unknown or extra building costs
 

Hi All,
Could anyone give a ballpark figure for the unknown or extra costs associated with building a home in Perth,WA.

The home price quoted by the builder can be $200K but what's extra.

Re: unknown or extra building costs
 

God, where do I start?

We are almost 1 year into our house and land purchase and 3 months into our house build. We have had a fair few items that we thought would be covered in the overall cost and were not.

Just this weekend we learnt that our builders are NOT providing the concrete slab for our portico and alfresco dining area. The salesman verbally confirmed they would be included but upon closer inspection of the contract small print (which does mean I am partially to blame) this weekend I noticed that it stated it wouldn't be covered. This will probably cost us another 2-3k extra, which we have not budgeted for. I only queried this after I noticed that those sections of the house had continued to be conspicuously absent (when comparing to other builds with portico and alfresco slabs poured as part of the main slab laying exercise).

My advice would be to read, re-read and read the contract again. I made the silly mistake of thinking that the major schedule and floor-plan design told me everything I needed to know.

It's definitely a learning experience.

Re: unknown or extra building costs
 

The actual slab cost will vary. Most sites will need a slab design which is above that provided in the contract, also any cutting and filling of the site to make level etc.

Then you have the cost of external concreting, landscaping and tiles/tapware/bathroom/door furnishings which you will upgrade from since most of the standard allowances are crap.

Builders normally allow for gas hot water systems which mean you need to sort out bottled gas supplies in a lot of areas. Solar will of course be extra.

Do you want 5mm tinted glass or the standard 3mm blow on it and it breaks clear stuff, cause thats whats gonna be in the contract most likely.

Oh - dont forget your blinds and curtains. To do a whole house can cost 5k or more.

Make sure fencing is allowed for also. Bottom line is that if it isnt on the building spec - you'll pay for it and through the nose usually.

I think we probably spent $50k beyond the base build cost and could have spent a lot more if we were minded.

And dont even speak to me about swimming pools :eek:

Re: unknown or extra building costs
 

Hi ya,
We're not sure about Perth, but we've looked into buying in Brisbane.
The cost is for the basic house... and I mean BASIC!
There are sooo many add ons, as mentioned the price of the slab is one of the biggest expenses. It all depends on the builder. Some builders quote for an 'M' class slab while others quote for an 'S' class.
Anything from flyscreens, sarking, wall wrap (wall insulation), driveways, patio
slab, rendering, facade, security screens, flooring (except wet areas), decorative tiling for showers, outside taps, external water tanks!
It really depends on the builder, in our experience if you don't ask about it
they don't mention it :eek:
Best thing to do is ask for several quotes, and read their standard inclusions listing very carefully.
Having said this the choice to get the house that you want is much better than buying in the UK where you might have the choice of the colour of the tiles in the kitchen and bath suite and that's it.
For a guessimate allow up to $80k on top of the basic house price. Again it really depends on standard inclusion list and the result of soil (contour) testing that is performed on the land.
Best of luck with it all!!!! :thumbup:

Re: unknown or extra building costs
 

Cheers

Wow - thats a lot more than we considered in our budget.

Oh dear this is a lot worse than we though.......................... We guessed around $20-30K Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

I guess we will need to become small print experts to avoid making more profits for the builders.

Re: unknown or extra building costs
 

Yeah ...Tell us about it! There are ways to cut down the costs by asking the subcontractors that pour the main slab to quote you for things such as a driveway and patio. Also get local tradies to quote for laying the tiles / wood flooring / carpets. It 'should' bring the bill down a bit as the builders have very high mark ups on these things (some up to 60% :mad:)
Also tell the main builder that you are arranging these items external to their contract.
The 80k would include 'luxury' items such as fully ducted air co, extra kitchen units, Heat Pump Hot water system.
Another way of doing it is to go through a sales rep and ask them to point out what is included and what is excluded in the price they quote you.

Best of luck it's a bit of a mine field until you know what you really want.

Re: unknown or extra building costs
 

be careful when organising tradies to do work as it can bite you with the builder if your not careful. i organised granite bench tops as the builder wanted $7000 for $5000 worth of granite but the builder then refused to fit the sinks or kitchen appliances incase his guys damaged the granite whilst installing although he was contractually obliged. it really wasnt worth the hassle of arguing with him so i installed them myself. best advice is get a quote then walk through the display home with the sales guy and compare whats on the quote to whats in the show home. most people will be shocked as most things wont be included. stay away from large builders.

Re: unknown or extra building costs
 

its starting to look a lot more expensive to build - we always thought it would be cheaper etc.

