Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Mar 15, 2012 10:05 am Just wondering what sort of things its not worth outsourcing? Obviously we want to get the best we can for our $$. Is it worth getting the builder to include these sorts of things or better off calling in your own tradies? Customised robes and cupboards in WIR, WIL, store room etc. Downlights throughout. extra powerpoints and or wiring as necessary (such as 3 phase power for our spa) Painting walls Those sorts of things. Thank you all so much for your invaluable help on this forum Re: Builder to do extras or organise your own to save $$$? 2Mar 15, 2012 10:22 am Hi Auds, we are doing our own heating/aircon, purchased our own dishwasher (graysonline for bargins) and any other small items basins, light fittings. I am pretty sure you need 3 phase organised at the start, we were going to use a friend to do our electrical but think it might be to hard due to OHS, insurance with the builder. You may not be able to get 3 phase, you need to check with power company, I found out we have access to it. Our builder told us to meet with electrician to discuss extra's, might be cheaper for you to buy them then they install, however you are stuck with the electrician that might not negotiate! In the display home we looked at it was $1600 extra to have WIR fit out this was for some draws and shelves in white melamine, nothing fancy, would probably be cheaper to install later direct with cabinet makers. Painting, for white arch's, doors and ceilings we had to pay extra $600, most builders prefer to use one colour and then different strengths, I love white and thought this would be pretty standard but obviously easier for painters to paint using same colours. And I think 2 coats isn't enough, the plaster needs to be undercoated, standard with our builder is 2 coats however we got 3, 1 undercoat, 2 top coats. Hope some of this helps Re: Builder to do extras or organise your own to save $$$? 3Mar 15, 2012 10:29 am I would consider getting your own contractors to do your wardrobes as ikea have great wardrobe ideas and probably would work for your WIL and store room too. I know a few people have used ikea for butler’s pantry- they ripped out the ones the builder put in and added cabinetry etc. In regards to feature walls I think the builder charges too much and if you are buying furniture I think it's probably best to move in and establish if you want accent walls and where. We had the builder add extra outlets, 2 way switches and light batons in the front and backyards that later we will buy the light fitting and have someone install them. I have read on this forum that if you are building a 2 storey to have all downstairs down lights added by the builder as it is easier to do when building than after handover and add any upstairs after. We have a single storey and didn’t add any as we use lamps and we aren't sure of the dark spots in the house and can add down lights later. Also if you plan to have a chandelier I would add the reinforcement in the roof cavity yourself and save the extra $200 or so- something I learned after seeing what they did and figured I could have bought a 2x4 and nailed it in the ceiling space myself. Our builder even advised against them doing our driveway as she said they will charge $8,000 when we can get it down after handover for approx. $2,000 to $3,000. So I took that as a sign that they generally mark-up a lot! Sorry for rambling and I hope some of this is helpful. Forrestdale 27 Land Titled:4/11/11 Building Permit:4/11/11 Site Start Date: 16/11/11 Slab Date: 01/12/11 Frame Date:05/12/11 http://hordefamilyhome.blogspot.com/ Re: Builder to do extras or organise your own to save $$$? 4Mar 15, 2012 10:56 am If you delete items on the builders standard inclusions you probably won't save as much as you think see http://www.anewhouse.com.au/?p=1083 for an explanation IMHO I think its easier to get the builder to do most electrical upgrades if you are looking for upgrades like special wardrobes as others have said it might be best to do those later. The Harder You Try - the Luckier You Get ! Web site http://www.anewhouse.com.au Informative, Amusing, and Opinionated Blog - Over 600 posts on all aspects of building a new house. Re: Builder to do extras or organise your own to save $$$? 5Mar 15, 2012 12:03 pm Good idea Sammyjane about Ikea - unfortunatley I am in a country town and we dont have one Driveways and chandeliers are an excellent idea. Bashworth that site looks really good - another one now I will have to navigate LOL Cheers Re: Builder to do extras or organise your own to save $$$? 6Mar 15, 2012 1:09 pm Maybe Ikea delivers?? There maybe shelving on ebay or amazon which would still be cheaper than having the builder do it. Best of luck! Forrestdale 27 Land Titled:4/11/11 Building Permit:4/11/11 Site Start Date: 16/11/11 Slab Date: 01/12/11 Frame Date:05/12/11 http://hordefamilyhome.blogspot.com/ Re: Builder to do extras or organise your own to save $$$? 7Mar 15, 2012 3:01 pm Pre-start variations are to builder' what warranty sales are to a phone salesman. If you wanna save money, absolutely look at doing it yourself after handover. Just keep in mind your time is worth something too. So if you are ok with moving into an unfinished house which in most cases takes a couple of years to close the book on then go for it. YOU WILL SAVE MONEY Just keep in mind, with recent changes to the BCA things like extra downlights will affect your star rating for both lighting consumption and the overall R-Value of your ceiling insulation. Re: Builder to do extras or organise your own to save $$$? 