Realistic build costs

[SuperJohnG]

16 minutes ago, eandg said:

Would love to see your budget/budget tips!

I'll second that. I'm projecting much more for mine and not passive standard and no basement....and similar size...

[Conor]

6 hours ago, eandg said:

Would love to see your budget/budget tips!

1. Keep it simple. Design and construction

2. Pick smaller contractors. E.g a man with a digger will be a fraction the cost of a groundworks contractor.

3. Do what you can yourself. Phoning around and planning trades will save you a fortune compared To a main contractor.

 

[ToughButterCup]

19 hours ago, SteamyTea said:

....

I often wonder why people are so reluctant to state basic information.

Because it takes effort to do that. And so very often people don't realise the fundamental assumptions  they make. 

Edited February 25, 2021 by ToughButterCup

[SteamyTea]

38 minutes ago, ToughButterCup said:

Because it takes effort to do that. 

Not really.  Estate agents measure internally.  Not a big ask for them to add some of the dimensions together.

 

As an aside, I thought I would plot the ratio of perimeter to area when increase the perimeter size by 5%.

The basic shape is a rectangle with depth twice that of width.

This makes the m² price cheaper for large houses.

 

Edited February 25, 2021 by SteamyTea

[ToughButterCup]

But then you always do.... make an effort ?

[dpmiller]

1 hour ago, Conor said:

1. Keep it simple. Design and construction

2. Pick smaller contractors. E.g a man with a digger will be a fraction the cost of a groundworks contractor.

3. Do what you can yourself. Phoning around and planning trades will save you a fortune compared To a main contractor.

 

 

4. Live in NI.

[Wood89]

12 hours ago, Thedreamer said:

4 bedrooms, 314m2 that seems huge. 

 

Our three bed build is 140m2.

 

I'm not a fan of m2 calculations. If you need a mortgage you need to show a break down of your costs. You will also need to demonstrate that the final cost is affordable.

 

I set a target of £500 a month for the mortgage/property bills a month. Last thing I wanted was to be so stretched financially that I did not have much disposal income.

I do love the plot but it does seem unnecessarily large for the larger house design but did want to see what the over cost for that one would be...however there is a second approved house design which is a 3 bedroom bungalow I'm still waiting on being emailed the final floor plans and designs to get more of a price range for that one..both houses are equally lovely but more than likely I would be picking the cheaper one to build.

[Wood89]

So after getting the bungalow approved plans the smaller 3 bed comes to 113m2 which is a much smaller than the 4 bedroom1.5 storey but obviously more price appealing! 

Thanks for all the advice ??

[Thedreamer]

41 minutes ago, Wood89 said:

So after getting the bungalow approved plans the smaller 3 bed comes to 113m2 which is a much smaller than the 4 bedroom1.5 storey but obviously more price appealing! 

Thanks for all the advice ??

 

Are you limited to preapproved design for your plot? I don't understand how you can jump between 113m2 and 313m2. One seems a bit to small and the other is too bigger.

 

Cn you not get plans prepared, that works for you and your family? You don't need to have to have architect if you need to keep professional fees down.

 

A house designer and structural engineer cost us under £2k for full plans for planning and building warrant plans.

[Wood89]

26 minutes ago, Thedreamer said:

 

Are you limited to preapproved design for your plot? I don't understand how you can jump between 113m2 and 313m2. One seems a bit to small and the other is too bigger.

 

Cn you not get plans prepared, that works for you and your family? You don't need to have to have architect if you need to keep professional fees down.

 

A house designer and structural engineer cost us under £2k for full plans for planning and building warrant plans.

The plot for sale has only 2 preapproved house designs as it's quite a small village and I think it was quite hard getting an approved application in the first place.

Me being quite new to self build I think the smaller house style might be slightly bigger than 113m2 because of the hallway in the design had no measurements so hasn't been included ?...there is also a separate double garage approved but I have no measurements for that either ?...I have attached  floor plan incase I'm being dence ?‍♀️

[AliG]

The interior area of that house is around 135 sq metres.

 

Once something has been approved it should be easier to get something else approved especially if it is smaller. There may be more of an issue if they care about specifically how it looks and not just the size, siting etc.

 

I know there are a few people saying they have build costs under £1000 a square metre, but generally they are people with some kind of trade experience, willing to do lots of work themselves, willing to project manage and willing to take a very long time to build their houses because of that.

 

If you just paid a contractor to build the house you'd spend between £1500 and £2000 a square metre.

