Coral Homes general build thread

Yes to all of that.... We can still change it so maybe I should increase it. What happens if we don't spend it all???

Haha then go to like 6-8 possibly more. What ever you don't use you will probably get a credit back.
I'm not sure how others did it if they kept the allowance or not through the contract, but ours got taken off for some reason, we said owner supplied lights and I think they mistook that as that's all well use out of the allowance and removed it. We still spent another 3.5k in appointment and I'm still getting stuff done through electrician and getting done myself.

How are they with bring in your own tradies?? My dad brother and brother in law are sparkies and it feels a bit silly paying so much when they would do it for mates rates lol but at the same time I know it won't be so easy after handover etc

Depends what you want really, ours was 2.5k god knows how (well they are rediculously expensive thats how), and it was really basic, compared to what most people seem to do. We are supplying everything and running extra downlights etc after handover.

But we are into different ways to light rooms, lamps are good, many people go over the top with lighting its not really needed in my opinion .

Though sorry to say 4k will get eaten up pretty quickly if you are expecting them to supply the lights and all etc.

See how you go but definately think about running the simple extra bits after handover like downlights.
Say you want 4 in a room get them to put in 1 then run the other 3 after handover. Do that a couple of times savings soon add up let me tell you, eapecially at $75 for fitting an owner supplied light 😱

Depends what you want really, ours was 2.5k god knows how (well they are rediculously expensive thats how), and it was really basic, compared to what most people seem to do. We are supplying everything and running extra downlights etc after handover.

But we are into different ways to light rooms, lamps are good, many people go over the top with lighting its not really needed in my opinion .

Though sorry to say 4k will get eaten up pretty quickly if you are expecting them to supply the lights and all etc.

See how you go but definately think about running the simple extra bits after handover like downlights.
Say you want 4 in a room get them to put in 1 then run the other 3 after handover. Do that a couple of times savings soon add up let me tell you, eapecially at $75 for fitting an owner supplied light 😱

They hate it and make it quite a tricky process for the tradesman, they may no longer even allow it, I definately doubt they would let you bring in your own sparky, Im sure I would have tried it
But give it a go nothing to loose, save you a hell of a lot of money if they did allow it.

Apologies for double posts dam phone.

Hey BTTTB,

I agree with everyone else! We just did our electrical last week. We put 5k electrical allowance into the tender and still went 5.5k over..its all adds up very quickly. We are building a stradbroke 29 so similar size to yours. All that money basically went on power points, and wiring for downlights and ceiling fans (bearing in mind the downlights and ceiling fans are owner supplied at approx another 3k). From my experience I would advise to put as much as you can onto your tender, and what you don't use of your allowance will be subtracted from your contract by way of variation when they do all your other variations. That variation won't cost you anything.

I'm going to chat to my brother about how easy it would be I just got the impression talking to my dad that unless the electrician leaves wires or something there it makes it hard, and he said when they built our family home he got them to do it as it was just easier in the end.... How are you going to do it after have you set up anything in the walls etc to make it easy??

Ye I've got $5000 allowance in my contract. Have my clipsil appointment on Monday. Does anyone else have any recommendations with regards to owner supply? I'm changing all standard lights to down lights which will amount to say 30 odd, would it be cheaper to try and get these and all other lights on sale and have coral install them?

Ok I probably should just put it at 8k to be safe then thanks everyone for your help I would be even more clueless without you guys!

It's always possible to do it after they have long drill bits and have to climb into the roof.
It is possible to get your own sparkies in, my neighbour did his own electrical. But unless it's a family member or something they normal shy away it because trying to organise it in the time schedule might be difficult

Running extra downlights is super easy if you have one in the room already they will all just connect off the main switch. Anything in the roof is easy.
Things down the walls can be tricky so only way is to get in their before gyprock goes up and run phone cable being cheapest or what ever yourself, put in conduit string through it, then you can pull what ever you want through. But most people wont do that its fiddly.

Im not doing that, well I am for my data cables and speakers etc. Im also just leaving out all the extra ceiling lights I know I can put in after.
Il save over $2500 not having them do it I have worked out, which to me is worth it, like I said my electrical is pretty simple.
Also my friend is a sparky too though in Sydney and he basically advised me on all the above. Having your family as sparkys would be a definate plus.

This is what I have done for my extra points just some conduit thru the walls going to make it much easier

So you have actually put it in, all straightforwaed with SS doing it?

Also did you just mark out all the wall and conduit locationa by a line on the slab?
Good to hear someone has done it.

It's not condoned exactly, but also depends if you have a good SS. I also stuck stud brackets in anyway

Might be silly question do you always need to put stud brackets in for powerpoints or switches or can they just be put on to noggins?
Did you put in any more noggins in yourself when they were framing it up?

Normally they go on the studs if you preplan them, can stick them on noggins or can also do them after as there's ones that hook over the plaster.
I got the carpenter to stick extra noggins in my media cupboard basically just for mounting brackets but it wasn't exactly needed.
And also got him to put in extra studs where I'm going to hang the TV's on the wall

Yeah ok great thanks. All good to know like you said hopefully get a good SS and carpenter on the job.