savings to be had

[selfbuildaberdeen]

Just now, newhome said:

 

Mine was about 25% of the overall build budget. 

perfect thank you

 

[Jeremy Harris]

Our foundations, frame (with closed panel insulation), 3G doors and windows and roofing came to about 47% of the total build cost, excluding the plot cost. 

 

First fix costs after that were relatively low, as I did all the plumbing, heating and ventilation system work, and some of the labouring for the wiring.  Second fix costs were higher, as they included paying guys to do the plaster boarding and plastering, lay our stone flooring and getting a joiner in to hang the internal doors and help install the stairs. 

 

I made a fair saving by doing all the kitchen and bathrooms fitting out, by laying the bamboo flooring and by fitting all the skirtings and architrave myself.

[mvincentd]

Re' fixed price or day rate, it has to be a trust thing.

If you've screwed someone down on a fixed price and think you're getting it cheap, trust the price but dont trust the work!

[Ferdinand]

I find that considerable savings can be made by paying a lot of attention to making Tradesmen's jobs easier to do / more productive.

 

That is things like doing easy buts ourselves by agreement, having materials on site, placing sockets etc where they are easy to install.

 

Something I did on my last refurb that the jury is still out on was to run all cables and pipes in a void under the floating floor before it was installed. So almost no drilling of holes in walls or routing out tracks. Seemed to work, and I will try it again next time.

[ToughButterCup]

52 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

I find that considerable savings can be made by paying a lot of attention to making Tradesmen's jobs easier to do / more productive.

[...]

 

I'd like to think that's actually the case. But its difficult to evidence. 

[scottishjohn]

19 hours ago, mvincentd said:

Re' fixed price or day rate, it has to be a trust thing.

If you've screwed someone down on a fixed price and think you're getting it cheap, trust the price but dont trust the work!

If disagree with the assumption that a quoted price will be "screwed down" as you say

it is up to the builder to give a quote that he can stick to and complete the job  in a good  timely manner ,at the right quality .

and would be expecting him to give choices on some things in the discussions before he gave his quote  for the works.

Yes trust is needed --but seems all one way if its just day rate 

and I would not be adverse to paying some extras if justified ,before hand .

as with all things communication is key 

a lot of these extras quite often seem like me quoting for a service --then saying oil is extra

 

[scottishjohn]

1 hour ago, Ferdinand said:

I find that considerable savings can be made by paying a lot of attention to making Tradesmen's jobs easier to do / more productive.

 

That is things like doing easy buts ourselves by agreement, having materials on site, placing sockets etc where they are easy to install.

 

Something I did on my last refurb that the jury is still out on was to run all cables and pipes in a void under the floating floor before it was installed. So almost no drilling of holes in walls or routing out tracks. Seemed to work, and I will try it again next time.

I agree but those things you would agree with trades at time of quote.who is doing what and if you don,t do your bit ,yes you going to pay more

[Ferdinand]

4 hours ago, scottishjohn said:

I agree but those things you would agree with trades at time of quote.who is doing what and if you don,t do your bit ,yes you going to pay more

 

As a serial renovator I reuse trades sometimes, which makes a difference.

 

F

 

 

[Ferdinand]

On 01/06/2019 at 22:14, selfbuildaberdeen said:

Hi,

Thanks for the tips!

 

We are certainly up for finding a bargain and would always buy ex display/ decent second hand before new even now. The auction houses in Edinburgh and Wales have some amazing finds for ex display stock from up market stores/show homes.

 

For the internals, plaster boarding, plastering, second fix, tilling, internal joinery etc are all things we are used to doing from previous renos so no problem there. And we actually enjoy it as sad as that may be. We have practiced our skills and made plenty of mistakes on what we have then sold on to others. Hopefully our skills are now up to scratch! Agree it takes so much longer tho. I believe we lived with a toilet balancing on a square of MDF at the far side of the bathroom for about a week.... balancing across the joists to reach it in teh middle of the night was interesting.... and yes it was our only toilet haha.

Wouldn't be as brave as you to put the whole kit up tho. Feel much more satisfaction from the little fiddly jobs anyway

 

Do they have xtra charges to deliver to England ? ?

[selfbuildaberdeen]

2 hours ago, Ferdinand said:

 

Do they have xtra charges to deliver to England ? ?

We are in scotland and mange to get items from wales up at a decent price ?highly recomend

[Ferdinand]

1 hour ago, selfbuildaberdeen said:

We are in scotland and mange to get items from wales up at a decent price ?highly recomend

 

I know. I want some.

[Weebles]

We are still painting (more than 2 months now, on and off) so the lesson is one of time vs cost saving.  If you have time, then do things yourself to save money.  If you have money, then you save time.  The other part of the cost-time-quality triangle is the bit that is variable.  We reckoned we could probably paint and do most joinery that wouldn't be seen i.e. ply on stud walls, temporary stairs, box outs but there are some skills we don't have that would be very obvious i.e. plastering and tiling.  For those we have the pros in and the quality shows.

 

I tell myself that taking longer is OK as we are saving money.   But actually, there is a cost to taking longer.  In our case there are no rental costs as we are living in the van but there is a cost to relationships living in such close proximity to teenagers ?  Lastly, there is the genuine fun in doing things yourself and learning new skills.  

 

That said, if I got given £100K tomorrow I couldn't move faster to a drainage contractor, joiner and landscape gardener......  Until then, those jobs are ours......