Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Mar 05, 2012 10:58 pm Pete and I are trying to figure out what parts we will supply ourselves and what jobs will we do ourselves after handover. After handover, we will oragnise the window furnishings (blinds/curtains) and the built-in wardrobes ourselves. We'll probably also organise concreting the driveway ourselves after handover too. We're specifying the type of item or style we'd like for things like doors, architraving, skirting, etc. We are planning to source and supply all the bathroom furniture (toilet, bath, vanity, taps, etc). We'll probably source the tiles ourselves and arrange delivery. Same with the carpets, lights and fans. Installation by the builder. Is this too much overkill? If we do this, have we taken on too much? Just wondering what is 'normal' & what others have done. What is your experince and what helped your decision in determining what to leave as the responsibility of the builder versus taking on that responsibility yourself? 2010, June : Land bought (1700sqm, battleaxe block). That's it so far! We're in the design phase .... What did you do yourself versus what is left to the builder? 2Mar 05, 2012 11:35 pm We are getting the builder to do most of it as its easier. They are doing the a/c, carpets, extra cupboards, store room shelves. All we are doing after hand over is the tiles to the living areas and curtains and paving (builder would only do concrete). We are paying extra for the convenience but are happy with that, although by getting our own tiles and paying someone to lay them we are saving about $8,000. Jasmin Hickinbotham Belmont - modified Signed: February 2011 Slab should go down before 2012 My build thread https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=52310&p=799483#p799483 Re: What did you do yourself versus what is left to the buil 3Mar 06, 2012 12:03 am Hey Pete_n_Pet! Before handover, we: - painted the exterior (Moroka texture paint) (massive job) - put in speaker cabling (Theatre room and ceiling speakers for a stereo) - put in Cat6 cabling - installed soundproofing batts to the theatre room, master bed, laundry - painted a few rooms inside - had a flooring installer do the bamboo floors throughout all the main living areas - arranged the aircon. - had the builder's electrician install ceiling fans, some downlights (which we supplied), and some pendants, and had power run to a spot in the garage for possible future driveway lighting) - added extra noggings and pieces of plywood where we thought we'd be hanging heavy things (dryer, TVs, big mirrors etc.), we bought our TV mounting brackets and hung those ourselves (though they can wait until handover). - fitted a metal track down the back of each TV to make it easier to feed cables through the wall in future. - designed the fitout of our WIR, had it made and installed it. After handover, we: - installed blinds (we lived with sheets up at the windows for a long while (though you can buy temporary blinds, we're cheapskates)) - fixed up the rest of the lighting stuff - installed speaker brackets in the theatre room (we'd laid the back two speaker and front two speaker cables before gyprock, took photos, marked on the floor and noted dimensions of where the cables were behind the walls). - retrofitted new kickboards over the original kitchen kickboards, to cover the 10mm gap of the bamboo floor. . . actually, I still haven't finished that. . . - painted the skirtings in the main area (which were put in after the bamboo went down) - painted feature walls. - Had a concrete driveway put in - Did all the landscaping ourselves (still not finished!) We bought our own kitchen appliances, some tiles (we got some mosaic tiles supercheap. . . but you have to try to get the mosaics the same thickness as your normal tiles if you're going to lay them side-by-side). I'm sure we did more too. . . We overdid it. . . completely. And I'm sure we wasted money doing and buying things that we didn't get credited back for in the end by the builder. If we were to do it all again, we'd probably do the following before handover: - put in speaker cabling - put in Cat6 cabling (you have to be a certified cabler for this one) - add extra noggings and pieces of plywood where we thought we'd be hanging heavy things (dryer, TVs, big mirrors etc.), and install TV mounting brackets - fit a metal track down the back of each TV to make it easier to feed cables through the wall in future. and the following after: - buy a wardrobe fitout from Ikea and install it ourselves - paint feature walls - install speaker brackets - install blinds - install lighting - have driveway put in - landscaping Some things just aren't