Quote for raising house and building underneath

Just got some quotes for stairs front and rear (both require a landing), came in a $10k and $13k, ouch. Can anyone recommend a reasonably priced carpenter to build stairs?

Hey Joe - we just got our rear stairs built with a landing for under $5k and the guy did a pretty good job. If your still looking PM me and I'll flick you the details. Cheers

Found this forum yesterday, so much brilliant information. Thanks guys! Am currently exploring to possibility of raising. Have had the house on the market for over 6 months, plenty of lookers but no offers. Why? Cause when they went to council re work they wanted to do after the purchase they found that the area has a heritage place and character overlay and it was all too much for them, quite understandably. However, none of them told the RE Agent why they were pulling out until about 3 weeks ago a buyer finally explained his reasons.

Am currently in arguments with Council as to the interpretation of Character Precinct in their Code and what can and can't be done to the dwelling. I think I have almost reached the decision to take it off the market, stay in the house but raise it so it can fit the family.

It was built prior to mail delivery in the area so pre 1876. It was raised to non-legal height in the 1970's and built in using brick and besser block for external cladding. When I bought it in 1992 downstairs had all the internal steel poles exposed and it was just one big area with a ******* bathroom, toilet and laundry.

Now with this new information about the old house and the fact that all the older kids have their own houses I find that I am going to have to sell the new house and move back to the old house in order to raise the capital to try and get it raised to legal height, put in internal stairs etc.

So I will have to:
1) Do it in stages
2) Do lots of the work myself (ie rip down all the current external cladding and internal walls. Such a shame we can't use the current slab as stated on past posts)
3) Probably do some of the internal framing myself and pay for the gyprock, plastering and external cladding to be done.
4) Do all painting myself.

The house is currently two bedrooms upstairs, lounge, kitchen (which was tacked on many years ago), bathroom and toilet. Any ideas for saving money would be greatly appreciated.

Has anyone had to deal with this Character Precinct Overlay when trying to raise a dwelling?

ANY ideas please?

Well, the raise is now done, plumbing and electricity re-connected, and I put in some stairs at the back. To cut cost on stairs, I decided to go straight stairs at the back (no one can see it anyway) using pre-fab steel stringers (about $600 pair). Re-cycled the timber treads from the old set of stairs (just happened that the front had 9 and rear had 7, and the new steps need 16 treads!). Put them in myself and just need to build handrails on the weekend. All up less than $1k for the rear stairs. Front stairs will be proper timber stairs that will probably cost me $7k due to 2 landings, but they affect the appearance of the house so can't do anything about that. Concrete slab is booked from next couple weeks.

For those wanting to know how much all this cost, here is my rough breakdown:
- Raise $18k
- Electrician (connect/re-connect) $1200
- Plumber (connect/re-connect including new underslab drains) $3600
- Slab $13k
- Stairs $8k
- Plans $3,300
- Certifier $1,100
- BCC plumbing approval $380
- Excavator and tip truck $2000 (for clearing old stumps and removing concrete/soil, usually not included with house raise quotes)
- Soil test $580

Total about $50k to get the house up in the air with a slab. Lots of negotiation/quoting to get these prices, so if you don't have the time to put in, then you'll definitely pay more. For example, the house raise and concrete I had up to 5+ quotes to get the prices I got, otherwise they were about $4k each more. Getting quotes takes heaps of time and effort. Also, I DIY'ed as much as I could, such as the rear stairs, re-connecting stormwater drains, demolition etc. You'll pay thousands more if you have to get someone to do it for you. You will also get people who try it on for you with quotes, like my $16k plumber, these people think that just because you are house raising you're made of money. They need to get real, I'm only 29, how much money could I possibly have?

Raising is definitely not for the faint hearted when the bills start rolling in. I still have much more to go, painting exterior, new roof on rear deck, repairing gutters, fencing, landscaping, new kitchen, bathroom, polish floors, paint interior, repair old timbers, the list goes on. These things I will do over time and DIY as much as possible. Will try and post pics when I can figure it out.

At the risk of being a serial poster, another way to save is on termite protection. No need for $3k full chemical job. If you are doing a full concrete slab, then all you need to termite protection called Kordon on all protrusions (posts and plumbing pipes) and any joins in the slab (eg. patio slab). I've researched this and the Kordon stuff works and is cost effective. Its about $16/m, which works out to a few hundred for the avg. house, much better than $3k! When you build in under you need Kordon on the outside edge of the slab too, but by the metre it will still be under $1k.

I've got about 120sq metres downstairs. So that works out to be about $110 per sq meter. Keep in mind I got a really cheap quote, the others were about $5k more.

Speaking of which, the concrete was poured today! 4 full concrete trucks to do the slab. Got to keep it wet to cure for the next 7 days. It looks great, and the amount of steel in there, its never going down. The guys did a really good job and I'm very happy with their professionalism - which is surprising given the price.

Terri8, is your existing slab a engineered one? I question whether you can lay a new slab over the old, and get approval for it. The amount of slab thickening, steel bars, etc that goes down, I can't see how it can be done on an existing slab. Perhaps if you get a *** engineer to certify it...? Plus with the new steel columns that go in to replace the existing ones, they go in each at minimum 90cm by 45cm diameter - that's one big hole! There won't be anything left of the old slab after that. Its a shame mine is now finished, because if you could see it when they were raising, you will understand that NOTHING under the house is left intact after a raise, there is just too much digging to be done.

All great info Joe. I've been busting my gut getting a new fence, landscaped gardens, new drains in etc. With my wedding in October, 2011 might be the year that I get things happening

What are you going to be putting in downstairs in the meantime to keep it somewhat secure? Are you just going to have slats, or leave it open until you have it built in?

Timbo - I will be putting slats in downstairs to close everything in. It will probably work out to be about $2k of timber, but I will do it DIY and use screws so the timber can be re-used for fencing later.

My hot water system decided to pack it in now after 17 years of good use and after paying the plumber to re-locate it, not good timing with my cashflows. The safety swiches in my meter box also decided to pack in at the same time. Really need to have money put aside for these things on top of the reno costs.

I've got lots of cracks appearing in the house now too. Wasn't unexpected as the house was 6 inches out at the back before it was raised. Lucky with old Queenslanders the VJ's just shift and it will all be fixed when I repaint. A few cracks closed up too

There is a bit of sway in the house now its much higher, and downstairs hasn't been built. I'm hoping the frame for the slats will reduce this a bit. I've got 6 sets of steel bracing with turnbuckles on, originally the house raiser didn't want to put on turnbuckles, but they make a lot of difference. Make sure when you get quotes that this gets included as they charge a lot for it after the fact.

Great thread - just subscribing (hopefully)

We used Martin @ Allzone Concrete, did a good job, can't post the contact details but look him up in the Brisbane white pages