Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Mar 14, 2009 8:29 pm Myself and my partner have just purchased 2 acres west of Warrnambool in Victoria. We are busy getting all of our designs completed and submitted to the council asap so we can sign a building contract by June 30 2009 and take advantage of the FHOG boost. We have always wanted to build our own house and have decided that we want to go with a private builder as there are not a lot of high quality volume builders available in our area.
My VERY first question is - when signing a building contract is it possible to have "exclusions" specified by us for things that we can purchase and have installed ourselves? For EXAMPLE: We have a friend who is a glazier and is happy to purchase and install our shower screens and sliding doors. Is it also worth while purchasing materials yourself when they are at a discounted rate? EXAMPLE: If beaumont tiles has a huge sale and we purchase the amount of tiles we need for the build when they are on sale and just have them in storage ready for the tilling stage. Has anyone ever done this and is it worth the trouble? (I mean with ANYTHING - purchasing an oven/cooktop, paint, anything!) We are looking to reduce our contract price anyway we can by doing things ourself etc. So any suggestions on areas to do so would be HUGELY appreciated!!!!! Re: Private Builder - Reducing Contract $$$ with DIY? 2Mar 14, 2009 9:01 pm Yes I have heard of people doing this before,
I don't know alot about it but just talk to the builder at tell him your intentions from the start. Good-Luck Building Thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=13002 Site start: 8th July 2009 Handover: 11/12/2009! 5 months total build time. 40 sqs of luxuary...Bliss! Re: Private Builder - Reducing Contract $$$ with DIY? 3Mar 14, 2009 10:49 pm Yes, completely normal. Obviously it does depend on the attitude of your builder as to what extent he is happy to be flexible but there should be no reason why he shouldn't allow you to exclude certain things from the contract.
I am in the middle of doing up our contract right now (builder is my father in law so very casual contract) The contracts schedule (or specs) is very detailed and when it comes to a certain item that you have nominated to supply yourself, he will just put ' to be supplied by client'. Re: Private Builder - Reducing Contract $$$ with DIY? 4Mar 14, 2009 11:21 pm I think every cent counts, but it comes down to:
a) if your builder will allow it (which he may not for various reasons) AND b) whether the saving justifies the mucking around arranging yourself for us, some things were worth doing, and the builder was open minded to some of our requirements/requests, but some that just said no. So do you sums first, then approach the builder. As for stocking up on tiles on sale, I think it's great if the builder allows it - and I know my builder wouldn't have allowed that. Maybe the shower screen he would have... Annie A thankful person is a happy person. [/color]My hobby design blog: http://aviewondesign.blogspot.com/ Re: Private Builder - Reducing Contract $$$ with DIY? 5Mar 15, 2009 8:56 am you maybe able to save on bathroom completion as well. When we built the first time we only had one of our 2 bathrooms finished off. One had no tiling etc. You might even be able to get it done so that one bathroom is just a shell without fittings bath, sink etc. so you can complete it later.
We also had no internal painting done at all. (# if you can afford it get door frames done. they are the worst thing to paint for the first time) Re: Private Builder - Reducing Contract $$$ with DIY? 6Mar 15, 2009 9:06 am Yeah it all comes down to the flexibility of your builder I think?
My builder was pretty flexible, the only outside tradie we got in was to do the benchtops, but he would have been fine in letting me get anyone else in, and in fact encouraged it for stuff like HT wiring as it wasn't his specialty. I know he also cna build houses just to lock up stage, and let you do the rest yourself, however I guess you would then need an Owner Builder permit or something to finish it off? Also if he does not complete the works could you have Certificate of Occupancy problems to deal with? ie you might not be able to get C of O with some tiling not done etc...? "Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions." — Elizabeth Gilbert Living in our new house. Currently scaping the land. Re: Private Builder - Reducing Contract $$$ with DIY? 7Mar 15, 2009 9:50 am that was why we had to have one bathroom completed. But you don't/didn't have to have both done to get it. Re: Private Builder - Reducing Contract $$$ with DIY? 8Mar 15, 2009 11:31 am Perfectly normal and thats how I did it. I also reckon I got a cheaper house than those volume builders, better service and a lot more flexibility.
Just do up your quotation request and nominate all the PC items and quality/brands etc and then all your quotes should be extremely similar. e.g. 1. Bricks to be at $950/1,000 2. Paint to be 2 coats of Dulux 3. Kitchen tiles to be at $50/m2 4. Kitchen to be at $12,000 etc etc. The builder will then give you a quote based on those speccies and then progress payments will reflect a plus/minus on what you or the builder has shopped around for. In my case I was lucky enough to get some "seconds" bricks (slight colour variation) for $350/thousand. We also got our own kitchen quotes but in the end went with the builders preferred supplier. We also go a lot of tiles on sale and supplied these ourselves to the builder Re: Private Builder - Reducing Contract $$$ with DIY? 9Mar 15, 2009 11:38 am P.S.
As you said we also did "exclusions" as you mentioned. e.g. stove top and hot water service to be supplied by owners. Builders electrician to supply and connect power. My builder was a lot happier with this arrangement as we could then shop around for the best prices etc, whereas all he would do would ring up he's preferred supplier and not care about price as much as we were. If you already have a contract, is the inspection cost stated in there? If not they would be forced to issue you a variation which you could of course object to. 12 22000 You talk about deletions, are they variations or PS and PC adjustments? pleas list them 1 11986 Hi everyone, Looking for some advise. We are about to build an above ground pool in our backyard. There is a private sewer line running under the pool at 1.6m… 0 7969 |