Browse Forums General Discussion Re: Knock down and rebuild v's renovate 6Jul 26, 2011 4:54 pm Its hard to calculate labor as all trades will have a labor fee. Most builders work on a % margin. Usually the margin is around 20% for the average. Some will be lower some will be higher. My builder claims he is charging less than 20% but I doubt it. They also like to charge more mark up for variations post finalization of contracts. The difference in the look of the new part and old part is part of the equation you need to work out. It was a factor that led us to knock down and re build. Are you worried about the outside, inside or both? And what do you mean by leg work? There aren't really a lot of things you can do if you aren't very handy to start with and certain things that you want to get done by an expert no matter how handy you are. IMO you could probably install the kitchen (not appliances) and bathroom cupboards, paint, set up your own heating and cooling (only parts of it like ducting) fix plaster (get a finisher in to do joins) but for the most part unless you are able to take a lot of time off work and learn each part before hand you won't be able to do most jobs required. How big is the house currently? We've had the offer of a short term tenant whilst waiting for CDC/DA home approval and demolition for our knock down rebuild. It would achieve a pretty low rent as it's… 0 13896 if the original house is in good condition most of what you listed could be added in stages without the need for KDR and costs and disruption of having to live elsewhere… 1 13843 Hi I live in a 100yr old semi and my neighbour added an additional floor last yr and our architect has advised that we can knock down our semi and build a free-standing… 0 37865 |