Home Renovation & Building Forum
https://forum.homeone.com.au/

Quote for raising house and building underneath
https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=475
Page 4 of 9

Author:  shrey [ Aug 11, 2008 10:31 pm ]
Post subject: 

Hey, I found this thread on google and its fantastic! ive really learnt a lot, especially about costs.

I'm a complete newbie at any renovations and building whatsoever, but i have a 3bed, 1 bath queenslander in hamilton that I need to raise to build a couple of bedrooms+bathroom+kitchen underneath.

Its already got a good concrete slab underneath, so i was wondering if I'll need to completely redo it after raising the house, or if it can stay fairly in tact? Cos from what i can tell, a large bulk of raising costs goes to the slab.

Also to wyld, you mentioned that the company you used made a few cracks in the lifting job - are there some other companies you could recomend? because thats really something that scares me - how do you go about repairing cracks? Can they be repaired to a high standard, or will there always be problems?

thanks heaps! keep up the great work :D

Author:  wyld [ Aug 12, 2008 10:03 am ]
Post subject: 

Hi Shrey, glad you found the discussion informative, from experience with regards to lifting you will lose everything underneath including the slab during the lifting as existing posts need to be removed, soil tests need to be done, new posts installed etc with bobcat and possible mini excavator running around underneath, does make a mess. Re the recommendation on the lifters we had 3 quotes and chose the one mentioned earlier, we can only thoroughly recommend these guys, the cracking is inevitable, it only takes one stroke extra of the bottle jack on one corner to throw it out in the lifting process, in our experience some cracks/gaps in the vj's have shown up over the last year upstairs, on advice from our painter we are holding off on painting upstairs fro 2 years from date of lifting because this is how long it can take for the house to settle. Also consideration needs to be taken for the dry we have experienced which has also caused cracking in many homes due to ground contraction. As for us we have finally got the building approval through some 18mths after the lift, we are currently putting in exterior shades for downstairs (found a good magnetic drill at http://csunitec.com.au/portable-magneti ... -p-29.html ) which will help drill into the beams. We are now waiting on spring to lay the grass!

Author:  PrincessB [ Aug 12, 2008 6:12 pm ]
Post subject: 

Hope this helps you.

My sister lives in Brisbane, her house is a Queenslander 2 bedrooms 1 bathroom. She has approval for council, soil test, plans and all the rest of it.

She is raising the house, making it 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, 2 decks, and putting in a new kitchen. Her quotes are $250,000 - $300,000 from 4 different builders. Having said that she is adding lots of luxury extras including a huge deck out the back that is included under the roof line that is $60,000 alone and a 4 car garage.

Its actually cheaper to build new than renovate.

Hope that helps.

Author:  wyld [ Aug 12, 2008 9:05 pm ]
Post subject: 

Hi PrincessB, those figures look about right as material costs steel etc) have gone up over 30% in the last year at least and going back earlier in the thread the cost of a new built home per sq metre always cheaper than a reno... having said that it living in a renovated queenslander kept in character is not something we would swap for living in a brick box for love nor money :)

Author:  david s [ Aug 13, 2008 6:52 pm ]
Post subject: 

PrincessB PrincessB
Its actually cheaper to build new than renovate.


Some 12 months after posting in this thread I'm now heading down this path.
$300k new vs $450k reno for a similar house.

The cost of raising the house, steelwork etc it just wasn't worth keeping the original house. Going for a more simpler design structure wise, laid out the way I want it.

Build time is also half.

Author:  wyld [ Aug 13, 2008 8:47 pm ]
Post subject: 

Hi David, did you build a new traditional type home or a modern home?

Author:  david s [ Aug 17, 2008 11:36 am ]
Post subject: 

wyld wyld
Hi David, did you build a new traditional type home or a modern home?


Finalising structural drawings atm.

Traditional house 2 storey weatherboard similar to what was on the site - theres something wrong with putting a single story brick house in a street with highset weatherboard houses.

External weaterboards using fibre-cement Sycon Linea instead of traditional timber. http://www.scyon.com.au/linea.html Looks really good on the house I've seen.

Hopefully get a few decent prices - the original design was fine but there were some parts of the build that were going to blow the budget such as the complex roof layout to suit the existing house which would have taken 2 weeks to frame which was $$$.

In regards to house raising, go for it if the existing house is large and you plan on building in under the existing house. If you need to extend the existing house for anything other than a deck, then you may reach a point where it's cheaper to start again - I reached that point.

I'm sure I've read on here the costs of house building; new house, owner-builder and reno which go up in that order. I'm not going to have time to do owner-builder due to lifestyle changes, even though I would have loved to. So will get a builder to build new and look after some parts of the work myself such as painting. I'd love to take 24 weeks annual leave at half-pay which I have owing but I don't think I'll have a job when I get back!

Author:  Leila [ Dec 10, 2008 2:27 pm ]
Post subject: 

We are looking at doing the same..lifting a 100yearold plus Queenslander and building 3 bedrooms, laundry and bathroom downstairs as well as car accomodation, putting in a plunge pool and and ensuite upstairs. We will also need a huge new fence at the front as we are on a busy street.

The upstairs part has been fully renovated. The floorboards are lovely, kitchen new with all top of the range appliances and the bathroom is fairly recent too. We have 2 large bedrooms, study, family room, dining, lounge, kitchen deck upstairs and we already have a laundry and bathroom downstairs (which is very, very average and in need of a complete overhaul).

