Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Nov 20, 2013 11:43 am Hello everybody ! My first post, and my first house building experience. I bought a block of land recently, and currently checking with different builders. However I read in many posts that its cheaper to do things privately rather than "upgrading" with builders. I have been quoted some nonsense prices for minor upgrades ! 1-What items can be done privately after the builder handover the house? 2-Can duct-ed air-condition be added later? 3-Can down lights & external lighting be added later? Any experiences will be highly appreciated Many thanks ! Re: Items that can be added after building 2Nov 20, 2013 11:55 am Things we are doing ourselves after handover: Flooring (vinyl planks and carpets - wet areas are tiled with builder) Painting walls Skirting boards Double doors to the theatre room Decking for the alfresco and portico Redoing the alfresco ceiling with gyprock rather than the hardiflex provided by builder Ceiling fans in living/dining and master bedroom LED downlights through living/dining/kitchen/theatre/master bedroom Kitchen pendant lights over the island External lights to the front of garage and house Adding more cupboards to the kitchen (next to fridge space which is currently empty) It really depends on things like 1. if you can do any things yourself. 2. If you know people (i.e. tradies) who can do things for you at a cheaper price and 3. How long you are willing to wait to move in and how unfinished you want your house to be at handover. My OH is a carpenter with lots of tradie family/friends so we are able to do a fair bit ourselves and save alot of money. For example, he is doing the decking himself for only the cost of the timber which he can get at a trade discount anyway. Re: Items that can be added after building 3Nov 20, 2013 11:59 am Almost anything can be added later on, but things like wiring and anything hidden in the structures are much better done at construction time. I would also imagine it's much better to do ducted air con at build time. Re: Items that can be added after building 4Nov 20, 2013 12:04 pm most things can be done post handover. downlights (and anything in the roof space) are easy to install (by electrician or tradies) if you have a single storey house. for external lights, its better to have junction boxes during construction. this is because the cables usually portrude through the bricks and it is much better to do the electrical rough in for external lights before the bricks are laid. Re: Items that can be added after building 5Nov 20, 2013 12:22 pm mtz08 most things can be done post handover. downlights (and anything in the roof space) are easy to install (by electrician or tradies) if you have a single storey house. for external lights, its better to have junction boxes during construction. this is because the cables usually portrude through the bricks and it is much better to do the electrical rough in for external lights before the bricks are laid. I am having a double storey house, so I guess its difficult to modify the ground floor lights? Thanks Re: Items that can be added after building 6Nov 20, 2013 12:29 pm felicity01 Things we are doing ourselves after handover: Flooring (vinyl planks and carpets - wet areas are tiled with builder) Painting walls Skirting boards Double doors to the theatre room Decking for the alfresco and portico Redoing the alfresco ceiling with gyprock rather than the hardiflex provided by builder Ceiling fans in living/dining and master bedroom LED downlights through living/dining/kitchen/theatre/master bedroom Kitchen pendant lights over the island External lights to the front of garage and house Adding more cupboards to the kitchen (next to fridge space which is currently empty) It really depends on things like 1. if you can do any things yourself. 2. If you know people (i.e. tradies) who can do things for you at a cheaper price and 3. How long you are willing to wait to move in and how unfinished you want your house to be at handover. My OH is a carpenter with lots of tradie family/friends so we are able to do a fair bit ourselves and save alot of money. For example, he is doing the decking himself for only the cost of the timber which he can get at a trade discount anyway. That's impressive, I am pretty handy and can do some stuff myself, so I will shortlist few items not included in the builder offer to be done later on. Re: Items that can be added after building 7Nov 20, 2013 12:31 pm mesophyte Almost anything can be added later on, but things like wiring and anything hidden in the structures are much better done at construction time. I would also imagine it's much better to do ducted air con at build time. Thanks for your response, I tended to think the ducted a/c and facade lights had to be fit at construction time . Re: Items that can be added after building 8Nov 20, 2013 1:55 pm Ldry overhead cupboards and kitchen overhead cupboards Re: Items that can be added after building 9Nov 20, 2013 3:57 pm The builder needs to get the house to a certain point before a certificate of occupancy can be provided, so I thought. Of course, if you wanted to negotiate with your builder to hand the house over before that point, that would be a different conversation. You would most definitely want to do air con/heating install during build, our builder allowed us to use our own choice of installer, and same with data cabling. My Hamptons build (completed): viewtopic.php?f=31&t=63370 Moved in Wednesday 11th Dec 2013 Front landscaping completed June 2016 Re: Items that can be added after building 10Nov 20, 2013 5:32 pm askanaan mesophyte Almost anything can be added later on, but things like wiring and anything hidden in the structures are much better done at construction time. I would also imagine it's much better to do ducted air con at build time. Thanks for your response, I tended to think the ducted a/c and facade lights had to be fit at construction time . Not at all, people get those retrofitted to old houses, question is do you want to live with the hassle and mess and can you plan ahead to reduce the risk of inconvenient surprises like nah, you can't do that there because____ so you'll have to compromise and do it this way now. Re: Items that can be added after building 11Nov 21, 2013 9:39 pm Our screens are getting done after as we want all amplimesh. Our lights are all after but that is the builders choice. We are having aggregate concrete to match the inside around the outside so no paving or driveway till after. Re: Items that can be added after building 12Nov 21, 2013 10:21 pm is there any regulation to how many lights have to be in the house before handover? i'm planning on having a stack of power points in the ceiling and fitting my own led downlights afterwards The significant date is when receive final payment invoice Check that section of contract Bit of fluff by builders prior to that 1 15844 The best advice is for you to get a competent building consultant to guide you through your build 7 4664 Depends what you're current inclusions are, but we're not including wardrobes and will just use second hand ones until we can save later on to get them built. Also have a… 3 11595 |