Browse Forums Building A New House 1 May 17, 2011 8:30 pm Hi All, We are wanting to build a new family home and are undecided which way we should go. I was hoping to call on your experinces to help us decide. the question is if we built a similar home what will work out chaeper and what are the pros and cons,Do we be an owner builder or use one of the large builders. Any advise will be appreciated. cheers john Re: Owner builder V using a large builder pros and cons 2May 18, 2011 4:40 pm This might sound harsh, but if you have to ask, then you probably shouldn't be OB. IMO unless you are connected to the building industry in some way shape or form, then you are better off using a builder IMO. Its a bit of a myth that its cheaper to owner build - it can be don't get me wrong, but in reality it usually takes the average OB much longer to complete the project. Plus you generally pay retail for all your tapware, bricks, pipes, paint etc etc because you aren't buying in bulk like builders do. And lastly, it is very time consuming managing your own build - so unless you have hours and hours spare daily to direct the build, chase up trades and inspect the worksite I would give OB a miss. Its lots of little things like site cleaning, site toilet, trades that refuse to work at the same time, getting trades to do things in sequence (one is late, throws the schedule and might mean the next trade is unavailable when you are ready etc). Re: Owner builder V using a large builder pros and cons 3May 19, 2011 4:05 am My wife and I just finished our owner build. We done some of the work, but mostly we acted as the general contractor. I was blessed to have family in the construction industry, who could offer advice. We became very familiar with the process of building a house before we started. The key to building your own home is to educate yourself and get to know people in the industry. If you are nervous about building your own home you might consider hiring a general contractor who will act as a consultant. This might be a cheaper route than hiring a full fledged contractor. You can check out our blog at ourfoursquare.com Re: Owner builder V using a large builder pros and cons 4May 19, 2011 7:39 am John, If your goal is to go the cheapest option, then obviously that is going to be a volume builder. But keep in mind you get what you pay for, I personally have been turned off the volume builders through bad experiences of people I know. I would prefer to pay the extra money for either a boutique builder or a small private builder. I don't want to be just another number of the volume builders. It depends on what you want, you can choose an existing design from a small builder which would be the simplest way of doing it, or you can go the whole hog and get either an architect, draftsman or designer builder to put plans together for you, and take the plans to a few different builders and see which is the best option for you. In my opinion owner builder is only for people who are either in the industry or have close links to people in the industry, and also for people who have a lot of spare time on their hands. My Hamptons build (completed): viewtopic.php?f=31&t=63370 Moved in Wednesday 11th Dec 2013 Front landscaping completed June 2016 Re: Owner builder V using a large builder pros and cons 5May 19, 2011 9:18 am I would go with a large builder. After you've built a house with them you'll know how difficult it is to build one yourself You need to watch them carefully and learn as much as you can about building so you can keep them on track though. Volume builders don't have much time to watch over your house so you need to do it yourself. Metricon Riva 33 - http://herlihy-riva.blogspot.com Site start 15/03/2010 - Handover 23/12/2010 9 months and 8 days (284 calendar days) from site start to handover Re: Owner builder V using a large builder pros and cons 6May 19, 2011 1:29 pm Thanks for the feedback from all of you. We are still a few months away but will need to make a decision soon, but it is looking liek a volume builder or a small private as i dont have as much time as it sounds you need to do it as OB cheers, Standard uninsulated double brick has an R value of around 0.7. An insulated standard 90mm stud timber frame can have an R value of around 2.7. Even if you insulate a… 17 12271 The engineering is the engineering. It's irrelevant how much material you have. Unless it fits the requirements of your design the engineer can't "make"it work. You might… 7 9800 |