This will incease our house to 5 bedrooms, study, rumpus,lounge, dining, family, kitchen 2 bathrooms, ensuite, deck,and laundry. Even though the block is only 455sqm, the house will be large.

I am expecting it to be 300k if not more. We are getting a quote Monday!

I have read through some of the posts and have learnt lots. Any photos to share?

Author:  r1ch [ Jan 01, 2009 8:50 pm ]
Post subject: 

Hi Wyld and others

Just joined the thread. We are about to raise and renovate a post war home in Brissy so thanks for all of your tips and advice. I'm sure they will come in handy. Would love to bounce any ideas off you along the way if that's okay?

Thanks

Rich

Author:  wertyq [ Jan 02, 2009 11:26 am ]
Post subject: 

Leila, how did you go with your quote? Your reno sounds similar to ours.

r1ch, we are about to embark on a similar project, raising our post war house and building under. Our house raisers come on 12 January - getting nervous now! What stage are you up to?

It has taken us ages (around 6 months) to get to this stage, the longest period was trying to get quotes from builders!

Currently the house is 3 bedrooms (one quite small) 2 bathrooms. We are turning the small bedroom into the internal stairs and building another 3 beds, bathroom, laundry and rumpus room downstairs. Also adding rear deck to the upstairs and carport out the front. Aside from the stairs and deck the rest of the upstairs won't be altered, although I would love a new kitchen!

Look forward to hearing about everyone's works!

Author:  wyld [ Jan 04, 2009 9:03 am ]
Post subject: 

Hi Wertyq, would be interested to know the current price per sq metre the builders are charging now? would expect materials have gone up considerably in last 2 years but maybe labour costs are lower now building has cooled? cheers wyld :?:

Author:  wyld [ Jan 04, 2009 9:10 am ]
Post subject: 

Hi Wertyq, just noted in your post you are having internal stairs, trick for the punters out there if you do not want to lose upstairs and downstairs space to internal stairs AND you would like to keep the downstairs separate entry (perhaps nana might visit etc) the rather than call the downstairs rooms bedrooms maybe call them rumpus room etc and that kitchen downstairs could be called a wet bar, if this is the case you do not need internal stairs, hope this helps :wink: wyld

Author:  wertyq [ Jan 05, 2009 11:54 am ]
Post subject: 

Hi Wyld,
Our guy is doing it for around $1600 sqm. This price does not include painting as the painting quote was astronomical, we'll look at that later (and see if we have any money left). Happy to do it ourselves but with two little kids its hard getting the time (and keeping them out of it). We also paid the certifiers and draftsman separately to this. We had wildly varying quotes, some $150K more than the others for the same thing! Here's hoping it all goes to plan.

Author:  wyld [ Jan 05, 2009 1:26 pm ]
Post subject: 

Hi Wertyq, $1600 per m2 sounds pretty fair, if you need a painter and your in bris try Sally at Lick of Paint on Ph 32657385 she managed to match the paint on the lower level to the upper level which had not been painted for a few years perfectly and was vey reasonable in the cost, good luck with your project, we are sitting back and enjoying ours now!

Author:  wertyq [ Jan 05, 2009 2:51 pm ]
Post subject: 

Hey Wyld, that is exactly what we were hoping to do with the paint - ie not paint the top half. That's for the tip, we'll give her a call, we are in Brisbane on the northside.

Good to hear you are sitting back and enjoying yours. Most of our conversations at home consist of "imagine when we have our [insert deck, laundry, rumpus room, carport, etc] ..." Its going to be GREAT!

Author:  wertyq [ Jan 14, 2009 11:36 am ]
Post subject: 

So the builder started on Monday 12th Jan... and by lunchtime Tuesday 13th Jan the house was already raised sitting up on the stacker blocks! Today (wed) they are finishing off the excavation. All the slab underneath was removed by the excavators (bobcat and mini excavator) yesterday too. Next they will start on digging the footings for a retaining wall.

Author:  kathm [ Jan 27, 2009 5:08 pm ]
Post subject: 

We are planning to owner build and raise in Brisbane... have just got the preliminary plans drawn up by the architect... this site has been a great help so far - very interesting to hear what others have done :)

I am wondering if anyone has any insurance suggestions. We currently have home and contents with RACQ but they have advised me that as we are doing renovations >$50K that we will not be covered for legal liability for the entire time our raise and build in takes to complete (could be a couple of years!).

Has anyone got any suggestions? I am assuming that the various subcontractors that we will use will have their own insurance??? But what about people that come to visit our house etc?

Would appreciate any suggestions!

Author:  PTCQLD [ Jan 28, 2009 9:01 am ]
Post subject: 

I'm not sure about an OB but as a Principal Contractor I need to have in effect a policy with Workcover to cover Subbies as well. This is for possible injury and not Product Liability.

Regards

Paul

Author:  wyld [ Jan 28, 2009 9:17 am ]
Post subject: 

We used Direct Insurance Brokers P/L contact Kayne Anderson Ph 07 38665444 and they were very helpful, luckily we did not need to claim :wink:

Author:  r1ch [ Jan 29, 2009 12:58 pm ]
Post subject: 

Hi Wetyq

I didn't realise it would take 6 months before we even got to the raising part :?

We have only just begun really. We are attending a course on Building & Renovating through the QBSA in a few weeks and were planning on booking in the draftsman after that.

We're definitely prepared for a 12 month process after reading everyone's experiences.

Great to hear that things are now moving relativelt quickly for you.

Rich :

Page 4 of 9 All times are UTC + 10 hours [ DST ]
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group
http://www.phpbb.com/