Building a house

pistonbroke

pistonbroke

Eats Squid
So shit may be changing and mrs piston and I are considering building a new house. Sooooooo many options. There's big package home companies like Metricon, Simonds, Burbank ect.
There's smaller independent builders.
Or do we bite the bullet and go owner/builder and micro manage every detail?
We have no experience in any of this. I've been told by someone in the industry that going owner/ builder will save a lot of money but there must be traps for first timers?
What did you do? What would you do different next time? What mistakes did you make? Was it worth it?
 
moorey

moorey

call me Mia
Bank may not loan to you as owner builders, if that's an issue. Because of this, we took on an independent builder as a project manager....and very glad we did. Like you, I was green, and there's a lot to potentially fuck up. Was happy to let him deal with this. My 2c
 
Art Vanderlay

Art Vanderlay

Hourly daily
My advice would be to go with an independent/local builder. You most likely won't save any money going with big name builder in the long run. Quality and finish is everything.

As for owner builder, do you have the time to manage all the trades? If one doesn't turn up, generally that means all the other trades are held up. Construction time as an owner builder can really drag out. Also, you want to have a fair idea of how it all works to go owner builder.

I'll send you a PM...
 
moorey

moorey

call me Mia
pistonbroke said:
It will be partly financed so yes that could be an issue.
How did you find a builder dick breath?
Click to expand...
I had a plan on paper (self drawn), and knew we wanted straw bale. We contacted a dozen builders, and everyone of them said 'Talk to Tim Williams, he will build something like that, we won't'. Eventually,we called Tim Williams. :behindsofa:
 
moorey

moorey

call me Mia
Where we bought, banks would only lend 60% of the land value to owner builders. Our 40 acres cost $60k....
 
cokeonspecialtwodollars

cokeonspecialtwodollars

Fartes of Portingale
I have owner built several houses now and can confirm that most banks wont lend you squat until you're at least at lock up if not all the way to occupancy. If you need finance make sure you get some kind of pre-approval from the bank stating how much and at what stage they will lend you the money.

Going owner builder will save you money yes, but it will cost you time and stress. If you have more time than money and are good at organising and have some project management skills than go for it, else look for a local builder who will look after it all for you.

Although you might not be looking at doing any of the work yourself to give you some insight my father and I have completed several homes now where we did everything ourselves, it takes up every weekend for the best part of three years but I estimate that we saved close to $300K on each house compared to going with a builder.
 
moorey

moorey

call me Mia
stirk said:
Only took me 30 years to see it.
Click to expand...
See what? :noidea:

PB, see what you can loan as an O/B first, but regardless, I'd say go with a good independent builder. My wife and I were both working, there was no way we had the time, energy or idea to manage a project like this.
 
F

fedor346

Likes Dirt
pistonbroke said:
So shit may be changing and mrs piston and I are considering building a new house. Sooooooo many options. There's big package home companies like Metricon, Simonds, Burbank ect.
There's smaller independent builders.
Or do we bite the bullet and go owner/builder and micro manage every detail?
We have no experience in any of this. I've been told by someone in the industry that going owner/ builder will save a lot of money but there must be traps for first timers?
What did you do? What would you do different next time? What mistakes did you make? Was it worth it?
Click to expand...
Hi,
I built as owner builder I had help though as a lot of my family are tradies so I had access to contacts and a pool of expertise as well. The money you save is in the jobs you can do yourself and how much of your own time you can put into the build.
Cheers
Gav
 
pistonbroke

pistonbroke

Eats Squid
moorey said:
See what? :noidea:

PB, see what you can loan as an O/B first, but regardless, I'd say go with a good independent builder. My wife and I were both working, there was no way we had the time, energy or idea to manage a project like this.
Click to expand...
I think that's good advice. But after looking at pics of your house I want polished concrete floors. That is dope. So how is your house going?
 
moorey

moorey

call me Mia
pistonbroke said:
I think that's good advice. But after looking at pics of your house I want polished concrete floors. That is dope. So how is your house going?
Click to expand...
Yeah, super cozy. Wood heater up one end of the house is all the heating we have (in Ballarat), and it's plenty. We only got AC when wife was stuck at home with second baby, and we had 5 consecutive 40+ days. It rarely runs. The concrete is awesome. With the lacquer finish, it's about the same temp as the floorboards, and warmer to walk on than the ceramic tiles in bathroom than a metric shit load. Would do whole house if doing again, and rugs in bedrooms maybe. We just got the concreters to mix crushed granite in with top layer, and then they cut it back. Messy job, gotta be done at building stage.
 
Knuckles

Knuckles

Lives under a bridge
PB, after 10 years and finally waiting for our certificate of occupancy to arrive in the mail, I'd suggest owner builder is a stupid fucking idea. Get an architect or decent draftsman (there's at least one draftsman on here, but I said decent) to design what you want. Then find a builder who's willing to do it within shouting distance of your budget. Unless you plan on doing a big portion of the construction yourself, it'll be cheaper. You won't have to worry about insurance (the council also hit us up for a $500 footpath insurance fee), builder will get better rates on everything, but most of all, you will actually have time to spend with your wife and daughter.

Plus all the little details will kill you, and budget blow-outs are so easy on an O-B project. I have a mate who is a carpenter, doing an O-B on his own home, well was until they shot the budget about 3/4 done.

Get it done right, and see if you can get extra inspection and hold points in the contract, if you want a little extra control over the project.

IMHO, stay away from the big cookie cutter firms, these places are built to a price, not a quality standard. And don't be fooled into thinking that price is the one you're paying............more like a 3rd of that.

If you're stuck with a house and land package in an estate, you won't have much choice, but if you're not, get what you want, not what someone else tells you everyone else is getting.












Oh and don't let your missus buy those fucking better homes magazines.
 
pistonbroke

pistonbroke

Eats Squid
So the mrs has laid out a list of demands for the house. Butlers pantry, al fresco, bath tub in the ensuite blah blah blah. I really haven't been too fussed as its all pretty good and light years ahead of where we are now.
But now polished concrete floors are at the top of my list. So it's ok in bathrooms?
 
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