Post build pie chart!

[Selfbuildsarah]

Seen many pie charts in Buildit magazines and the like, showing the cost percentages of building timber frame, plumbing, electrics, kitchen, flooring etc but has anyone compiled their own after the event?
It would be very interesting to see examples of actual percentages. Don’t be shy. Own up. I know you’re out there!

[nod]

Most on here will have detailed spreadsheets Which it would be quite easy to make up a pie chart from 

 

[Conor]

No, that's a reality I don't want to see 😭 

[JohnMo]

Sorry once I finished building I was more interested in real pies of any description.

[Nickfromwales]

Sorry to interrupt. 
 

Where do I go to collect my pie, exactly? 

[JohnMo]

1 minute ago, Nickfromwales said:

Sorry to interrupt. 
 

Where do I go to collect my pie, exactly? 

Just your local pie shop. We can get macaroni cheese pies here, there great. The chip shop even fries them!

[Nickfromwales]

Just now, JohnMo said:

Just your local pie shop. We can get macaroni cheese pies here, there great. The chip shop even fries them!

I’m on my way. 

[nod]

6 hours ago, nod said:

Most on here will have detailed spreadsheets Which it would be quite easy to make up a pie chart from 

 

Just to add 

Build to watertight Then to completion has come out as 50-50 

[SteamyTea]

@Pocster offered me a cream pie.

 

[Pocster]

1 hour ago, SteamyTea said:

@Pocster offered me a cream pie.

 

That’s really rude. I’m quite offended .

But it’s Friday ; so don’t give a (expletive deleted) 

Edited yesterday at 17:36 by Pocster

[SteamyTea]

2 minutes ago, Pocster said:

But it’s Friday ; so don’t give a (expletive deleted) 

So tomorrow night for my surprise.

[Pocster]

Just now, SteamyTea said:

So tomorrow night for my surprise.

Oh yes ! You have got a massive surprise coming !

[MikeSharp01]

6 hours ago, JohnMo said:

The chip shop even fries them!

Mars bars as well I suspect!

[JohnMo]

40 minutes ago, MikeSharp01 said:

Mars bars as well I suspect!

Not nice with chips, but pretty nice with ice-cream 

[SteamyTea]

[SteamyTea]

[Russdl]

@Selfbuildsarah  that went well didn’t it. 

~~~

I don’t have a pie chart, but I do know that the pie I envisioned for the whole project wasn’t big enough, fortunately we managed to find enough extra pie to finish off. 

 

That doesn’t help does it. 

[Marvin]

We built/renovated a smaller property than we could afford so we only considered cost engineering on each task on a value for money angle. It was enough doing the work without financial pressures.

 

I also have a feeling that any pie chart would be very personal to the actual building and only be indicative to any building. 

 

M

[G and J]

Caveat.....we are not yet watertight (!)....but do have estimates/quotes to get us there

 

Referencing @nod it does look like watertight will be about 50% (give or take) of what we set out to spend (obviously if we were to go wild with finishes, designer everything ...very unlikely....this could shift ).

 

Once we'd built our budget, based on researching prices for materials and trades in relation to our m2 (rather than just £ what we had available wanted to spend!) we compared our budget to the " build it" pie chart and whilst initially it was tempting to think " we won't need to spend x on y"

 

However it is easy for individual items to vary quite a lot when it comes to it e.g. services, given we already had all services in the bungalow we were demolishing we didn't expect a 10k payment to remedy a now "unacceptable" overhead connection, but overall, as a guide, it has proved to be fairly accurate.

 

[ProDave]

21 hours ago, Nickfromwales said:

Sorry to interrupt. 
 

Where do I go to collect my pie, exactly? 

Howdens used to do a "Friday Pie Day"

[Nickfromwales]

1 hour ago, ProDave said:

Howdens used to do a "Friday Pie Day"

Yea. The good old days when reps set up in various merchants and you could get brekky rolls etc for free. 
 

“Can I grab an extra one for Tom too, please?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was never a Tom. 

[Mr Punter]

49 minutes ago, nod said:

Build to watertight Then to completion has come out as 50-50 

Interesting.  I wonder if that holds for most new build resi projects?

[SteamyTea]

Rather than pie charts, and me taking the piss, what would be useful is price breakdowns for different elements of the build.

So the price to dig and make the foundation, similar for walls and roofs.

Just the basic costs and the sizes. 

Does not need minute detail.

[SimonD]

3 hours ago, ProDave said:

Howdens used to do a "Friday Pie Day"

 

1 hour ago, Nickfromwales said:

The good old days when reps set up in various merchants and you could get brekky rolls etc for free. 

 

Ah, you're both using the wrong merchants. Grant's local rep was down a couple of weeks ago with boxes full of Gregs stuff, and there's a regular tray in some of the local merchants. Then there's the doughnuts just about everywhere on different days of the week. I reckon round here I could build a good pie chart of local food distribution to keep me happily fed 5 days and weeks. Mind you, I'd probably end up a lot bigger than I already am!

 

On 15/08/2025 at 09:43, Selfbuildsarah said:

Seen many pie charts in Buildit magazines and the like, showing the cost percentages of building timber frame, plumbing, electrics, kitchen, flooring etc but has anyone compiled their own after the event?
It would be very interesting to see examples of actual percentages. Don’t be shy. Own up. I know you’re out there!

 

 I started with good intentions. I kept a box where I threw all my receipts and meant to put them in a spreadsheet. The box is still there by the door in the garage. In the end I just went along with how much money did we have left and how could I cost engineer every purchase. Then we ran out of money after the post Covid price inflation spike, (*cough* Brexit stupidity) and I just gave up. 

 

But honestly, it depends so much on building decisions and fit out etc. - e.g. I saved us about 35k by making the kitchen myself and it'll be about 50k by the time I'm done as I still have half of it to make, as that's what bespoke kitchens cost around here at the basic level. Are you properly self building or are you fully design and build, and have you got complex groundworks?

 

As I went fabric first, that's so far taken up the majority of our costs.

Edited 11 hours ago by SimonD

[Nickfromwales]

1 hour ago, SimonD said:

I reckon round here I could build a good pie chart of local food distribution to keep me happily fed 5 days and weeks.

@Selfbuildsarah

 

This needs your immediate attention!

 

Give the people what they want lol