moorey
call me Mia
Then there's that.
11 years later, we are still finishing off outdoor things as we can afford. Deck didn't go on until 5 years after house was finished, and there's a lot of landscaping yet to go.
Building a house
- Thread starter pistonbroke
- Start date
11 years later, we are still finishing off outdoor things as we can afford. Deck didn't go on until 5 years after house was finished, and there's a lot of landscaping yet to go.
mitchy_
Llama calmer
2 storey house i assume?
it's not really the owners fault, nor should it be their cost if a plumbing stack isn't allowed for.
I mostly deal with the volume builders....who just do everything as standard.
So that's the main prices I have in my head.
ive done house-lots that are worth up to $60k.....so really does depend on what your looking for, and how crazy you want to go.
Calvin27
Eats Squid
Yeah agreed. Most owner builders won't have a clue who's fault it is, unfortunately this one bought it and by the time they realized, all the other contractors had done their thing.
pistonbroke
Eats Squid
That sounds reasonable. Have these things become more competitive and cheaper over the years as demand increased?
floody
Wheel size expert
Hijack!
My ultimate aim is to basically build a brand new, slightly updated (thermals mostly, maybe some crosslam timber, modern electronics) 50s/60s style house. Probably post and beam with a masonry backbone. Anyway I want timber windows, I don't care about the painting, I like the period look of big multiple awning/picture combos and stuff like that.
Can you retrofit double glazing to old frames? Or are there people doing double glazed timber frame stuff?
pistonbroke
Eats Squid
From what I've read today timber double glazed is the premium choice. I too will look at this option. I like exposed timber.
silentbutdeadly
has some good things to say
I'd have no problem going OB again provided we engage a main contractor...which pretty much negates the idea of being OB! Frankly these days in Victoria anyway the system is tilted away from favouring OB.
When we started our reno/rebuild project back in 2007, OB was the only way as no local builder was even prepared to quote on it. So we did it. Only took five years...
So many tricks and traps that can catch you out and cost you money but to be honest we saved a shit load money wise doing everything but the licensed stuff (plumbing, sparks and roof) ourselves. But if you value your own time financially then...no win.
The major learning was that it was well worth our while to engage a planning consultant who did all the building inspections, planning and building amendments and interactions with the Council. Saved us a world of heartache. If you go OB without one then I'd suggest you'll go OtB.
One thing we did agree on though. Given our time over...we'd have knocked the old place over and started from scratch.
Oh and I'll be a while getting over the shock of Moorey's place being written up in Owner Builder...
When we started our reno/rebuild project back in 2007, OB was the only way as no local builder was even prepared to quote on it. So we did it. Only took five years...
So many tricks and traps that can catch you out and cost you money but to be honest we saved a shit load money wise doing everything but the licensed stuff (plumbing, sparks and roof) ourselves. But if you value your own time financially then...no win.
The major learning was that it was well worth our while to engage a planning consultant who did all the building inspections, planning and building amendments and interactions with the Council. Saved us a world of heartache. If you go OB without one then I'd suggest you'll go OtB.
One thing we did agree on though. Given our time over...we'd have knocked the old place over and started from scratch.
Oh and I'll be a while getting over the shock of Moorey's place being written up in Owner Builder...
Knuckles
Lives under a bridge
This is why I went OB, so many contractors not interested in not doing cookie cutter. Those that did agree to quote, were English Manor House types of money, or just gave us an " $X per sqr quote, without looking at a plan....only taken 10 years.
Yerp. Cost us less than half of the cheapest quote we got, but killed all my free and family time. This is the main reason I'd never do it again.
This, any way you can limit the interaction you have with planning authorities, the easier your life will be. Or Architect recommended we use the surveyor to handle the permits and inspections. So glad we did. At each inspection stage, a phone call and 12 hours later we got the thumbs up. Aforementioned mate has to deal with the council directly, up to two weeks to get an inspector out.
Knuckles
Lives under a bridge
One last thing, work out how many power outlets you think you want in each room/area, then double it (at least) you cant have too many GPOs. I went nuts, we have more GPOs than nails in the place, and I'm still thinking i cheaped out by about 30%. And if there is more than one entrance to a room/area, put light switches at each end, especially hallways. I put IR sensors in the hall between the kids rooms and master bath, so the little bastards don't call out at 3am for me to come turn the light on. and saved putting a switch at each bedroom door.
He'll never go hungry if the vege patch gets cleaned out
Double Glazing is best to get up front....that way the window can be made to suit. Definetly available in Timber. Timber is super energy efficient for a frame type also.
Can be retro fitted - but can get messy.
floody
Wheel size expert
Cool beans! Yeah when I say retrofit, that would only be in the scenario where I wanted to use reclaimed components (there's a lot of mid century modern stuff being knocked down). I'd definitely rather buy new to spec though.
pharmaboy
Eats Squid
Ah well, a few penny's in.
