Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Sep 03, 2012 12:37 am First time poster here. Sorry if my question has been answered elsewhere, I've done a search and can't find the answer anywhere We're in the very early stages of our build: just bought a block of land and are looking at various building options. We're leaning on the side of getting a project builder and I was wondering whether project builders would allow you to put in your own kitchen/bathroom/flooring etc after the build is complete. If so, do the companies take money off the price of the build - I imagine it would be a minimal amount, if they do. Sorry if this is a silly question - I have a feeling this learning curve is going to be very steep! Re: Project builders and doing things yourself 2Sep 03, 2012 6:47 am Normally a project builder can get much better discounts on things like kitchens and bathrooms than you can because they are buying so many. They will also aim to make a certain amount of profit from every house so you are less likely to get a huge amount off the price. 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: Project builders and doing things yourself 3Sep 03, 2012 10:32 am Thanks Bashworth, much appreciated. I suppose it makes sense, the builders can pass on their savings to the client. Now onto the task of finding the builder with a good range and with reasonable pre start costs! Thanks again. Re: Project builders and doing things yourself 4Sep 03, 2012 10:48 am Hmmm ... in my opinion, project builders only give you big discounts on things that are completely standard, regardless of the dumbness of the standard thing. Once you start varying from standard, certain parts of the build start to get a lot more expensive. And some variations from standard they may refuse to do completely; for example if they have a particular window supplier, and that supplier's best double-glazed windows are barely as efficient (insulation-wise) as installing flyscreen instead of windows, then it seems you don't have any choice but to go with the crap windows (REGARDLESS of what the project builder's salesguy will tell you). Something like a kitchen; that probably can be done after the rest of the house is finished, so yeah, depending on what you want you may find it's cheaper to get a 3rd party in. But again, if the project builder does happen to offer something that matches what you want; it's likely to be no more expensive to go with them. Don't forget the warranty thing either, as soon as you introduce another party into the equation you get a finger-pointing fight if anything goes wrong & nothing gets fixed while they point at each other. Re: Project builders and doing things yourself 5Sep 03, 2012 11:28 am Jona, Project builders put their mark-up on EVERYTHING! The question is, is it a fair mark-up or a ridiculous grab for free cash. Just one example from our new home proposal. Our project builder told us which flooring company they use so we went and selected our carpet and timber flooring from that shop. While we were there the sales guy offered to give us a quote to do the job after handover, so we gave him a copy of the plans. Knowing exactly what we wanted, we told our project builder, they came back to use with a price (for the same flooring, bought and installed by the same place we visited) and their price was about 40% higher ($31k vs $22k ish) than the flooring shop for doing absolutely nothing other than organising the shop installers to come and lay the floors. Where you can, check to price of the product from the builder versus getting it done after handover, there are a lot of areas where you can save money! ----------------------------------------------- http://pab34newdigs.blogspot.com.au/ ----------------------------------------------- Re: Project builders and doing things yourself 6Sep 03, 2012 2:05 pm Thanks for the advice, I hadn't thought about warranty and insurance, so will definitely bear that in mind. And thanks for the tip re getting the builder's supplier to quote separately, hopefully that'll save us a few bucks! Re: Project builders and doing things yourself 7Sep 03, 2012 11:17 pm Its interesting that I had a different experience with a custom builder. I found they sometimes offerred a "better" price when I mentioned who i built with, and his profit around items such as carpet was very small. But the build price started higher than a project build would... 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 0 883 Hi group, have some damage to the door frame and skirting board. It's a side door to the laundry area. Only has a security door. I had a termite inspection (note drill… 0 4130 |