8Mar 15, 2012 8:40 pm My opinion is that unless it is something which will be very difficult to do after the house is built you may as well get it done after completion, especially things like downlights, most builders charge an excessive amount for these compared what it would cost to have a sparky come out and do it. Re: Builder to do extras or organise your own to save $$$? 9Mar 18, 2012 11:59 am ikea delivers but they charge a bomb to deliver to the SW. Assuming brick internal walls. if you are planning on getting further electrical work done get any points for internal walls put in. ( do singles and pay for doubles or tripled from your own sparky if you can wait) and/or get conduit anywhere else on internal walls that you might want electrical or any cabling down at a later stage. This also includes fans/light fans otherwise the switch must be on an external wall and you can't add it to existing light switches on internal walls. If you plan to put in further doors get the door frame work out in by the builder. It's cheaper than doing it yourself later on. If you aren't in a rush you can save initial $ by not having any fitting out done to cupboards, robes etc. But in the long run you will prob pay more to have it done later unless you are planning something very fancy in which case see below. If you are not planing on getting a basic aircon system then getting this done later is worth while. Anything that is well about the builders standard range and is not part of their usual inclusions where they have to source it specially for your build will usually cost more than what you can hopefully source it at. Everything else they can prob source cheaper. As someone else said, dishwasher ( choose and buy your own) Re: Builder to do extras or organise your own to save $$$? 10Mar 01, 2013 6:45 pm nglbuilder My opinion is that unless it is something which will be very difficult to do after the house is built you may as well get it done after completion, especially things like downlights, most builders charge an excessive amount for these compared what it would cost to have a sparky come out and do it. If you are building a double storey house and want LED down lights on the bottom floor is it still better to get the sparky to come in after handover or should you get the builder to organise? I have the same question for raking ceilings in a void area. I'll have a 25sqm void area over my living room and the ceiling will be raking in a pyramid shape from all 4 sides. Given that there will be limited crawl space between the roof and raking ceiling and that the lights are going to be around 6 metres above the ground will it be hard for a external sparky to install after? Re: Builder to do extras or organise your own to save $$$? 11Mar 01, 2013 7:31 pm Air con and driveways. The builder's A/C option was rubbish and insanely overpriced so that was a no-brainer, and they had very little in the way of useful options for driveways. I kept the data and power installation with the builder because then they can do it framing instead of me having somebody pull things apart, and I left the floor coverings to them because I want the house livable at handover but could probably have saved a bit of money in that area. I wouldn't even consider letting the builder do downlights for me (LED or otherwise), the prices were obscene, but let them do the oven and dishwasher because I felt it would be difficult and time consuming to do it afterwards. Also bear in mind that if you're using a mortgage to cover these costs you could find it hard to get the bank to pay for lots of small increments of payments. I only split off items $5k and over to try and minimise banking hassles. Re: Builder to do extras or organise your own to save $$$? 12Mar 02, 2013 4:53 am with the house we are building we were able to go through with the builder thing we would do the tradies would do on site (we would pay the tradies direct) and things to do after handover. money saved including getting all our own tiles and then having the builders tiler lay them the builder tiler due to contract had to lay in the wet areas like the bathrooms and the laundry . we will then talk to tiler and negotiate whether he will lay other tiles or we have a another tiler do this. we have also supplied our own floor wastes lights power points and light switches as well as taps in the laundry towel rail and hooks. also the main bathroom vanity benchtop. the builder had a upgrade package for bathroom taps ceasar stone overhead cupboards etc. the money we save has been used for other things in the house . the builder is supplying the wir fitouts as they were reasonable cost as well as the media cabinet. we are getting feature paint throughout the house so builders painter will do that but we are able to talk to painter on site and discuss other painting. onsite we have been able to talk after discussing with SS about certain upgrades like sliding doors larger niches etc to tradies and pay them direct. the driveway for us the builder supplied . 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