owner builders
 

we have just signed the contract on a 1020sqm block of land and will be hopefully building a house on it in the new year. land and building costs have skyrocketed in cairns (land doubled in 3 years and build cost up by 50% in 3 years) so we are looking to get a builder to take it to lock up for us and then finish it ourselves. for all of you who have done or who are doing the owner builders what sort of percentage of the total build cost should the fit out cost me. obvisiously it will depend on the level of finish as to the total cost so im only after a rough idea. has anyone else gone down this road before? we did look at doing the whole owner builder thing but think its too much hassle.

Re: owner builders
 

Ours was about 1/6 of the total build cost if that's any help.
Build was total 130k of which 20k was the internal fit out. Lock up price included gyprock & cornice, some builds don't.

Re: owner builders
 

would agree with cresta....maybe allow 1/5th of cost to lockup....gives you a bit of overspend when the wife goes shopping:rofl:

Re: owner builders
 

i dont know but i would have assumed that the fit out would have been the most expensive part of the build. it will be a block home on a raft slab. roof on and doors and windows in when i get my hands on it. i will have to do the electrics,plumbing,internal timber stud walls, gyprocking, painting, kitchen,bathrooms, driveways etc. if i get a builder to do the lot im looking at about $400,000 for the build .

Re: owner builders
 

The fit out your doing is alot more detailed than normal 'lock up to finish' houses. I would deduct the builders actual cost:huh:: from the 400k quote and then whatever is left could be reduced by about 30% (labour cost)to give you a ball park figure of what it will cost you to finish

Re: owner builders
 

any owner builders out there?

Re: owner builders
 

know what you mean about costs. We were out bid on a block of land in June thinking that was expensive. Now we have paid 7% more, one street away, for 5% less land with tiny bit more of a slope, but with a small house from another era we can live in whilst waiting to afford to knock it down & build the house we want. (in Sydney)

Re: owner builders
 

yep, the block we have bought would be no more than 300 metres from where we are now and is set to be one of the best new subdivisions in cairns. the smallest block around 900sqm going up to 3000sqm. we managed to get our choice of blocks and managed to negotiate the price a little bit. it cracks me up how realestate people over shaft people. only reason we got this block was because the guy selling the land had someone lined up to buy our house so it was easy money for him. people have had names on these blocks for ages. we didnt have our name on the block we eventually chose. when we bought our first block in oz people had there names on blocks and we just turned up at his office with folding for the deposit. he scribbled some guys name of the contract and that was that. there a corrupt bunch.

Re: owner builders
 

we are going to be building shortly as owner builders, we are getting the house company to build to lock up so we can finish at our leisure the inside, the cost for the house includes all fixtures for inside and the gyprock etc, lock up does not include them putting up the gyprock or anything else inside, the staircase isn't included in the lock up price either, its basically just external building work nothing else.
Hope that helps
Jenny

Re: owner builders
 

but what did you pay to lock up and what will the final price be.

Re: owner builders
 

Mate, if you are just getting the shell done, then allow the following:

1/5 th for the slab and ground works.
1/5 th for the frame and veneer.
1/5th for the roof.

Theresfore if your build coists for slab frame and roof, come in at say 120k then you will need a further 80 for the electrics, gyproc painting and plumbing.

Then allow overspend for finishes.

1/20th for upgrade to granite. 1/15th of build cost for fully tiled floors to main areas ( especially Cairns )

Being on a 1/4 acre block i spose its sewered, so connection to that and electrics, a watertank, and solar hot water... allow 15k

Steve

Re: owner builders
 

cheers for that. at the moment im working on 50/50. lets say the lock up cost is 150,000 then im allowing 150,000 for the fit out. ive started to price things and i reckon i will be covered for the finish we are after but was looking for input from those who may have been down this path before. i will be doing the electrical and air con myself and as im hoping top pay subbies cash should be able to further reduce costs.

Re: owner builders
 

Now then mr young, seems you have managed to keep thread going for more than a day:rofl:. Its nice you'll be building before me as you can be the guinee pig for the cost's and i can see how you get on. We'l have a drive round a few kitchen spots tomorrow if you like, sounds like we'v a easy day ahead:thumbup:

Re: owner builders
 

Youngy this is what the bank gave us an idea as to how the percentage of your cash would be spent as an owner builder.

Stage 1 base stage 13%
Stage 2 Frame stage 15%
Stage 3 Lock up stage 35%
Stage 4 Fixed stage 25%
Stage 5 completion 12%

(I have to add ours went nothing like that though :lol:)

Re: owner builders
 

Its the most complex route to go, and filled with frustrations and disappointment, but if you manage it properly, you will come out a winner.

