dejags

There seem to be a fair few people in QLD who have renovated either part or all of their house or are planning on doing so. We have just purchased a house which needs a fair bit of work so I thought it might be a good idea to have one central thread to add hints/tips/recommendations/costs etc.

At the moment I am looking at the following:

1)Carpenters - what sort of hourly rate would one expect to pay
2)Plasterers - ditto
3)Electricians - ditto
4)Raising a Queenslander - I am looking for a good and cost efficient contractor and would love to hear from anybody who has recently done it re. what sort of costs we can expect.
5)What did your plumber charge you to fit your bathroom
6)Are there any quick wins which you did on your own without the help of a tradie?
7)Cost for ducted aircon in an old house

spartacus

Don't think of me as implolite, but wouldn't it have been a better idea to find these things out previous to embarking on the renovation route?

dejags

Sheesh, increcibly helpful you are.

I do actually have a good idea, but thought it might be nice to share ideas and information with other people and vice versa.

I remember you from my thread that I started before we bought the house. Although I don't for one minute take offence, you can be very negative.

shiels

Hi there, we have just finished renovating our house and the majority of tradies we used priced the work we wanted doing as a whole job and not by the hour.

C x

dejags

Interesting you say that - because that's exactly what I am finding at the moment. All the tradies who have given us quotes have given us piecemeal pricing (I am trying to extrapolate what the rates they are giving us translate to in hourly terms). We have also had two building contractors give us a price to manage the whole thing and use their own subbies. I am now trying to compare what the most cost efficient way is to do it and what bits we will do now and save for later (when we have a few dollars saved).

We are in Brissie. Where are you?

shiels

Bottom end of the GC.

Lots of the tradies do less for cash too, seems to be the norm, are you finding that too??

We found we were waiting around for tradies too and lost precious time.

C x

dejags

We haven't got to that stage yet. Luckily we have a 90 day settlement on our house, so I am determined to use this time to plan, plan and plan some more. I have been badly burned in the past with renovating and l don't want to make the same mistakes twice.

I must admit I am sorely tempted to go the Single Contractor route with a contract with penalty clauses. It's not a massive job by contractor standards, but it does involve our fairly meagre savings, so we want it done right.

That said, I am hoping this thread will provide me with some good info to see if it will be feasible for me to manage the various tradies and just use the contractor for the building work. If we will save a fair amount of money doing it this way, obviously we need to do that.

What do you reckon?

shiels

Sounds like your renovation is a lot bigger than ours was.

Best thing i suppose would be to get as many quotes as poss and time frames and go from there.

C x

dejags

What exactly did you have done, if you don't mind me asking?

shiels

Mainly interior work, walls removed and filled in other areas. Flooring removed and replaced. New bathrooms & new kitchen. C x

dejags

I have PM'd you.