Building for £1000/m2

[steve77r]

I'm hoping to complete my build for £1000/m² but at the minute I am working out of the country so will be able to do very little of it myself. My build is in the north of England so labour will be cheaper. What tips can people give me to get the build costs withing budget? I'm in no rush to complete and can have the build completed in individual stages. What is the best system to use to keep costs down? ICF or Brick and block? I'm thinking ICF should be cheaper but depends if I can find a contractor which is experienced with it and at the right price.   

 

Thanks

[PeterW]

What is your external finish..? This will influence a lot of decisions and the price ! What do you have planning permission for, and also is it a "simple" design..?

[the_r_sole]

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Edited September 26, 2019 by the_r_sole

[steve77r]

2 hours ago, PeterW said:

What is your external finish..? This will influence a lot of decisions and the price ! What do you have planning permission for, and also is it a "simple" design..?

Simple design, 4 bed 3 story, red brick on the outside.

[joe90]

I did mine for a Smidge over £1k per m2, 240 m2,  3 bed , 2 bath , brick and block, main builder did all the “hard” work, I did all the woodwork, plumbing, project management, kitchen fitting so it can be done but I was lucky with a brilliant builder. I did buy an ASHP and MVHR on Ebay very cheap and bought my own JCB for groundwork’s. 

[Crofter]

I managed £800/m2 by doing almost everything myself. The only other people I paid were a digger driver, an electrician, and a plasterer.

A bigger build could have come in considerably cheaper due to economies of scale, but I don't think I could have faced that amount of work!

Key cost savings came from keeping the design simple (it's a rectangular footprint, no dormers etc), minimal groundworks due to pad foundations, and low cost materials like the steel roof and locally sourced larch cladding. I avoided filling it with gizmos and sourced all the kitchen appliances secondhand. I was relentless in pursuing the best prices on everything, e.g. my shower screen came from eBay at under £200 (a high street retailer quoted £700!)

 

I could have saved a wee bit money in some areas. The woodburner easily added another £1000 in total, and the electrical fittings mostly came from the sparky at full retail price. The windows could have been half the price if I had been willing to compromise and use uPVC.

 

If you haven't already got it, the Housebuilders Bible gives a good starting point for a lowest cost approach.

[recoveringbuilder]

Ours came in at £1000m2

We started off with a quote for the timber frame which included everything we needed for wind and water tight and all joinery materials including screws nails etc.

we then got the quote for erection

we went from there to a small building firm who quoted for (on a labour only basis) foundations, drains, block work, roughing and finishing joinery, electrical, rendering, roofing and scaffolding 

we supplied all materials and I shopped around non stop for the best prices, in fact most of my days were taken up sourcing materials 

we got the plumber and tiler and a painter to do the high cathedral ceiling and we also provided the installation of ufh and pellet stove/thermal store 

hubby ended up doing the drains and water treatment plant and we also supplied the groundwork team.near the end the builders left site and we had to get another joiner in and hubby took time off work to assist him, we also paid nearly £6k for services 

we still have steps, ramp and driveway to do but this is included in the cost already stated and hubby will be doing most of this 

I don’t believe we have scrimped on anything, all finishing are hardwood and we have a bespoke kitchen so we could have substantially reduced the cost without these, the house is 268m2 one and a half storey , IMO it’s down to a lot of research when sourcing. Our last self build was stick built 385m2 , hubby and SIL did A LOT of the work on that one but it was extremely hard to keep up with the finances with having to buy everything which is why we went with a TF kit this time, you know what you’re getting and what you still have to buy!

[Triassic]

I’ve just checked our budget and we are on target for £1100 / m2 and we have a basement. Mind you, I’ve had to do a lot of the work myself, shop for bargains and barter for the best prices, both in labour and materials. 

[Amateur bob]

On 30/05/2019 at 21:06, Christine Walker said:

Ours came in at £1000m2

We started off with a quote for the timber frame which included everything we needed for wind and water tight and all joinery materials including screws nails etc.

we then got the quote for erection

we went from there to a small building firm who quoted for (on a labour only basis) foundations, drains, block work, roughing and finishing joinery, electrical, rendering, roofing and scaffolding 

we supplied all materials and I shopped around non stop for the best prices, in fact most of my days were taken up sourcing materials 

we got the plumber and tiler and a painter to do the high cathedral ceiling and we also provided the installation of ufh and pellet stove/thermal store 

hubby ended up doing the drains and water treatment plant and we also supplied the groundwork team.near the end the builders left site and we had to get another joiner in and hubby took time off work to assist him, we also paid nearly £6k for services 

we still have steps, ramp and driveway to do but this is included in the cost already stated and hubby will be doing most of this 

I don’t believe we have scrimped on anything, all finishing are hardwood and we have a bespoke kitchen so we could have substantially reduced the cost without these, the house is 268m2 one and a half storey , IMO it’s down to a lot of research when sourcing. Our last self build was stick built 385m2 , hubby and SIL did A LOT of the work on that one but it was extremely hard to keep up with the finances with having to buy everything which is why we went with a TF kit this time, you know what you’re getting and what you still have to buy!

with you sourcing most things yourself you would need to pay the VAT and then claim it back? how did it work for vat on the timber frame? thanks

[PeterW]

1 hour ago, Amateur bob said:

with you sourcing most things yourself you would need to pay the VAT and then claim it back? how did it work for vat on the timber frame? thanks

 

Yes you do - Timber frame though is usually supply and fit, so zero rated by the supplier

[ToughButterCup]

On 30/05/2019 at 13:13, steve77r said:

[...]

My build is in the north of England so labour will be cheaper. 

[...]

 

If you can get it.

Apologies for sounding a negative note: forewarned, forearmed ?

 

In terms of ICF, PM me for a recommendation

[recoveringbuilder]

2 hours ago, Amateur bob said:

with you sourcing most things yourself you would need to pay the VAT and then claim it back? how did it work for vat on the timber frame? thanks

Because we got the erection of the timber frame the whole thing was zero rated so saved us forking out around 17k in vat, we still have our reclaim to do yet for the materials