To extend or bulldoze/rebuild

Hello, any advise on which direction and best option for value for money will be appreciated.

We have a 40 year old 3 bed, 1 bath, 1 carport post war home on stumps but not legal height under sitting on a 610m2 land in Brisbane's southside. Upon purchasing it 3 years ago, in it's original well maintained condition, we have put in a new kitchen and new bathroom, added wardrobes to 2 of the 3 rooms, repolished the floors, repainted, and repointed the roof, land is slopping and garden still in it's ugly state.

We recently got a quote from a builder who was kind enough to itemise and put down a figure on paper for extending it. The extension involves:
raising and building 3 new bedrooms (including ensuite and WIR), an additional bathroom, living area and laundry to lower area of dwelling including internal staircase, excavation of the back yard done to level, with retaining walls for support, the front of the dwelling will be a new 6mx6m deck with roof, extension to the current living room and double garage.

The quote includes: plans drawn and certified, insurances, soil test, engineering, excavation, house raising, concrete to new footing and new slab, pest control, concretor, reinforcing steel, galvanised steel posts, bricks and bricklaying, all structural timber required for deck, all timber framing required, external cladding to match existing, backyard excavation and leveling, plumbing and drainage, electrical, retaining wall timber and concrete, gyprock and plastering, timber handrails to new deck, waterproofing where required, scaffolding, roof framing, roofing and guttering, supply of tiles up to $30/m2, tiler, internal staircase, internal fitout timber and doors, new windows, new bi-fold door, new roof to match existing, stormwater connected to existing, site clearance and all carpentry labour required for the job.

Included in this quote as P.C items will be painting $13500, shower screen $450, new toilets, $700, laundry cabinets $2500, vanity unit $550. Not included in this quote are door handles and locks, air cond, landscaping, tapware and lightfittings.

The total cost of the above will be $232,000 (inc GST). Besides costs not included in this quote, what other hidden costs would need to be considered for this extension? we're roughly estimating that by the time we get going on the project, mid next year sometime with inflation, it would take us to $250k upwards, not forgetting having to probably rent a place for a few months when work in in progress.

I have talked with other builders who were only willing to give ballpark verbal figures of much higher than this ie. won't be lower than $300-$400k and that we are better off bulldozing and rebuilding.

I have had a quick scan of the net for building a new house (packaged deals) and have found that we can rebuild forabout $250k for the same size (maybe less 1 bed) home. Again what other costs would be in addition to this - ie. to bulldoze and all other extras.

Thanks this is lengthy but like to give as much info as possible.

We were in the same situation and decided to go with getting rid of the existing home and rebuilding with a volume builder. We were lucky enough to sell our existing house (which is a brick veneer, around 20 years old) for the same amount of money it would have cost to demolish, giving us some extra money to play with.

$232,000 would buy you a decent sized lowset or small highset house provided that site costs don't blow it out. How much slope is there in the block?

su ann,

A couple of things to consider:

1) When renovating, it's not unusual, as things get torn down to discover surprises (read extra costs)

2) After renovating, you still have an old house, with old plumbing, wiring, etc.

From what I can gather, once you add more than three rooms to a house it's cheaper to start from scratch. And you get everything new and with less contraints.

Cheers,
Casa

How did you do that, We plan to knock down and rebuild. We are thinking do the same way.

https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=2957

Golden Age Homes - we got rejected

As Brittany has said. If you're block is reasonable flat, which ours is, then it shouldn't be a problem to remove. Worth checking anyway, if you're in Melbourne that is.

[quote]As Brittany has said. If you're block is reasonable flat, which ours is, then it shouldn't be a problem to remove. Worth checking anyway, if you're in Melbourne that is.[/quote]


We are in sydney, and will check it out.

Thanks