worth the stress. . . the flooring. . . OMG! Never again! You think you're saving yourself a stack of cash, but you have to pick up all the pieces when they've gone. . . I still haven't finished repairing all the holes in the walls and repainting since we had our bamboo put down. . . at least if you get the builder to take care of that one, they'll fix up the walls afterwards. Good luck! Re: What did you do yourself versus what is left to the buil 4Mar 06, 2012 12:10 am oh. . . we were also thinking of supplying some of the bathroom stuff ourselves too .. . in the end we went with the builder's supplier (though we dealt with them direct and managed to screw them down on their prices). . . we had just got to the point where we'd been through so much crap with fixing problems, we thought "what happens if one of the vanities is delivered and it's broken in transit". . . we'd have to sort it out. . . as a retail consumer we had absolutely no clout with these suppliers. . . a builder will keep on buying from the same suppliers, so if there's a problem they will get it fixed straight away. Another example. .. we were going to source our stone benchtops, as we could get a much cheaper price. We went with the builder in the end. . . long story short, the flooring people knocked the kitchen out before the bench went on, the bench went on but was about 10mm out in one corner. . . the kitchen people came back out and spent a full day pulling the benchtop off, cutting the bamboo back, re-aligning the kitchen cupboards and replacing the benchtop. . . at no cost to us, although they knew it was our contractor who had created the problem. Thank the lord we got the benchtop through the builder! Re: What did you do yourself versus what is left to the buil 5Mar 06, 2012 11:30 am We sourced heaps as we are trying to do it sustainable. - the blocks (timbercrete) - heating and cooling - eco concrete - windows To save costs we have decided to do the following: - Driveway - Electrical trenching - Use our own electrician - source & supply all electrical (fans, lights etc) - telephone cabling - insulation - source and install (got some great deals from ebay) Think that's everything.... It's your house, do as much or as little as you want Re: What did you do yourself versus what is left to the buil 6Mar 06, 2012 11:38 am A lot of the time it depends on the builder. Some bigger companies don't allow you to supply any products - they will only use their suppliers and tradies. Others can be more flexible. We used a smaller private builder and we did our own kitchen, laundry benchtops and supplied the bath and toilets. We also supplied some light fittings which were installed by their eleco. No landscaping was to be completed by the builder (although in our case they went bankrupt before they finished our home) - it was always planned to be done by ourselves after handover. Some things are worth waiting for. Re: What did you do yourself versus what is left to the buil 7Mar 06, 2012 2:06 pm After handover, myself and DP are doing the following: -getting a mate tiler to do the tiling in our laundry. -buying the cabinet setup from Bunnings for the laundry and installing it all ourselves. -getting a slab of Laminex (to match the bathrooms) for the benchtop in the laundry. -flooring. -window coverings. rendering on the front of the house (friend is a plasterer). -ducted reverse cycle aircon (DH's brother is a fridge & sparkie). -painting. -soakwells. -hanging doors on all our empty door frames (the cost for these was too much to go through the builder. They were going to charge us $600 per doorway to install a door, yet they charged $145 for a frame and we can get the nice doors we like from Bunnings for just over $100 each. Savings!) -fitting out the inside of the master WIR. -glass shelves in the shower recesses. -towel racks to both bathrooms. -all cabling, e.g. network (activity, theatre, etc), phone points (activity, bedroom, theatre) and television points (activity, loungeroom, bedrooms). DH will also be adding more powerpoints to external walls. -installing bedroom fans. -heater fan lights in the bathrooms. -landscaping is provided by our developer, but we will be doing the retaining wall out the front. And I'm sure there's more but that's all off the top of my head. I did a lot of sourcing prices, etc, and found we got the best value by doing it ourselves minus the builders margin, plus it's using money we are saving up during the building process by living with inlaws. Therefore we're not adding it to the mortgage which keeps it nice and low. Well, low enough anyway -Ally Re: What did you do yourself versus what is left to the buil 8Mar 06, 2012 2:15 pm