 

If you project manage and take out the contractor's margin and spend more time looking for the best quote on everything you could probably save around 15%. Call it £1250 to £1700 a square metre. Then you can probably save 2-4% (very rough numbers dependent on all kinds of factors) for each interior trade you can do yourself, so decorating, plumbing, electrics, joinery etc. Also tiling and kitchen fitting can be pretty expensive. If you did all of them you could get down towards £1000 a square metre, but your house is going to take a lot longer to build.

 

I get the impression that you are in the less experienced camp where costs would be at the higher end.

Edited February 25, 2021 by AliG

[Wood89]

4 minutes ago, AliG said:

 

If you project manage and take out the contractor's margin and spend more time looking for the best quote on everything you could probably save around 15%. Call it £1250 to £1700 a square metre. Then you can probably save 2-4% for each interior trade you can do yourself, so decorating, plumbing, electrics, joinery etc. Also tiling and kitchen fitting can be pretty expensive. If you did all of them you could get down towards £1000 a square metre, but your house is going to take a lot longer to build.

 

 

Thanks for your good input, the plans for the houses were changed quite alot due to the look of the buildings before approval as the small community did not want big brash looking new builds in the village I think that's why it has ben narrowed down to just 2 approved house plans.

we would probably be going with a small builder we know who specializes in new builds and would get him to do foundations and basically the whole outer shell of the house and electrics.

 

The rest can all be done by ourselves or father in law who is semi retired (for a supply of tea and biscuits and if it gets him grandchildren quicker) so all kitchen fitting, plumbing, bathroom fitting and tiling..only thing that would be extra inside would be carpet fitting ?

 

 

[Bitpipe]

18 hours ago, Thedreamer said:

4 bedrooms, 314m2 that seems huge. 

 

Our three bed build is 140m2.

 

I'm not a fan of m2 calculations. If you need a mortgage you need to show a break down of your costs. You will also need to demonstrate that the final cost is affordable.

 

I set a target of £500 a month for the mortgage/property bills a month. Last thing I wanted was to be so stretched financially that I did not have much disposal income.

 

Ours worked out at 6 beds and just under 400m2 - similar concept: basement, and 2 2/1 floors on top (rooms in roof). More or less 10mx11m footprint throughout with a utility room to one side (and plant room under in basement).

 

Does not feel overly big to live in, e.g. bedrooms are 3.5m square but the basement adds a lot of extra space - kids have a den each and there is a notional gym and random room, both full of boxes. Rooms in roof don't see much use but handy when we get visitors (when that was a thing). Plot is a wedge 27m wide at street, 100m deep and 17m at bottom - so can easily take the house (which is about 50% bigger than what it replaced above ground).

 

Worked out about £1500/m2 with most of build in 2015/16 and landscaping and other bits in the year and two thereafter.

 

Being passive standard did not add much to the overall cost. We PMd with two main contracts (demo, basement & services / timber frame) with the rest being trades employed directly by us. I did the MVHR and some sweeping up. We sourced bathrooms furniture & fittings, doors, joinery etc but mostly everything else came supply & fit.

[Thedreamer]

4 hours ago, Bitpipe said:

 

Ours worked out at 6 beds and just under 400m2 - similar concept: basement, and 2 2/1 floors on top (rooms in roof). More or less 10mx11m footprint throughout with a utility room to one side (and plant room under in basement).

 

Does not feel overly big to live in, e.g. bedrooms are 3.5m square but the basement adds a lot of extra space - kids have a den each and there is a notional gym and random room, both full of boxes. Rooms in roof don't see much use but handy when we get visitors (when that was a thing). Plot is a wedge 27m wide at street, 100m deep and 17m at bottom - so can easily take the house (which is about 50% bigger than what it replaced above ground).

 

Worked out about £1500/m2 with most of build in 2015/16 and landscaping and other bits in the year and two thereafter.

 

Being passive standard did not add much to the overall cost. We PMd with two main contracts (demo, basement & services / timber frame) with the rest being trades employed directly by us. I did the MVHR and some sweeping up. We sourced bathrooms furniture & fittings, doors, joinery etc but mostly everything else came supply & fit.

 

Having four levels makes more sense on the size, but I don't think this is such a good idea for a large 1.5 storey. 

 

I think it also depends on whether this is your forever home.  My kids are quite young so might regret a smaller house in the teenage years but the house will be the right size when they leave home and won't need to downsize. 

 

[SteamyTea]

10 hours ago, Thedreamer said:

  My kids are quite young so might regret a smaller house in the teenage years but the house will be the right size when they leave home and won't need to downsize. 

