A man saved a whopping £35,000 by building a house extension himself - and he learned how to do it by following YouTube tutorials. Marketing manager Scott Baggaley took the project on himself after he was quoted "crazy prices" of up to £45,000 for the job, as he thought it must be possible to do it cheaper.
Scott was so frustrated by the prices given by local tradesmen that he decided to undercut them by undertaking the project on his own. He rolled up his sleeves and turned to social media for guidance whenever he got stuck, and soon the work was finished - for a fraction of the price.
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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 were 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. 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.
In total, Scott has saved over £35,000 compared to some of the initial quotes and has added an estimated £30,000 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.
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