Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jul 20, 2010 2:23 pm Hi, We want to design our own home on our half an acre sloping block. We want fairly accurate quotes though before we pay any builders. Do we need to use our own draftsman/architect first? If not, how do we get fairly accurate quotes without paying each builder their initial fees? Thanks. Re: Custom design, where to start? 2Jul 20, 2010 4:32 pm Hi Cathedral, To be able to get a fairly accurate quote from the builder you will need to do the preliminary work that the builders usually would cover with their initial fees. So at a bare minimum I think that includes things like: soil testing, contour plan of your block and a fairly accurate floorplan so that you know the size of your house and rooms etc. I don't think you need to have an architect/draftsman for this as they should be able to give you quotes without the final engineering designs. In fact, most builders told us that they don't think using architects/draftsmen is worth it as they don't know the ins and outs of building and come up with either "unbuildable" or hugely expensive designs. And the builders will run all those plans past their architects/engineers anyway and redo most of that. Don't know if that's really true or not or just one of their sales thingies. We've just gone through something similar and took our custom plan to some builders and generally they could tell us what it would cost to build the house itself, but were not able to give us any firm indication on what the costs for the earthworks, foundations, slab etc. would be as we didn't have the contour plans or soil testing done. But it gave us enough information to choose who to start off with. Hope this is some help. Thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=52680 SiteStart 19/11/11 Slab 10/12/11 Frame 17/02/12 Roof 3/05/12 LockUp 22/06/12 Handover 31/08/12 Re: Custom design, where to start? 3Jul 20, 2010 8:33 pm Thalian72 Hi Cathedral, To be able to get a fairly accurate quote from the builder you will need to do the preliminary work that the builders usually would cover with their initial fees. So at a bare minimum I think that includes things like: soil testing, contour plan of your block and a fairly accurate floorplan so that you know the size of your house and rooms etc. . We have just finished building a custom design on a sloping block which we designed ourselves, these are the steps we took. Firstly I have to agree with Thalian, the most important step to do first is get your soil test and contour survey done, (the builder should credit you this amount in your contract as they will not have to get them done) . We then drew up our own design on a home cad program with est room sizes and took this to a couple of builder who were able to give us an estimate of the building cost. In this est quote they also provided a spec list. This estimate gave us an idea of where the build sat in our budget and what changes had to be made to meet budget. We found most builders were happy to give us advice on how we could reduce costs. We then took this information to a draftsman who drew up prelim plan that a builders could give us a full quote. Once we decided on a builder full drawing were done. There will be a lot of emails and it will all seem a bit overwhelming but be patient it is worthi it in the end. 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: Custom design, where to start? 5Jul 21, 2010 11:25 pm Yes, that's the million dollar question. We weren't sure who to go to and how to do it and that's partly why we didn't do it ourselves. I did a google search and there are lots of engineering firms and surveyors that seem to offer the service but it wasn't quite clear to me if they would only do the soil test and contour plan or more. Moreover we had some advice that builders a) prefer to use their "trusted" contractors they always use and b) if you give them the reports you did, will only credit you a fraction of the cost as they claim that their engineers still have to re-check and re-work the reports. So therefore we decided to not do it ourselves and enter into an initial works agreement with a building company that will organise the tests for us. Sorry that I can't help you much more with this. Thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=52680 SiteStart 19/11/11 Slab 10/12/11 Frame 17/02/12 Roof 3/05/12 LockUp 22/06/12 Handover 31/08/12 Re: Custom design, where to start? 6Jul 22, 2010 12:55 pm Have you looked around at any builders standard plans that may suit your sloping block. Some builder let you simply re-arrange the rooms from a standard plan to make it suit your requirement and that way you can get a good indication of price without spending money on them drafting plans. Are you thinking split-level? Where are you located? Re: Custom design, where to start? 7Jul 22, 2010 4:19 pm Yes we've looked at heaps of standard plans, but can't find anything even close to what we want. We are looking at split level, sloping down away from the road. We are in Doreen, Melbourne. There is one builder we like who said if after the initial stuff is done and we decide to go with someone else we can have the test results he did as we paid for them, so might do that. Re: Custom design, where to start? 8Jul 22, 2010 4:27 pm cathedral There is one builder we like who said if after the initial stuff is done and we decide to go with someone else we can have the test results he did as we paid for them, so might do that. That should be standard with any builder. You pay for the testing, you get the reports. We figured that it would be the easiest way to choose a builder from the initial discussions and rough quotes we got and then do the preliminary works with them. In our case we had to pay $1200 for soil testing, contour plan and concept plans. After that we will receive an updated, detailed quote. If we decide to stay with this builder, the $1200 will be credited as part of the $3000 contract fee. If we decide to walk away, we will get all reports and plans and can take them to another builder. So we figured for the sake of $1200 it was much easier to do that than try to organize everything ourselves. Worst case it is a bit of a loss, but compared to the whole building cost not that terribly much. If you like the builder you're talking to so far, give it a shot. Good luck! Thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=52680 SiteStart 19/11/11 Slab 10/12/11 Frame 17/02/12 Roof 3/05/12 LockUp 22/06/12 Handover 31/08/12 Re: Custom design, where to start? 9Jul 22, 2010 4:31 pm Just be aware if you pay a fee for them to do draft plans for the Tender the plans are normally copyright to them so you can't simply take them somewhere else later. You can however take those plans to another builder or draftsperson and have them alter them a little and you should be right though. Re: Custom design, where to start? 10Jul 22, 2010 5:10 pm I'm not an expert on copyright, but I believe that if you take your plan to a builder and all they do is draw it up nicely and maybe do the engineering calculations and stuff, then they don't get copyright on your initial plan. They are of course within their rights not to give you what they have drawn up but you will still be able to take your floorplan and go to another company and have them engineer and draw up the houseplans again without needing to make any changes to your original plan. At least that is the advice we got and that is also what several building companies told us would be the case. In the end, if it is a custom plan that you have come up with that suits your needs and maybe even fits perfectly for your block, then what use would the building company have for this plan? They couldn't use it to build the house anywhere else. Thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=52680 SiteStart 19/11/11 Slab 10/12/11 Frame 17/02/12 Roof 3/05/12 LockUp 22/06/12 Handover 31/08/12 ideal house depends on the site and location as much as internal floor plan....what is the distance from the house to all four boundaries, where is north, describe your… 3 15169 Hello, we can help you please get in contact 0421019219 thank you 3 31851 |