Building a Kit Home

Hi,

I am new to the forum and have just started researching building a new home. After looking for about 2 years we found a block we love, it's 2.5 acres and were thinking of buying a kit home. A mate of ours is a builder so we could hire him to build our home. I am currently looking at Paal Homes and Stone Homes. Has any had any experience with these companies and are there any other kit homes you could recommend that I have a look at?

I would really appreciate any feedback, experiences and any info that would help me

Thanks so much
Danette

Not a comment on which companies are good or otherwise, my advice is to be very careful using a mate.

Building can be a quick way to ruin a friendship. Make sure there are very strict guidelines in place about the work to be done, and timeframes involved!

Good luck, and I'm sure we all look forward to hearing of your progress

4 Beta

Hi Danette,
We've just finished building a PAAL kit home in NSW. We found the product to be great - no complaints. And dealing with the company has been very good too. I'm not sure where they fall in the price range scale of kit homes, but the quality and service were second to none IMO.
We just went with their standard inclusions, but they are flexible with changes both to plans and inclusions and I can't say a bad word about them. The comment above is very true too...we used some friends for trade work in several areas and it put a strain on the friendships because of our expectations of quality workmanship as well as feeling ripped off at the end costs. Mates-rates don't exist and I guess it was more disappointment on our part of being slugged by a friend that caused us to feel like that. But in saying that I can't presume to comment on anyone else's situations.
If you like the style of homes that PAAL offer then I would encourage you to go and see them and then you can make up your own mind.
One thing I will mention is if you do build with them, go to the effort of putting sound proofing in the internal walls as we found out the hard way - that noise travels quite well through them.
Good luck whichever way you go.
Lyndall

Thanks so much for both of your replies, I really appreciate it.
We are also thinking about a transportable home so looking into that option too.

Danette

We are currently researching which is the best way to do, kit home with a builder to build it or a transportable home. We are looking at Paal, Stone Homes, Riverbuilt (Kits) or Manor Homes (Transportable) We are in the Upper Hunter area of NSW.

My question is, how much a builder charges to build a kit home?. Do they work it out on the size of the house etc?.

I was told it can be the price of the kit or more, any info would be great and very helpful.

Thanks

Danette

Thanks so much Lyndall for sharing your experience re building with Paal, I too have heard some good things about them.
We won't have any such thing as 'mates rates' either. It's more the case that we know the builder, we trust him, his knowledge and know that he'll build us a lovely home. Just out of interest, which design did you build with Paal?