Is it possible to deal in all the extras if you know what you want?

Re: unknown or extra building costs
 

Total crap, we are moving in soon and 30k will finish the house and landscaping.



* When I mean finish I mean flooring, curtains, heating, cooling and drive.

Re: unknown or extra building costs
 

Our site costs alone were $30k! Then we had upgrades ontop. Basic house price plus approx $50k by the time we've finished (ontop of the $30k) so
$80k seems about right.

Re: unknown or extra building costs
 

a bit harsh, they did say it was a guesstimate only, but in truth, a bit of digging on your own on the interweb tells you most of what you need to know, for instance, most builders websites have a base spec list on them, from here you can work out what you may have to pay more for, although i do agree with centurion, some of the base materials, like door-handles, and light switches, really are crap, but they really do charge a mark up on them, hopefully if/when we build ours we would try and do as much ourselves as possible

Re: unknown or extra building costs
 

again, all this depends on your original budget, if you're building a $265k home to start with, then obviously it may be bigger, and hence require more of everything, but if your building a $150k home, it may be smaller or less of a requirement to have the best of everything maybe?, also regarding site costs, surely if you've got a flat piece of land to start with, there shouldnt be too many headaches?, cant you get a fixed price contract on the slab?

Re: unknown or extra building costs
 

Sounds like you got a bargain then!
As most other people on here seem to be saying in excess of 50k and I did say guessimate based on the figures I have been supplied by several builders.
It also depends on site costs which is the main 'extra' to any house!
Even the size of the building will make a difference to the costs to everything in it!
So 'enough' of the total crap remark :mad: everyone has there own information to provide on these forums!

Re: unknown or extra building costs
 

I know of 12 people building and no one has had 80k of extra costs. Sounds like a load of cashed up Brits getting ripped of to me. My site cost for a 215m house on a 2 meter side to side and front to back sloping sight were 4.5k.

Re: unknown or extra building costs
 

Hi there. Like a lot of people have said, building is a mine field, and the final cost really depends on the builder, the design, site costs, and what is included in the inclusion list, etc etc. As someone said, you would probably want to upgrade all the fixtures and fittings as those supplied in the base price are pretty crap.

Just to give you an idea. Our base price was $159,980 for a 3 to 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom, study, lounge, open plan kitchen/living and outdoor alfresco, also driveway was included.

Before foundations were even dug it cost an extra 7 grand for the slab, as our soil test came back highly reactive, so the footings had to be constructed accordingly.

We chose to upgrade just about everything, from the kitchen, i.e. granite worktops, glass splashback and a slight design alteration. We supplied all our own kitchen appliances, i.e. miele range hood, double undermounted sink, smeg oven, etc. we supplied all our own light fittings and fans, and had to pay extra for installation as they only allow installation for their standard number of fittings. We had about 3 times as many power points put in as in the display home, as they never supply enough and again had to pay extra for the installation. We bought all our own taps as the ones they were supplying were crap, and we had our own tiling contractor which saved us about 3 grand. So by about now, we’re up to about $215,000, plus all the owner supplied items mentioned above, which came to about 13 grand. Anything we bought which they would have supplied, they gave us a credit. There were loads of other things included in that price, including rendering and colourbond roof, which we didn’t have any say in the matter as they were part of the covenants of where we built, and we also chose to have solarblock windows as well, which also hiked the price up by about $1500.

These costs obviously don’t include fencing/landscaping etc, which having a look at my spreadsheet came to about 10 to 12 grand.

When our contract was drawn up we had everything that we could think we would want included and the first price came back at about $240,000 so we chipped away at it, and several contracts later, we agreed on $215,000.

The final cost of the house, internal fixtures/fittings, appliances, fencing, and landscaping came to just over $240,000.

So yes, it is an expensive project, but at the end of the day at least you get exactly what you want, and we were glad we went down this route. I know others would disagree, but in all honesty, we didn’t have any problems whatsoever.

Re: unknown or extra building costs
 

Hi All,
Many thanks for your information - can I ask the main reason for staying away from large builders - I take it Dale Alcock & the likes.

Large company = large profits / inflexible?

We are looking at Redink.

Re: unknown or extra building costs
 

Metricon seemingly make great homes but they really do take their time doing it and their customer service is appalling.

