Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Dec 29, 2009 3:43 pm Hi guys I'm new to this forum. I graduated with a degree in Architecture but haven't really had anything built yet. However I'm planning to get my own house built next year and in great need of some help! I'm designing the house myself so I can't use any project home builders. The land is some 450sqm and sits on the edge of water in Point Cook(sanctuary lakes), Melbourne. Soil is P class. Natural ground is 7m below and soil report recommends piling. Friends told me to expect site costs of around $50,000. It's gonna be a double storey house of around 270sqm internal incl. a double garage. Thinking about doing Reverse brick veneer on the Northern facades to improve energy performance. Budget is tight. I have my own preliminary plans done. Gained preliminary approval from the estate. Now moving on to the next stage (whatever that means..). I'm running out of energy and expertise to do the working drawings myself (have only had experience with joinery drawings). I have a full time job. So.. I'm not sure whether I should get a draftsman to finish all the working drawings and I go out to find builders for tender...going through all the pain of contract administration...or does any draftsman do project management and contract administration for you as well? or should I go for some architects (bit ironic..) to manage the whole thing? (but a bit concerned whether any architects would take on a project without doing the "design" part) I was approached by a builder as well as a project manager about this project. The builder says he'll do $230,000 for everything including drawings consultants fee and construction costs, which sounds ridiculously low. And the project manager says he'll charge 2% of the total building cost and strongly advised against engaging a builder directly. He says he'll do the managing,running around, liasing,tendering and contract administration. Fees don't including drawings or any consultants fee. But I have a personal friend who knows this project manager and says he is not a reliable person to do business with. At this stage fees are not an issue. Time and cost of the building is of the highest priority. Love to hear any suggestions,recommendations or comments from you guys! Thank you in advance YC Re: Building with customised plan (melbourne) 2Dec 30, 2009 7:53 am Some project builders also do custom designs - J G K1ng springs to mind. I make no recommendations for or against them, they're simply the only one I can remember off the top of my head who offer this service. A friend of mine is building with them (own design). I know a couple of other builders we spoke to in our initial search for a home mentioned that they also do this. Might be worth a few phone calls to see if it's a viable option. Good luck! Eesh...those site costs are scary. Re: Building with customised plan (melbourne) 3Dec 30, 2009 9:19 pm We took our prelim plans to several builders to get a ball park price, from that we go working drawings done making changes to bring it in on budget it cost about $3000 for full plans drawn by a drafty which the buiders where able to give a full quote from there we choose the builder that we felt we could work with the best, on that we where happy with his quality and price. We also supplied the builder with soil tests & contour survey with the plans so we could get a quote taking into account site works (we have a 6meter fall over build zone) We are happy so far that we found a smaller builder as it good to be able to talk directly to the builder instead of site supervisors and its his name on the licence. Goodluck cheers Lou http://take2-customdesigndownslope.blogspot.com 07-10-09 omg they have cut the block 14-05-10 we finally have the keys Re: Building with customised plan (melbourne) 4Dec 31, 2009 9:54 pm Thank you guys for the feedback! I just contacted a drafty to get all the working drawings done first. It'll probably start from mid January. I have a feeling it'll go over my budget cos I have quite a bit of customised joinery. But I'll see what the drafty says once he gets started on that. Re: Building with customised plan (melbourne) 5Jan 01, 2010 10:19 am There are a couple of ways you can do it... Have a few general discussions with some builders about their average per square metre charge is and what that includes, then work out how many square metres you can afford to build... that way your not paying to have your plans drafted, then if you need it a bit smaller, you will then be charged more to change it. We bought our block of land which is a tiny bit bigger than yours but very narrow so we needed to design our own. We have heaps of ideas, took them all to the draftsman who put it to paper. Then we got quotes, had to scale down the house a bit then pretty much finalised our plans. Our initial choice told us he couldnt devote enough time to build our house so we went and got a few more quotes. our pool builder actually gave us our current builder's name and in a way we are very glad it turned out like that. We had two quoted at the same time, played them off against each (to a small degree) and picked the one that we felt we could work with best and that we trusted the most. What is your budget and what are you hoping to include? eg. 2 or 3 bathrooms, ducted etc? What state are you in? Re: Building with customised plan (melbourne) 6Jan 01, 2010 7:04 pm Ms Builder There are a couple of ways you can do it... Have a few general discussions with some builders about their average per square metre charge is and what that includes, then work out how many square metres you can afford to build... that way your not paying to have your plans drafted, then if you need it a bit smaller, you will then be charged more to change it. We bought our block of land which is a tiny bit bigger than yours but very narrow so we needed to design our own. We have heaps of ideas, took them all to the draftsman who put it to paper. Then we got quotes, had to scale down the house a bit then pretty much finalised our plans. Our initial choice told us he couldnt devote enough time to build our house so we went and got a few more quotes. our pool builder actually gave us our current builder's name and in a way we are very glad it turned out like that. We had two quoted at the same time, played them off against each (to a small degree) and picked