I have had small builder build a house for me, but I knew him, and had previously worked for him - no problems. Did an owner build large Reno, but I had the time - some things never quite got finished.....
So big builders - only use one that you can find a good personal referral for. Good friends of ours have done 3 metricons for instance, but rawson and to a lesser extent McDonald jones seem well finished and designed as well. Most others look terribly cheap to me, but I am not you.
My current Reno is architect and quality builder - both involved from the design process forwards and have worked together previously - this does require trust and money in the bank though.
Do not however owner build - with no experience you have almost no hope of getting it right, and big chance of really stuffing something up, and mores to the point, you will tend to pay too much for labour and supplies. Owner building is not about saving money
It really completely depends on your budget and what you are trying to achieve. Some medium sized builders specialise in new homes and have architects do their design work, but you really need to decide what you want, how much you are prepare to pay for it, then get your nose to the ground and start talking to people you know about builders and projects they have done.
If you were in my home town I could point you clear of a few and towards some others
I have had small builder build a house for me, but I knew him, and had previously worked for him - no problems. Did an owner build large Reno, but I had the time - some things never quite got finished.....
So big builders - only use one that you can find a good personal referral for. Good friends of ours have done 3 metricons for instance, but rawson and to a lesser extent McDonald jones seem well finished and designed as well. Most others look terribly cheap to me, but I am not you.
My current Reno is architect and quality builder - both involved from the design process forwards and have worked together previously - this does require trust and money in the bank though.
Do not however owner build - with no experience you have almost no hope of getting it right, and big chance of really stuffing something up, and mores to the point, you will tend to pay too much for labour and supplies. Owner building is not about saving money
It really completely depends on your budget and what you are trying to achieve. Some medium sized builders specialise in new homes and have architects do their design work, but you really need to decide what you want, how much you are prepare to pay for it, then get your nose to the ground and start talking to people you know about builders and projects they have done.
If you were in my home town I could point you clear of a few and towards some others
rangersac
Medically diagnosed OMS
We did a double glazing refit on our place a couple of years. Just under $8K for an approximately 125m2 house.
pharmaboy
Eats Squid
Polished Concrete
Great stuff - heaps of grades, but around $150/m2 plus the slab. I went and visited the concrete supplier and had black aggregate with about 10% white chips put in and also made sure the concrete was 32mpa. You need to have input with the polisher before you lay the slab or even plan it. They sometimes have a preference to do it while slightly green - ie in the first 7 days.
Also talk to the people that do polished concrete about the bathroom floor idea - I'm struggling to think how this could work because you need fall to the waste in a bathroom, and polishers really want to work on a a flat surface and tend to flatten the slab. I put fall from centre of a 7x7 slab (outdoor), and really, while it drains enough for outdoors, it still pools water in a few places, despite the care of the concretor and the polisher.
Kitchen/ living are for sure, but I think a bathroom is asking for problems. Also as mentioned earlier, polished concrete really needs someone to make sure it cures well - you'll have to do your own reading on it, fuck all builders or concretors can cure a slab well. Mine was covered in plastic and flooded for 10 days and it's still got 2 or 3 hairline cracks in it ( 5 years ago now) - builders often think curing is spraying it with water a couple of times a day - no where near enough
Great stuff - heaps of grades, but around $150/m2 plus the slab. I went and visited the concrete supplier and had black aggregate with about 10% white chips put in and also made sure the concrete was 32mpa. You need to have input with the polisher before you lay the slab or even plan it. They sometimes have a preference to do it while slightly green - ie in the first 7 days.
Also talk to the people that do polished concrete about the bathroom floor idea - I'm struggling to think how this could work because you need fall to the waste in a bathroom, and polishers really want to work on a a flat surface and tend to flatten the slab. I put fall from centre of a 7x7 slab (outdoor), and really, while it drains enough for outdoors, it still pools water in a few places, despite the care of the concretor and the polisher.
Kitchen/ living are for sure, but I think a bathroom is asking for problems. Also as mentioned earlier, polished concrete really needs someone to make sure it cures well - you'll have to do your own reading on it, fuck all builders or concretors can cure a slab well. Mine was covered in plastic and flooded for 10 days and it's still got 2 or 3 hairline cracks in it ( 5 years ago now) - builders often think curing is spraying it with water a couple of times a day - no where near enough
moorey
call me Mia
Guess it's not the house size that counts. We have skylights in both pavilions as well as the walls of windows. Lots of windows is always an insulting compromise, but we were happy with the trade offs.
That said, 125m2 is about 11.5-12 square, isn't it? So the cost isn't that big a difference per square to ours.
moorey
call me Mia
minor cracks are unavoidable. Also, people confuse exposed aggregate polishing, with 'polished concrete' sometimes.
Flow-Rider
Burner
Agree with this. If you don't have any contacts in the building game that you can trust, don't bother OB. Most building trades will rip you blind if you don't understand what's going on.