Re: unknown or extra building costs
 

Our costs look like being about the same as yours but I know that they can go way higher. We're looking to build with Metricon and have secured a deal which gives a fair few extras at a fixed cost (e.g. stone bench tops, decent facade, glass splashbacks etc.). The scariest thing for us was the thought of unknown site costs. The first plot of land we liked was in an area where there is known to be a lot of rock and the builders were all quoting "unknown costs subject to soil test" and we were warned it could go up to or beyond $30k. another bit of land we liked was on good land and the builders are guranteeing a site cost of $10k with an optional addition of no more than $2k if rocks are found during the soil test. We're now lookuing at that land seriously as it's also being sold with fencing included.

Just got to look around and ask lots and lots of questions. Get a walk through with the builder and make sure you ask if bulkheads are included where there's a cut out in the walls, if the alfresco is concreted and roofed, if driveway is included, also check on ceiling heights as we've found showhomes are often higher than standard). Speak to as many builders as you can as they all tell you something different but you can use this information to compile a decent list of questions.

It's a fairly daunting task but we're hoping that we'll get the perfect house for us at the end of it and we still reckon we can bring it in for less than the cost of buying second hand (and remember the stamp duty is cheaper if building this way which is a BIG saving).

Re: unknown or extra building costs
 

Not necessarily. We have a Metricon going up next door to us, and it's going up at a rate of knots. The tradies are their 6 days a week (most weeks), and seem to work quite long hours

Re: unknown or extra building costs
 

Yep, metricon are quoting 18 weeks for single storey (or 22? weeks for double) - seems reasonable to me...:)

Re: unknown or extra building costs
 

I checked the Metricon website - they look like really nice homes - but alas not in WA.

Re: unknown or extra building costs
 

We've looked at virtually every show home in Melbourne (at least it feels like that anyway:lol:), and although most are lovely, we just got a great vibe from Metricon and the house style we've chosen just "felt" right to us. They're quoting us around 20 weeks for a build on a single storey house.

Re: unknown or extra building costs
 

Our build came in within $1500 of our budget and estimate - but that included a hell of a lot of pure guesswork!

We *did* have an honest builder, who credited us with several items that didn't come up to costings. For example, we had some $5000 back on the footings underspend.

But then: you move in --- and the spending really starts!

Re: unknown or extra building costs
 

Hi All,
Has anyone used Redink homes in Perth - if so what was the difference between the quoted build cost & the final bill (extras). i.e close or miles out.

We are now getting our figures rounded up here in light of the above posts.

Re: unknown or extra building costs
 

Graeme

we have recently gone to pre-start with Dale Alcock Homes in Perth and here is an idea of some of the extras we've factored in to our build and what they cost, it's worth noting you don't need to add in any of these you can just have the basic build.

Shower screens instead of shower curtain rails $600
Enclosing the study $800
heightened ceilings throughout living areas $6000
Pergola brackets $1000
Supervents (whirly birld things to help reduce roof condensation) $800
Upgrade internal doors to panelled doors $900
Extra power points $74 per double
conduits with wall plate $32 each
Solar HWS $4000
Junction boxes instead of lights so we can have our own downlights installed $13 per room.

There are loads more i could give you but that should give you an idea.

Our site costs are pretty high as we are bulding rural so we have a rural loading fee and also need spetics and a cut and fill on the block. Site costs for a block on a new estate which is sold ready to build on shouldn't be more than $7k and most new developments include fencing and some landscaping.

In addition to all this we have floor coverings, window treatments, pergola, patio paving, air con, fencing etc which we are budgeting $50k for but it is a larger than average home as we have a larger than average family.

I hope you find this useful if you need any more info send me a pm.

Lynn

Re: unknown or extra building costs
 

I guess it's down to where you are building then because we have a swathe of Metricon homes going up on our development and they are progressing at a conspicuously slow rate.

Customer service still leaves a lot to be desired though.

Re: unknown or extra building costs
 

Yes but reality is quite different for us. We have 25 weeks wound into our contract but there was a period of 3 weeks where the house build ground to a halt because they simply cannot find enough tradies to meet the demand for their builds.

At the moment they seem to work in short bursts interspersed with longer periods of inactivity.

Re: unknown or extra building costs
 

whether its a large builder or a small one they're all in it to make a living.the larger companies usually have an army of sales people who could sell sand to the arabs. you will deal with different people all the way through the building process with each not really knowing what the other is up to. the smaller builder will be hands on and know where the house is at when you call him. ive also found that the smallers builders are more likely to build you the most suitable house, offer you ideas and its a lot easier and cheaper to change things along the way. a salesperson is simply that. they generally would have no building experiece ( there are obvisiously exeptions). it also makes me laugh when the large builders offer use of a colour consultant. its usually just some chick in the office straight out of high school.