Hi all
Im currently going through electrical upgrade stage and am starting to feel sick as we are over the 12k mark.
Is that the norm for most of the people who have recently built ?
Could you let me know what you paid for your upgrades.
Cheers
Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Jan 27, 2014 4:41 pm Hi all Im currently going through electrical upgrade stage and am starting to feel sick as we are over the 12k mark. Is that the norm for most of the people who have recently built ? Could you let me know what you paid for your upgrades. Cheers Re: Electrical Upgrade costs 2Jan 27, 2014 4:59 pm What do you have included in your upgrade? Our builder (small boutique builder) had a higher first quote but when we looked at the *real* cost of building with project builders we found that the boutique builder was very reasonable. Part of this was they accurately reflected the genuine cost of things like ground works, electrical and plumbing, tiling and reasonable budgets for kitchen cabinetry. As it stands our total 'extra' costs are less than $4k so far and include additional power points, smart wiring, grey water plumbing (not system, just plumbing), rainwater harvesting (including connection to supplied tank) and a better oven/cooktop. Why am I telling you all that? (not to gloat - seriously!) To highlight that it depends what is included in the upgrade and what is included in the base contract. Our base contract included a basic electrical plan that was for a bayonet light in every room, odd extra one here/there, a couple of external lights on sensors, three fans, two double power points/room, a couple of tv antennas, two phone connections, two double outside power points and a bunch of external lights. We've added a bit more - a few extra power points, changed a couple of lights to heaters in the bathrooms etc but we're sticking with the basic bayonet lights (our house design means that we'll have loads of day time light and at night we're carefully placing the lights, there's enough from the bayonets to cover us). Our builder isn't charging us for these extras - they seem to have a fudge budget on everything from what I can see and are being really accommodating - it's nice to not see the paperwork, and I suspect the overall cost is about the same as if we'd had to bill every one of them through a project home anyway. I think a lot of people go a bit berko with the downlights and they cost SERIOUS dollars to do - you need so many and they aren't cheap. There's probably a bunch of other stuff that you are adding in that you might be able to revisit? We're doing some things like LED light globes into halogen fittings (owner supplied lights) etc to get good lights in areas that we need them. Re: Electrical Upgrade costs 3Jan 27, 2014 8:01 pm Yes, stick to plain old bayonet light fittings as much as you can, as it is a whole lot cheaper to add your fancy light fitting after handover. Sometimes I'm sure there's people who have added a light fitting they liked during build time, only to find it doesn't work out the way they wanted after they move in. If you know a good sparky, get them involved and see if they can run extra cabling during build time, that they can hook up with extras afterwards.... not all builders will let you do that, so ask before you sign on the dotted line. I'd be getting your personal sparky to add in extra cabling to additional power points. A single double outlet for your TV isn't good enough these days, just like one powerpoint in the bedrooms, particulary master bedrooms. Luckily as a owner builder I can get a whole lot of extra cable installed, but not commissioned until much later when I can afford to get the extra outlets finally hooked up. Oh, and see if you can get your circuit breaker board put in the garage, and leave the meter box just for the meters only. If you trip a circuit breaker of a night time, it's so much nicer to just go in to the garage to reset it, than go outside to do the same. Owner Building at Jimboomba Woods in Logan City Qld. Blog : http://bandlnewhomebuild.blogspot.com H1 thread : viewtopic.php?f=38&t=68283 . Must be labour only. One of those how long is a piece of wire questions. 4 4096 |