Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jun 19, 2014 4:24 pm Hi All, Just wanted to get peoples experiences dealing with volume builders allowing owners to do their own works during the construction stage. How much/little did they allow, any restrictions they placed etc and the reasons for not allowing work. Perhaps mention volume builders that allow you to do so. Im at tender stage with a volume builder and the prices ive been quoted for upgrades is astonishing high if I have to be nice. I would like to do many of these upgrades myself. Re: Own Work 2Jun 19, 2014 4:47 pm With volume builders you generally need to do any of your own work after they have handed the site back to you. The contract is pretty tight on that is the site their insurance risk until handover. We did a serious extension a few years ago with a small builder, which was the equivalent of building a house. That builder was flexible and allowed us to do things as he had the site. Our curent build will leave a few things out until after handover. BLOG: http://www.ourphoenix38.blogspot.com.au H1 THREAD: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=70454 Re: Own Work 4Jun 19, 2014 7:24 pm Might help if you specify what exactly you have in mind as a type of upgrade you'd like to do yourself. Makes all the difference as to what you can do after handover, what you need to do during a build, and what may or may not be allowed. Completed a knock down and rebuild in northern Melbourne. Handover completed 27/09/2013 and now moved in. Re: Own Work 6Jun 20, 2014 9:10 am Bluesuede Might help if you specify what exactly you have in mind as a type of upgrade you'd like to do yourself. Makes all the difference as to what you can do after handover, what you need to do during a build, and what may or may not be allowed. Work that I would like to do myself during the construction stage are (Im building double story) - Data & TV points, speaker & security camera runs - My own extra electrical circuits for future provisions - extra plumbing for fridge, out side taps - Bi-fold doors - Intercom - Alarm - Ducted vac - heated flooring - Internal Wall and floor sound Insulation - extra strengthening around entry doors As you can tell many of the things I want are better to be installed when the frames are still open. The quotes my builder has comeback to do this work through them is opportunistic I think. Would like to know if any volume builder out there will freely let you do this work on your own or use of sub contractors. Re: Own Work 7Jun 20, 2014 10:52 am The big problem you face is that down the track when something goes wrong as mgilla says the blame game will start and you could be left with a few problems. Been there done that when I was building and the client wanted me to fix problems his tradies had caused. Stewie Re: Own Work 8Jun 20, 2014 11:01 am BrandonZoe The quotes my builder has comeback to do this work through them is opportunistic I think. It sort-of is opportunistic, and it sort-of isn't. Having been on the customer end of only one build, I can see why they do it. Their structure internally is all about cookie-cutter churning out the same thing repeatedly; when you change things you interrupt the "flow", and it truly does cost them disproportionately more to make changes (I mean disproportionate to what it costs them to build the standard house - but that also means it's disproportionate to how much extra it costs you to do the "standard thing" as compared to the "modified thing"). I think the 120%-of-retail is probably fair, for that reason, they're not a charity. Thing is, though, if you know where to look you don't pay retail yourself. Plus it's your home, you're willing to put the time in for free to get a better result; no electrician you don't know is going to come over to your house & run the speaker cables for free. Very few project builders will let you do any of the stuff on that list; the reason is probably because they do want their 120%-of-retail, but their excuse is IMHO a valid one too - warranty. It's impossible to know where their mistakes end and your mistakes start, and I wouldn't want to have anything to do with it from their point of view. There's enough stuff on that list that you might consider going with a smaller non-project builder; they're more likely to be happy to keep an eye on what you're doing and therefore know what they need to cover in warranty. Re: Own Work 9Jun 20, 2014 11:20 am That list? No volume builder will let you do all of that. Few independent builders will either. You might be lucky and have a friendly SS that turns a blind eye to some of the less intrusive stuff but most volume builders will point you towards the "interference in the building works" clause of your contract. The smaller builders won't mind stuff like you adding insulation or running data cabling but getting in your own sparky to run extra circuits or another plumber coming in and adding in extra plumbing you may struggle with. Plus, down the track, you don't want to give the builder an out with regards to his warranty obligations if you end up with leaks or structural damage. If you can negotiate some things, make sure you get approval in writing. Completed a knock down and rebuild in northern Melbourne. Handover completed 27/09/2013 and now moved in. Re: Own Work 10Jun 20, 2014 11:57 am Stewie D The big problem you face is that down the track when something goes wrong as mgilla says the blame game will start and you could be left with a few problems. Been there done that when I was building and the client wanted me to fix problems his tradies had caused. Stewie Feel bad that situation happen to you. But to me the line about future warranty issue is a furphy. Does it really matter when the work was done? Tradies can come and do work after handover and there will still be a blame game anyway. ie builder can say it was your own plumber that you hired after handover that is responsible. Re: Own Work 11Jun 20, 2014 12:06 pm [/quote] Very few project builders will let you do any of the stuff on that list; the reason is probably because they do want their 120%-of-retail, but their excuse is IMHO a valid one too - warranty. It's impossible to know where their mistakes end and your mistakes start, and I wouldn't want to have anything to do with it from their point of view. .[/quote] I would be happy for the builder to do the work if the quotes I got back were 120%, however what they have asked for is beyond that and a few items in the +200% range. Im now looking at other builders because I feel like this one does not want to genuinely work with us to achieve a home we want. Hi Mofflepop, I would recommend finding a building designer to prepare plans, they should design to your specified budget. The benefit is you can tender the project out… 9 20413 Block of two storey townhouses requires painting on the roof. A brick parapet wall separates each unit and extends above the tiled roof. The parapet walls require sealing… 0 3501 I posted the floorplan on Houzz.com forum and got some really good ideas and advice from people there. Then we reached out to a couple of renovation companies and one… 5 10093 |