Follow for more talkers

Man saves $42K by building own home extension with help of tutorials

"I started learning from YouTube and picked up skills there."

Avatar photo

Published

on

By Barney Riley via SWNS

A man has saved a massive £35,000 ($42,000 USD) after he built a house extension on his own - by following YouTube tutorials.

Marketing manager Scott Baggaley took the project on himself after he was quoted "crazy prices" for the job - up to £45,000 ($54,277 USD)- by local tradesmen.

Frustrated by the inability to hire a professional at a reasonable price, Scott decided to undertake the project on his own and turned to social media for guidance.

Scott, 30, and his girlfriend, who wishes to remain anonymous, moved out of rented accommodation and bought their first property - a doer-upper they wanted to renovate - in 2021.

He bought reclaimed materials in the hope that a local builder would become available, but nobody did, so he just carried on.

Scott, from Stoke-on-Trent, said: "Because the market was busy, the tradesman was fully booked up, so I started learning from YouTube and picked up skills there."

He brought in building inspectors to make sure his craftsmanship was correct and within the law.

Scott added: "Managing my time around my nine-to-five job and my girlfriend, who has given birth to our son, was the biggest difficulty."

The only major difficulty Scott faced was when he started on the roof, which proved difficult, but he ended up managing.

"When I started the roof, that's when it got tricky without professional staff. The skilled thing to be doing roofing.

"I was dreading going outside because I didn't know what I was doing."

He also suffered a major setback when he accidentally dug through concrete and hit a lead pipe, which forced him to halt work and fix the whole system.

But Scott completed the roof as well as the whole extension project in just six months and spent just £9,170 ($11,060 USD).

In total, Scott has saved over £35,000 ($42,000 USD) compared to some of the initial quotes and has added an estimated £30,000 ($36,000 USD) value to his home.

The extension was not the first piece of building work that Scott undertook.

He previously built a beauty salon in the backyard for his girlfriend to work from home.

Stories and infographics by ‘Talker Research’ are available to download & ready to use. Stories and videos by ‘Talker News’ are managed by SWNS. To license content for editorial or commercial use and to see the full scope of SWNS content, please email [email protected] or submit an inquiry via our contact form.

Top Talkers