Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Nov 09, 2012 7:14 pm We are about to receive our tender costs and one is many thousands higher than the preliminary costing given to us last week. We assume that the massive price difference is due to the builder including the alfresco and balcony areas in their sqm cost calculation. Is this what the majority of builders do? The floor of the alfresco space is the rooftop of the garage and the balcony is the top of the alfresco roof, so I had assumed that while there would be costs to put a railing around the areas, they wouldn't be charged at the same rate as a newly-built space or room in the house as they are pre-existing areas that we are utilising into living areas? Land at Chermside At tender stage Re: Alfresco and balcony included in squarage costs? 2Nov 09, 2012 8:42 pm Most Aussie builders count the entire house in the sqm. Also when you build a balcony on top of another room there are significant costs involved in waterproofing, drainage etc etc. At least, that's what our building designers told us so we moved our balcony. Custom downslope build Build thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=61873 Blog http://www.buildingroyalmanor.blogspot.com.au Re: Alfresco and balcony included in squarage costs? 3Nov 09, 2012 9:02 pm A simple alfresco would still cost about 60-70% of normal building as there is still floor coverings, roof painting etc, we looked at building a balcony on top of our alfresco and that was more expensive per sqm than standard rooms,like home angels said due to drainage, waterproofing in floor/roof etc, that quickly went out the window. Looking at say Eden brae and wisdom who have upstairs balconies on some of their designs you are looking at 20-25k for a 12-15 sqm balcony, purely because of the extra costs involved in building the structure. Re: Alfresco and balcony included in squarage costs? 4Nov 09, 2012 9:24 pm We had our plan costed by around 6 builders and only one of them separated the alfresco...the rest charged it the same as a normal room even though it was almost 20% of the total build size. i felt a bit ripped off but what can you do! Re: Alfresco and balcony included in squarage costs? 5Nov 09, 2012 9:31 pm Our alfresco area (more like another room without windows) costs 85% of the house build rate (i.e. $/m2) while the balcony (decking with no roof over) is about 60% of the full rate. ----------------------------------------------- http://pab34newdigs.blogspot.com.au/ ----------------------------------------------- Re: Alfresco and balcony included in squarage costs? 6Nov 10, 2012 7:52 pm Thanks for your replies, this has been a great help. HomeAngels, did you retain the balcony but just move it to a different location so it wasn't over the alfresco? If so, approximately how much did you save by doing this? Thanks for the sqm costs. We have approx 12sq of outdoor spaces so being charged at the same rate as internal space these empty spaces are costing us a fortune. We calculated around 60K! Gotta work out how to reduce these costs as we can't reduce the size of the garage and therefore reduce our alfresco size. Land at Chermside At tender stage Re: Alfresco and balcony included in squarage costs? 8Nov 11, 2012 6:09 am We actually rearranged the lower floor as well as push back the top floor so that the balcony was not sitting on any part of the house. Hope that made sense! Re cost saving - I'm not sure. We only just received our quote to build from the builder but when we were in the design stage meeting he advised me to not have the balcony over any rooms due to additional costs re waterproofing etc. he indicated that it was expensive and it would throw our project over budget. We have custom designed our home from scratch so we didn't receive any real pricing until the floor plan was finalised. hey there! π so, itβs kinda common for standard drawer depths to be around 500mm since most cabinets use this size to fit the usual runners… 3 20922 First time building 2 storey home in NSW. Below Current plan have separate balcony. But thinking to do a multipurpose lounge with balcony (kind of sunroom) in first floor… 0 4784 Well you won't get cooked by the afternoon sun when sitting out on the balcony on a summers afternoon but you won't have much to look at besides the neighbours… 4 3763 |