Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Private Builder Price 21Dec 31, 2013 7:00 pm If the block is flat, it is always cheaper to build with volume builder as they can use their most efficient way of building on the block which save their costs. But on slope block, they either scare you away with high price or say no. If they say "yes", it might still cost you an arm and leg to build their design on it. For custom builders on a flat block, you will be charged for your arms and legs anyway so price wise will always be high. On slope block, that's the other way around. Volume builder needs to work harder on changing your block to suit their needs (plan) that cost is usually much higher than a flat block. In most cases, the cost would be higher than what custom builders cost to build their design on the same block. Custom builders design their houses to suit the block which minimize a lot of unnecessary costs. Volume builders modify the blocks to suit their designs. Re: Private Builder Price 23Dec 31, 2013 9:29 pm The one other thing that you may need to factor in, is the build time. Volume builders almost ALWAYS come in on time. Custom builders usually take longer. This means you are paying rent and financing the cost of the land and build at the same time for a longer period. E.g. Our second build was a custom build it took well over the 15 month contract time. I know that we should not have allowed a contract that long, but Christmas, rain days, each change added a week. Four taps, four weeks. We paid rent and essentially mortgage payments for all of the time. it wiped us out financially. Especially as they went broke two weeks after we moved in, when the house still was not finished properly. You don't always get better build quality. We four home owners warranty for three years trying to get thing fixed before giving up. Our third build with a volume builder (bigger house) took 5 months. The contract period was 7 months. So work out how much interest you will need to pay on the build along the way and make sure you can cover that too with any contract dates Just my take. Re: Private Builder Price 25Dec 31, 2013 10:12 pm Yes, there were liquidated damages but there are clauses in the standard contract that allow for additional days to be added to the completion time. As well as that most contracts are written so that liquidated damages are paid once quantified, which means that until they finish they do not have to pay them. You on the other hand have to keep paying the bank until they do finish. Re: Private Builder Price 26Jan 01, 2014 9:06 pm Our 35sq double story custom build was completed in just under 9 months. They had 240 work days so they actually had it finished quite early. All depends on how many builds your builder takes on I guess. My Hamptons build (completed): viewtopic.php?f=31&t=63370 Moved in Wednesday 11th Dec 2013 Front landscaping completed June 2016 Re: Private Builder Price 27Jan 01, 2014 9:37 pm Whether building volume or custom there will always be pros and cons, not all volume builders are the same and vice versa. I can tell you a lot more horror stories with custom builders than with volume builders. Eg. Best friend built with Metr&&on, when they installed the bath tub they didnt connect the drain pipe up properly resulting in water leaks under the tub. They noticed leaks coming out from the floor tiles, called up for this to be fixed. Then they noticed it started to smell, and the smell got worse. They finally had someone look at it 8 months later, removed the tub found old big m cartons, coke bottles, pie wrappers stuffed in there with mould and lots of furry stuff. Took the builder 5 months to come and fix this after threatening with VCAT. Not saying this would happen only happen with a volume builder, but would you want YOUR builder doing crap like this? If it wasnt for the leak they wouldn't have come across this. Who knows what else is left in wall cavities,etc? Custom builders work off reputation,quality and word of mouth, they don't have the capital to spend on advertising and promotion that PD,Metric*n,Simmonds have. Volume builders do that, they build in "volume", they can afford to be cheaper because they buy in bulk whereas the custom builder would have deals with suppliers buy not as good as volume builders. Custom builders tend to use only their own trades, might take a little bit longer to get done. Volume tend to hire subbys, give them a set price for their work so the trade might/might not rush, make his dollar and leave. Just my 2 c Re: Private Builder Price 29Jan 01, 2014 9:48 pm If it takes an extra 3 months to build so what? How long are you going to spend in this house? Quality to me is the most important factor....Id rather have a quality small house than a large crap house. But it doesn't mean you pay extra for quality, just find someone who takes pride in their work Re: Private Builder Price 30Jan 04, 2021 11:59 pm Sunshine2013 I had the exact same experience with a volume builder and went to a custom builder I have 1.6m of slope front to back on my block, the volume builder wanted to excavate this flat ($42,000) With the volume builder the base price was a tease, once i selected my upgrades, nothing over the top, i was $145,000 extra, not including the site costs. We got to the finer details of the contract with them and things like "oh and thats not standard" kept coming up so we decided to look elsewhere as we were at the end of our tether. Everything was an extra! For an experiment id love to say "I'll take the XXXXXXX 29 how it is standard,the base price" and see what they would build! We had our heart set on this house for 18 months waiting for the land to title so this was a waste of time and energy....but a learning curve I always thought (not doing the research) custom builders were way more expensive but the company we saw are great. We drafted up a sketch of what we wanted in a home and booked a meeting with the sales consultant. When we arrived we had the meeting with the consultant and the architect and he pointed out how we could save on site works, create a solar passive house,best materials for this type of construction,etc. Within 4 weeks we recieved the first draft and it crapped all over the volume builders design (the one we fell in love with for 18 months). To cut a long story short, the custom builder is split levelling the house, with site works looking at $15,000 and gives the place a bit of character and interest. Standard inclusions are double glazed windows, LED lights, brick infills above windows, ducted heating/cooling, solar hot water, 2590mm ceilings, stone benches in kitchen and bathroom and a heap of other stuff. If you have a perfectly flat block and the house is sited correctly, and you don't want to alter too much of the floor plan,maybe a volume builder is the way to go. Im sort of glad the experience with the volume builder went pear shaped, as i think we have a much, much nicer home design. And the price was under the volume builder by around 10% Research and question everything, its your house! Hi sunshine2013, who did you end up building with couple of years ago please? Thank you I’m looking at building in Doreen If you already have a contract, is the inspection cost stated in there? If not they would be forced to issue you a variation which you could of course object to. 12 25866 Hi everyone, Looking for some advise. We are about to build an above ground pool in our backyard. There is a private sewer line running under the pool at 1.6m… 0 11758 |