Teesside building work FAQs

Single-storey extensions £25,000 to £45,000, two-storey £40,000 to £70,000, full renovations £20,000 to £80,000 and above, garage conversions £8,000 to £15,000, steel beam and wall removal £2,000 to £10,000, garden rooms £12,000 to £30,000.

Around £1,900 to £2,600 per square metre in 2026 for a good standard single-storey build, excluding kitchens and premium glazing. Two-storey work usually lands lower per square metre because one set of foundations and one roof serve two floors.

Most often the structural steel and its making good, drainage diversions, scaffolding, decoration of the adjoining rooms, and the professional fees for drawings, engineer's calculations and building control.

About ten per cent of the build cost, and more on an older property, where the ground and the existing structure hold the most unknowns.

Yes. The property gets looked at, the scope gets priced in writing, and you decide in your own time. No charge and no pressure.

Many rear extensions, garage conversions and garden rooms fall within permitted development, but the limits on depth, height and garden coverage are specific, and rights are reduced in conservation areas or by conditions on newer estates. The planning guide sets out the detail.

Completely separate, with its own application and fee. Structural openings, foundations, drainage, insulation, electrics and habitable conversions are all notifiable, and the completion certificate is the document your buyer's solicitor will want.

Written notice to a neighbour, required under the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 before cutting into a shared wall, bearing a beam on it, or excavating close to their foundations. One or two months' notice depending on the work, and a surveyor's award if they dissent.

Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees, Redcar and Cleveland, or Hartlepool, depending on where the property sits. Each is both the planning authority and a building control body for its own area.

In stages against work you can see finished: foundations, structure, watertight, first fix, plaster, then completion with a retention of around five per cent held for the snag list. A modest sum at the start for materials is normal.

Yes, even on a £20,000 job. A short plain-language agreement covering scope, price, stage payments, variations and insurance prevents nearly every dispute that domestic building work generates.

Public liability cover, plus contract works or all-risks cover for the unfinished works. Ask for certificates and check the dates rather than taking it on trust.

In writing, agreed before the change is built. Variations are normal on building work, and the arguments come from variations that were only ever discussed on site.

It depends on scope, ground conditions and weather, so ask for a stage-by-stage programme with the weather-dependent stages marked rather than a single promised date. Anyone quoting a firm duration before seeing the site is guessing.

For any wall removal, new opening or new foundation, yes. Building control needs the calculations, and typically they cost £300 to £700 for straightforward domestic work.

For an extension usually yes, since the existing rear wall often stays up until the new shell is watertight. For a whole-house rewire, replaster and heating replacement, most people move out for those weeks.

Under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 the contractor should have a written construction phase plan, and the site should be fenced or sealed off from the household with a clear route for deliveries and waste.

Extensions and garage conversions on Teesside family housing often recover close to their cost, particularly where they add a fourth bedroom or a proper kitchen-diner, though street ceiling prices are real. Build for how you want to live and treat the value as a bonus.