Boarding school, a great institution.

Then.

My Mother took a third of my take home wage for food and board, was a bargain when I got 30 quid a week, I left home when she started taking 50 quid.

She started to drive Mercs in the 1970's.

 

[nod]

On 24/02/2021 at 23:52, eandg said:

Would love to see your budget/budget tips!

If you look through my posts I put a breakdown of our costs when we where doing our vat claim about 24 months ago

 

Our main savings where on Labour or lack of it Also keeping professional fees to a minimum 

Under 2.5k

 

[Russell griffiths]

On 25/02/2021 at 11:58, Wood89 said:

So after getting the bungalow approved plans the smaller 3 bed comes to 113m2 which is a much smaller than the 4 bedroom1.5 storey but obviously more price appealing! 

Thanks for all the advice ??

113m is small, retirement home, not family home. 

Depends what you want. 

We have 180m internally, 3 beds nothing is overly large. 

[Russell griffiths]

On 26/02/2021 at 07:27, SteamyTea said:

Boarding school, a great institution.

Then.

My Mother took a third of my take home wage for food and board, was a bargain when I got 30 quid a week, I left home when she started taking 50 quid.

She started to drive Mercs in the 1970's.

 

Did you get the hint. ?

[jamieled]

5 minutes ago, Russell griffiths said:

113m is small, retirement home, not family home. 

Depends what you want. 

I think that's just a matter of opinion though and highly dependent on what you are used to. Buildhub is not a good reflection of uk housing stock or in fact what is necessary or even comfortable as many people on here spend wads of cash on stuff they have a personal preference for but which you can comfortably live without. We're 3 beds at 136m2 and it's pretty roomy.

 I think 113m2 could give you a completely reasonable house if you're careful about thinking through the use of space and storage. If you can't do the thinking then the lazy option is to spend more on a bigger house as you can get away with it.

113m2 is still bigger than most 3 bed houses (irrespective of when they were built, not just new builds). As Russ says, it depends what's important to you. For us that was not having a mortgage paying for stuff like home automation or unnecessary space. 

 

[SteamyTea]

38 minutes ago, Russell griffiths said:

Did you get the hint. ?

Certainly did. Best decision I ever made. Been on my own for over 40 years. When I shut my door, the world can vanish.

Never understood people that have to have others around the house.

[Oz07]

On 25/02/2021 at 07:48, ToughButterCup said:

Because it takes effort to do that. And so very often people don't realise the fundamental assumptions  they make. 

 

On 25/02/2021 at 07:59, SteamyTea said:

Not really.  Estate agents measure internally.  Not a big ask for them to add some of the dimensions together.

 

As an aside, I thought I would plot the ratio of perimeter to area when increase the perimeter size by 5%.

The basic shape is a rectangle with depth twice that of width.

This makes the m² price cheaper for large houses.

 

https://find-energy-certificate.digital.communities.gov.uk/find-a-certificate/search-by-postcode

Internal m2 on epc 

[Russell griffiths]

1 hour ago, jamieled said:

I think that's just a matter of opinion though and highly dependent on what you are used to. Buildhub is not a good reflection of uk housing stock or in fact what is necessary or even comfortable as many people on here spend wads of cash on stuff they have a personal preference for but which you can comfortably live without. We're 3 beds at 136m2 and it's pretty roomy.

 I think 113m2 could give you a completely reasonable house if you're careful about thinking through the use of space and storage. If you can't do the thinking then the lazy option is to spend more on a bigger house as you can get away with it.

113m2 is still bigger than most 3 bed houses (irrespective of when they were built, not just new builds). As Russ says, it depends what's important to you. For us that was not having a mortgage paying for stuff like home automation or unnecessary space. 

 

But you have 136m 

113m is definitely not spacious. 

[SteamyTea]

2 hours ago, Oz07 said:

Internal m2 on epc 

And it showed my house having twice the area of all my neighbours, who have the same size houses.

Think I shall get that estate agent to sell my place as she made it bigger than it is.

[Oz07]

Some epc assessors are worse than others. Generally a good guide

[SteamyTea]

1 hour ago, Oz07 said:

Some epc assessors are worse than others. Generally a good guide

Yes, I don't really have a problem with the EPC data.

There is probably a reason that someone that claimed to be a Chartered Surveyor and fully qualified SAP assessor, was working in a local estate agent in one of the poorest parts of the country.

She did go very quiet when she found out my background.