Kinda wish we'd been able to supply our own products for some things. My Mum works for a plumbing company who could have gotten all we needed for wholesale costs, and DP being a sparkie means he could have done the electrical himself but SPH said no Not to mention that the rangehood cost us $928 through the builder, when I know perfectly well I could have gotten it from Harvey Norman for $500 Re: What did you do yourself versus what is left to the buil 9Mar 06, 2012 8:38 pm Hi all Ours is supposed to be turn key package.. so after hqndover we hv planned to do 1) backyard pavement, landscaping & gardening 2) split a/c 3) solar power 4) change batten to down lights 5) install water tank may be more.. I'll come back at it:-) Re: What did you do yourself versus what is left to the buil 10Mar 06, 2012 8:53 pm Thanks for all the responses. We'd like to take on more DIY work ourselves but in reality, it would drag things out and for some things, we'd prefer someone else take responsibility for the things they are qualified to do (eg. electricians). We'd definitely be doing the landscaping ourselves (looking forward to that) but will ask builder's digger subbie to help with that possibly. Unless the builder thinks they can get a better price, we're planning on supplying all taps, showers, toilets, sinks, kitchen appliances. Builder to install. We'll also supply the tiles (builder to arrange installation) but the carpet guys reckons it will be cheaper if we deal with him directly. Window furnishings and the fit-out for the wardrobes will be done after handover (have specified empty cavity for wardrobes with architraves installed). @daveandally1 : interesting point about the installation of doors. That is something I know we can do. Will discuss with Peter and see what he thinks. We can definitely install our own towel rails, etc. Although we are thinking of getting a heated towel rail hardwired, so that will definitely need a sparky. @jodge : you've convinced us to at least get the tiles installed via the builder, hee hee. And what do you mean by "fitted a metal track down the back of each TV to make it easier to feed cables through the wall"? I've never heard of this??? It sounds like some of this will also depend on the flexibility of the builder. We'll see - it's all about negotiation .... 2010, June : Land bought (1700sqm, battleaxe block). That's it so far! We're in the design phase .... Re: What did you do yourself versus what is left to the buil 11Mar 06, 2012 9:27 pm Hey Pet. . . Are you paying for rent while you're building? Timing is another good thing to think about if you are. Haha, the track was a bit of a hairbrained idea. . . Works a treat though, it's just a c-channel which we screwed to the stud(after rotating the nigging), but it guides the cables down from the TV to the hole at the back of the DVD player just great! Re: What did you do yourself versus what is left to the buil 12Mar 06, 2012 9:41 pm jodge Hey Pet. . . Are you paying for rent while you're building? Timing is another good thing to think about if you are. Haha, the track was a bit of a hairbrained idea. . . Works a treat though, it's just a c-channel which we screwed to the stud(after rotating the nigging), but it guides the cables down from the TV to the hole at the back of the DVD player just great! Yes, we're renting, so delaying the move-in date by an extra 6 months after handover would not be ideal. We are not planning to simply take over a house carcass and fill it in ourselves - perish the thought! Will keep your cable track idea in mind. Sounds useful, thanks! 2010, June : Land bought (1700sqm, battleaxe block). That's it so far! We're in the design phase .... Re: What did you do yourself versus what is left to the buil 13Mar 06, 2012 9:51 pm Well, I think the track was only about $13 for 3 metres, we just left it sticking up into the roof at the top. .. handy for the foxtel man to use too. . . also if you want to run cat5 cabling behind your TV in the future. It had big round holes at intervals in the back, but I just stickytaped them up on both sides. Never thought anybody would use this idea The DIY project can be broken into two major steps. Planning and Design and Construction. Both of these steps are as important as one another to ensure you give… 0 4518 you need a fridgie to answer but I would think you vac the whole system then add gas if you have a leak, unless it is new install with the gas already loaded, in that case… 1 2321 Old Home Restoration / Renovation Hi, just discovered all these junks left behind under the floor. Could any of these be asbestos? Best to leave as it is or clean up? 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