Advice
Renovating, explained without the sales talk
What things cost roughly, what to watch out for and when you need a permit. Written from twenty years on the job, not from a brochure.
Carpentry & fitting
To the service pageBathroom & sanitary
To the service pageFloors & tiles
To the service pageGarden & landscaping
To the service page- What a landscape gardener costs per hourAn hourly rate tells you little about garden work, because it does not decide how many hours are needed and it says nothing about what else is in the price. What really makes the figure is taking away the soil and the green waste, the materials, the machine hire and the number of people on the job. So ask about those instead of about a rate.2026-09-02
- What putting up a fence costsA fence looks like a row of boards between two posts, but the figure at the bottom of the quote is set by what you do not see: the type of panel, the posts, what goes into the ground, the ground itself, the number of corners and end points, taking away and disposing of what stands there now, and whether a gate has to go in. Below is that build-up item by item, plus what you need to settle with your neighbours before you have anyone round to measure up.2026-09-02
Facade cladding
To the service page- Types of facade claddingSix types of facade cladding are common in the Netherlands: wood, composite, plastic, brick slips, fibre cement and zinc. All six do the same job, which is keeping the rain off your facade and giving your house a different face. The difference sits in maintenance, in how they age and in what sort of house they suit. Wood asks the most and gives the most back, composite and plastic ask little but what breaks you replace, brick slips and fibre cement stay the same for years, and zinc changes slowly and lasts the longest.2026-09-02
- Maintenance-free facade claddingNo. Maintenance-free does not exist, low-maintenance does. There is no facade you never have to look at again, but there is a big difference between a facade that asks for a bucket of water and a facade that asks for scaffolding, a sander and a fresh coat of paint. What each material really asks of you is manageable, and the choices that bring the maintenance down you make beforehand, not afterwards.2026-09-02
Extensions and annexes
To the service page- What an extension costsThere is no honest answer to that in a single figure, because an extension is not something with a price tag on it, it is a stack of cost items: groundwork and foundations, the shell, the roof, the facade finish, frames and glazing, the services and the finish inside. What I can give you is how that stack is built up, which choices move it most, and which questions to ask once two quotes are sitting in front of you.2026-09-02
- Permit-free extensionsWhether an extension is permit-free depends on where on your plot you build, how deep and how high it gets, how much is already built and whether your house is listed or stands in a protected area. All of those conditions have to be right at the same time. Check it through the Omgevingsloket and put it to your council, because they are the ones who decide it.2026-09-02
- Annexe or extensionWith an extension a room you already have gets bigger, so the existing facade opens up. With an annexe you set a new space against the house that stays its own, with a roof of its own. An outbuilding does not touch the house at all. A sunroom is an extension with glass as its main material. For the conversation the word matters little, for the structure, the council and the price it matters a great deal.2026-09-02
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