the one that we felt we could work with best and that we trusted the most. What is your budget and what are you hoping to include? eg. 2 or 3 bathrooms, ducted etc? What state are you in? Hi Ms Builder My budget is around $400,000. I'm expecting site costs to be $50,000+ because of the poor site condition. The house will have 4 bedroom, two ensuites, one family bathroom and one powder room. Hydronic heating. I'm in Melbourne. Yc Re: Building with customised plan (melbourne) 7Jan 02, 2010 1:48 pm [quote="Ms Builder"]There are a couple of ways you can do it... Have a few general discussions with some builders about their average per square metre charge is and what that includes, then work out how many square metres you can afford to build... that way your not paying to have your plans drafted, then if you need it a bit smaller, you will then be charged more to change it. We bought our block of land which is a tiny bit bigger than yours but very narrow so we needed to design our own. We have heaps of ideas, took them all to the draftsman who put it to paper. Then we got quotes, had to scale down the house a bit then pretty much finalised our plans. Our initial choice told us he couldnt devote enough time to build our house so we went and got a few more quotes. our pool builder actually gave us our current builder's name and in a way we are very glad it turned out like that. We had two quoted at the same time, played them off against each (to a small degree) and picked the one that we felt we could work with best and that we trusted the most. quote] We did the exact same thing with our build it also came down to which builder we could work with the best, that is so important. Cheers Lou http://take2-customdesigndownslope.blogspot.com 07-10-09 omg they have cut the block 14-05-10 we finally have the keys Re: Building with customised plan (melbourne) 8Jan 02, 2010 2:08 pm So it sounds like a pretty large house, four bedrooms, three bathrooms. Obviously bathrooms cost quite a bit to do, if you decide you could make do with two bathrooms, I think you would find it a little more acheivable. Im in Qld though and have no idea about costs in melbourne. I dont even know what Hydronic heating is What other finishes are you going for? We are having ducted air con (its hot up here in qld), porcelain tiles, stone benchtops etc. Our house is approx 364sm with 4 beds, with a large 5ht bed/recreational room, media, lounge and dining, three bathrooms balcony up top and alfresco on lower level. We had a lot lower site costs than yours (not sure how much), but with our finishes, we couldnt have done it for 400. Do you have any idea on square meterage from your initial drawings? Re: Building with customised plan (melbourne) 9Jan 02, 2010 2:13 pm I also forgot to add that your cheapest quote will not always equal the cheapest in the end ... One of the builders that quoted us was actually cheaper but I could just tell from the way the quote was worded that they had left a lot of room for variations. The first quote even said something along the lines of peirs not included (we are building on manmade canals, so i was pretty sure we would need some kind of good footings)... They also inlcuded only porcelain veneer tiles in the price (never even heard of them before the quote) and just all other things that would have cost an arm and a leg to upgrade. I knew that if they were skimping on those things, there would be more we didnt even think about and would have to put up with later. Our current builder came back with a little higher quote, but got it right from the start. Took the time to find out what kind of house we were after and quoted for that (even including a few things we never asked for or thought of but will finish the house off nicely). I really liked that he took the time to do that. Also other little things were thsat he was eager to please and had built houses in our estate before so knew how to do it. Its going to sound so silly when I say that just his general attitude and "vibe" also impressed me as well. Re: Building with customised plan (melbourne) 10Jan 05, 2010 8:39 pm Ms Builder I also forgot to add that your cheapest quote will not always equal the cheapest in the end ... One of the builders that quoted us was actually cheaper but I could just tell from the way the quote was worded that they had left a lot of room for variations. The first quote even said something along the lines of peirs not included (we are building on manmade ****, so i was pretty sure we would need some kind of good footings)... They also inlcuded only porcelain veneer tiles in the price (never even heard of them before the quote) and just all other things that would have cost an arm and a leg to upgrade. I knew that if they were skimping on those things, there would be more we didnt even think about and would have to put up with later. Our current builder came back with a little higher quote, but got it right from the start. Took the time to find out what kind of house we were after and quoted for that (even including a few things we never asked for or thought of but will finish the house off nicely). I really liked that he took the time to do that. Also other little things were thsat he was eager to please and had built houses in our estate before so knew how to do it. Its going to sound so silly when I say that just his general attitude and "vibe" also impressed me as well. Ms builder thanks a lot for your reply. That was very helpful. And your builder sounds fantastic. Have you finished your house yet? I'm looking at 270 sqm internal (including garage). 4 bdr, 2 ensuite, 1 bath, 1 pdr. 2 living and 1 small dining. So it's not really a big house. I have an architect friend and he was saying that $1300 per square metre is the reasonable square metre price I should allow for. That's 350,000 already. I need another 50,000 for site costs so I'm already pushing my limit if $1300/sqm is the quality I'm going for. Btw I want stone bench tops as well... possibly some stone tiles in the entry foyer... custom probably not. Volume, most defiantly, but spec would vary. If youre doing a knock down, there additional costs associated with that that will eat into your budget… 1 10626 I have posted this before: We hired Darbecca to do every stage inspection, and I strongly recommend them to anyone that asks me. They were amazing. Thorough reports… 2 5182 5 11207 |