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List of articles for budget and/or specifying

Robert Clark

By Robert Clark
in Project & Site Management

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PeterW Advanced Member

PeterW

Posted
Posted (edited)
4 hours ago, Robert Clark said:

Hi guys

 

Can anyone point me towards a list of things I need to budget for or specify as part of my new build?

 

Thanks

Robert

 

Build what ..??

 

House..? Bungalow ..?

Traditional ..? Modern ..?

Timber Frame..? Brick and Block..?

 

If you’ve not already got a copy, buy one of these and have a read - it’s a good reference and starting point and then head here for the detail and the gotchas... 

Edited by PeterW
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Jeremy Harris Advanced Member

Jeremy Harris

Posted
Posted
55 minutes ago, AnonymousBosch said:

 

@Robert Clark, while JSH spreadsheet is useful, it is comprehensive to his build - not yours

 

 

Absolutely.  I only wrote it for my own use, and never considered it to be anything other than a general guide for anyone else.

 

5 minutes ago, PeterW said:

 

Build what ..??

 

House..? Bungalow ..?

Traditional ..? Modern ..?

Timber Frame..? Brick and Block..?

 

If you’ve not already got a copy, buy one of these and have a read - it’s a good reference and starting point and then head here for the detail and the gotchas... 

 

Is that link supposed to be to SPONS, @PeterW?  It redirects back to this thread, I think.  SPONS is certainly very useful for guide prices, IMHO.

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PeterW Advanced Member

PeterW

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Posted
3 minutes ago, JSHarris said:

 

 

Absolutely.  I only wrote it for my own use, and never considered it to be anything other than a general guide for anyone else.

 

 

Is that link supposed to be to SPONS, @PeterW?  It redirects back to this thread, I think.  SPONS is certainly very useful for guide prices, IMHO.

 

Actually @JSHarris it was to the Housebuilders Bible - as a basic reference document it gives you a good breakdown of the big chunks of a build. I wouldn’t rely on it for costing as I think they are not accurate, and is based on a sample of 1 build in reality. 

 

SPONs is very good for detailed cost management but you need to know your way around it. Paying £150 or so to an online estimator will give you the same output but shaped to fit your build and then you can work from there to customise rates and costs further. 

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Patrick Regular Member

Patrick

Posted
Posted

I was very hopeful opening this thread to see wether it includes man-hours, work hours. I was, before, looking for an estimate of work going into different parts of the building and found information rare and very difficult to find.

As mentioned in any costing topic on here, this all is obviously "depends on", but as prices vary so much depending on your specifications and the area, I found it easier to calculate materials separate from worked hours.

materials prices are easy to calculate, but without a huge amount of experience, it is more difficult to calculate man hours.

I could find some information about bricklaying

Hours needed per sqm of dingle skin / double skin, blocks vs. Bricks and so on and will add this as soon as I find it again.

More difficult to find info about laying first fix plumbing or first fix electric. There are (very rough) estimators around what these things cost, but hours used would be much more useful I guess. Has anyone come across an article, report, topic on a forum or similar that relates to man hours in construction?

 

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PeterW Advanced Member

PeterW

Posted
Posted (edited)
36 minutes ago, Patrick said:

building and found information rare and very difficult to find..

 

It is all in SPONs. There you will find cost and effort calculations for everything you need. 

 

Sample_Costbook.xls

 

This one is based on SPONs - it has some fun calcs in it and isn’t far off being accurate.

 

 

Edited by PeterW
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ToughButterCup Advanced Member

ToughButterCup

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Posted

SPONS takes some working at. Bear in mind that a legitimate copy also comes with a license to use the online version.

That's useful because searching online for (say) MOT1 will find every instance - for our purposes read 'context' - of MOT1. Reading those contexts taught me a great deal.

It also helps filter out that commonest of self builder problems crass overcharging. 

If you are not in the local building network (AKA drink in the right pubs) a copy of SPONS is a sensible precaution. 

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Redoctober Regular Member

Redoctober

Posted
Posted
53 minutes ago, Patrick said:

I was very hopeful opening this thread to see wether it includes man-hours, work hours. I was, before, looking for an estimate of work going into different parts of the building and found information rare and very difficult to find.

As mentioned in any costing topic on here, this all is obviously "depends on", but as prices vary so much depending on your specifications and the area, I found it easier to calculate materials separate from worked hours.

materials prices are easy to calculate, but without a huge amount of experience, it is more difficult to calculate man hours.

I could find some information about bricklaying

Hours needed per sqm of dingle skin / double skin, blocks vs. Bricks and so on and will add this as soon as I find it again.

More difficult to find info about laying first fix plumbing or first fix electric. There are (very rough) estimators around what these things cost, but hours used would be much more useful I guess. Has anyone come across an article, report, topic on a forum or similar that relates to man hours in construction?

 

 

I'm not sure if you are "overthinking" things here or not. Yes it is important to grasp the cost of materials but work hours is another thing altogether and in my experience few if any tradesmen work on "piece work" rates. Our plumber, electrician, window installer, builder, stone mason, plasterer and heating engineer all worked to a set price for materials and labour or labour only. 

I suppose bricklayers maybe different but not having used them on our build as such, it's hard for me to comment in that regard.

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Patrick Regular Member

Patrick

Posted
Posted

@Redoctober

I ment exactly  Labour only what you mentioned. As experienced Builder, you might be able to estimate how many hours each tasks takes(after all, that's how your price comes together if quoting for a job), but as amateur it is more difficult to see how many hours X task will approximately take. As this is highly individual (not 2 kitchens in this world take the same time to install), it should be possible to break it down into units. Bricklaying was an example of how this is already done in reality.

Same can be done with all other bits. Only missing the data atm, so this would be handy.

 

 

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PeterW Advanced Member

PeterW

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Patrick said:

Hours needed per sqm of dingle skin / double skin, blocks vs. Bricks and so on and will add this as soon as I find it again.

 

So for either a 2:1 or 1:1 gang you normally pay a price per thousand laid for bricks, or per block laid. 55-60 bricks or 10 blocks to the square metre means you can easily calculate this out to days.

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