Good Onya and good luck

Re: owner builders
 

so how did yours go if you dont mind me asking snappy. your fairly close to me so your probably the best chance ive got to get the info i would like.

Re: owner builders
 

i know. in the ideal world i would just like to do the electrical and ac and then just turn the key.

Re: owner builders
 

Bit of advice forya then for free...

If your doing tile, do sarking ( felt ) also !! The bloody light created in roof space from your downlighters attracts the bloody midges come dusk. You can get shades to go over the downlighters tho, but a tad expensive.

Fit weep hole guards to your weep holes, cost about 30 bucks from bunnings, stops bloody mice getting in your cavity

:)

Re: owner builders
 

advice taken but it will be a tin roof for me. i enjoy the sound of rain on the roof especially when im in the hammock on the patio. i will be putting gutter gaurd in though. not really bothered about the rats or mice but the birds piss me off when you here them in the roof in the middle of the night.they sound a lot bigger at 3 in the morning.

Re: owner builders
 

ALl you need is live and neutral attached to the zincalume... ;) works a treat, dangerous when wet tho !!

Re: owner builders
 

Mmmmm still ongoing but ours isn't a straight forward kind of house, it is timber framed on 1.2m off the ground on steel posts, with some block work, some concrete work, two separate buildings with a massive outdoor undercover area in between so it is hard to compare to what the bank gave us.

We went with the Bendigo bank in the end and could borrow 65% of the money, the man that comes out to value the work is way out of touch and even though we have currently spent $300K on it has valued the spend as half this. This in turn has caused us some problems getting the next payment to come through. The other thing is that list is based on a normal builder that has the facility of overdrafts and get the payment at the end of each section but as an owner builder you need to be thinking ahead all the time. A good example of this is that we are at the moment close to lock up but due to the design we have had to virtually finish the internal parts of the house yet because we are not up to lock we can't progress to the next stage. Now we have the materials there in place to get it up to lock up and at the moment I need cash to order the kitchens etc to be built yet we will now be delayed to fit the kitchens due to having to have to concentrate on the final lock up stage.

For suppliers you are laughing up in Cairns and if you want any good names the ones I can suggest is Dynamic Timbers for timber orders...great timber everything has been just top quality. Personally though if you know what you want and have the time I would go direct to some of the saw mills where all the timber merchants in Cairns get most of their timber. These happen to be actually down South in Gympie (there may be a few up North but these are the ones that have top quality timber) you could order your timber directly and organise yourself for a back load or transport up for a huge saving.

Things like your kitchen look at Proform Tops even though they are flat packed kitchens they are very well made - thick cupboards walls etc, they have all the laminates colour range and they will design your spaces to your dimensions. Very helpful and has cut down our bill by about a third.

Bathroom things I've gone to Reece Plumbing not because they are the cheapest but the range I wanted was exclusive to them. The other one to try out is TGT in Mareeba - these I have found to cut down the cost on a lot of building materials. One bit of advice is open an account with Mitre 10 as they will (or at least they do down here) send you a monthly bill and if you pay it within 30 days you get a discount (I think around 7% on average)

How much are you spending on blocks? As there is a firm in Silkwood that is supplying a lot of Cairns due to shortages costing around $1.90 per block.

Get quotes on everything for the bank to agree a loan as they are a pain in the behind for this but then take your time and shop around afterwards. I also found things like swimming pool equipment was half price if it was sent from NSW up to us than if we bought the same items from Cairns....that does depend on the type of equipment you are after.

Trusses - we got ours through a middle man here but they came from Garbutt MDTM Pty made them so you may be able to go direct and save yourself something there.

When it comes to windows watch what you buy if you are looking at louvres there are cheap versions around but opt for CDM ones if you can that are stronger and will last. Also shop around for louvre blades as the windows places will charge you a small fortune for them but I managed to get them down to $7.5 per Linea metre (timber ones) and event hough we have had to spend days sanding, sawing, varnishing the things we saved ourselves $5 per louvre blade which is what the local painter charges. Now we have around a 1000 blades so that is a pretty good saving!

The other thing is spend a bit more on the fixtures such as door handles and fans (although you would most likely know this one anyway) and ensure everything that is stainless steel is 316 stainless steel which won't corrode as quickly.

If you ever want to pop down and have a chat then please feel free as we are at the new house most weekends. We made sure that all the contractors know they are not to clean up as that is our job which saves us paying someone a small fortune for sweeping the decks so that is our weekend job!

Re: owner builders
 

cheers for the post snappy. sounds like a bit of a crib . a bit more than the average house me thinks. im looking at a pretty ordinary block home.