nationwide analysis, often more than the build cost to deliver. Whether that return actually lands on your property depends on how the loft conversion is designed, built and [...]
What Type of Loft Conversion Is Best for Your Bristol Home? The right type of loft conversion for your home is decided by your existing roof, not by preference. Some homeowners search for this project as a loft extension rather than a loft conversion, and the two terms describe exactly the same work, so this [...]
How Much Does a Loft Conversion Cost in Bristol? A loft conversion cost with Excellence Living starts from £40,000 for a rooflight conversion, rising to £55,000 for a dormer loft conversion and £55,000 for a gable loft conversion. The figure that fits your home depends on your roof type, the headroom you start with, and [...]
How to Choose the Right Loft Conversion Company The right loft conversion company designs and builds under one contract, employs its own team rather than subcontracting the work out, carries adequate insurance, and gives you a fully specified quote before anything starts. Accreditations, references and seeing finished projects in person all exist to prove that [...]
Types of Kitchen Extension Explained There are six realistic routes to a bigger, better kitchen diner, a single-storey rear extension, a side-return infill, a wrap-around combining both, a double-storey extension, a garage-to-kitchen conversion, and reconfiguring your existing footprint with no extension at all. Each suits a different house shape, garden size and budget, and the [...]
Open-Plan Kitchen Extensions and Kitchen-Diners An open plan kitchen extension removes the wall or walls separating your kitchen from the dining area, sometimes the lounge too, and rebuilds that opening on a structural steel beam so the space reads as one kitchen diner rather than three small rooms. The result is a kitchen diner extension [...]
Kitchen Extension Ideas: What You Can Actually Do The best kitchen extension ideas are the ones that solve what is actually wrong with your kitchen, rather than the ones that look best in a photo. A side return on a Victorian terrace, a full-width addition across the back of the house, a wrap-around, an open [...]
How Much Does a Kitchen Extension Cost? A kitchen extension cost with Excellence Living starts from £20,000 for a kitchen reconfiguration within your existing footprint, £60,000 for a kitchen extension, and £45,000 for a garage-to-kitchen conversion. These are honest starting points rather than quotes, since the real figure for your home depends on the size [...]
How to Choose the Right Kitchen Extension Company The right kitchen extension company designs and builds under one contract, employs its own team rather than subcontracting the structural work out, carries adequate insurance, and gives you a fully specified quote before anything starts. A kitchen extension is a major structural project in every sense that [...]
Does Converting a Garage Add Value to Your Home? A well-built garage conversion can add up to 15% to your property's value. That is less than a loft conversion, which can add 25 to 30%, but converting one costs a fraction of the price and uses a structure you already own. Whether that 15% actually [...]
Garage Conversion Ideas: What You Can Actually Do With the Space The best garage conversion ideas are the ones that match what your household actually needs, not the ones that look best in a photo. A single car garage of around 12 to 15 square metres can realistically become an office space, a home gym, [...]
Garage Gym Conversion: How to Turn Your Garage Into a Home Gym Yes, most garages convert well into a home gym, and a single garage at roughly 2.5m by 5m is genuinely enough for a rack, a bench, a bike or treadmill and a mat area for your workouts. What actually decides whether it works [...]
How to Choose the Right Garage Conversion Company The right garage conversion company designs and builds under one contract, employs its own team rather than subcontracting the work out, carries adequate insurance, and gives you a fully specified quote before anything starts. References, a written contract and completed projects you can visit all exist to [...]
Types of House Extension Explained The main types of house extension are the single storey rear extension, the double storey (or two storey) extension, the side return extension, the wrap-around extension, and the multi-storey extension, each suited to a different combination of plot, budget and existing structure, and none of them the automatically "right" choice [...]
How Long Does a House Extension Take? A house extension runs through a fixed sequence of stages, from a feasibility visit and survey through design, planning, Building Control, groundworks, structure, first fix, plaster, second fix and decoration to a completion certificate, and how long each of those stages takes depends on the size and complexity [...]
Single Storey or Double Storey Extension: Which Is Right? A single storey extension is right when the problem is genuinely confined to the ground floor, the budget and disruption need to stay lower, and the planning route needs to stay as simple as possible, whilst a double storey extension is right when you need more [...]
Do You Need Planning Permission for a House Extension? Many house extensions can be built without applying for full planning permission, because they fall under a right called permitted development, but a meaningful proportion cannot, and the only reliable way to know which category your project falls into is to check it against your specific [...]
How Much Does a House Extension Cost? A house extension is a five-figure to six-figure project, and the honest position is that Excellence Living cannot give you a single number until we have stood in your garden, looked at your foundations and your existing structure, and understood exactly what you want the new space to [...]
What Can a Basement Become? Realistic Uses for the Space A basement can realistically become a snug or media room, a home office, a home gym, a utility and laundry room, genuinely organised storage, a guest room, or a full bedroom, and which of these suits your basement depends far more on head height, natural [...]
Basement Waterproofing and Damp: What Actually Works A dry basement is a designed system, not a product you buy, and the honest answer to what actually works is whichever approach, barrier protection, a cavity drainage membrane, or a combination of the two, has been properly designed for your specific ground conditions, then correctly installed and [...]
How Much Does a Basement Conversion Cost? A basement conversion cost typically runs from a five-figure sum for a straightforward, dry cellar with reasonable head height, to a six-figure sum where waterproofing, a new lightwell, structural repair and a higher finish specification are all needed together, and the only honest way to know which end [...]
3D Modelling: Seeing Your Project Before It Is Built 3D modelling turns a flat floor plan into a space you can actually walk through before a single wall is built, showing how light falls, how tall a room genuinely feels, and how one space opens into the next in a way lines on a page [...]
Home Design Services for a Full House Renovation A home design service for a full house renovation takes your project from a rough idea through to a technical package your builder can construct from, in a set order: survey and measured drawings, concept design, a developed layout, the necessary permissions, and finally a Building Control-ready [...]
Do You Need an Architect, or a Design and Build Firm? It depends on what you value more for your specific project: one point of accountability from the first sketch through to completion, or an independent professional acting on your behalf when the design meets the builder actually constructing it. Most homeowners planning a loft [...]
How Much Does a Garage Conversion Cost? A garage conversion cost with Excellence Living starts from £15,000 for a partial garage conversion and £20,000 for a full single garage conversion, rising to around £28,000 for a double garage conversion and £30,000 for a detached garage conversion. Because the existing structure is already in place, you [...]