Budget for Building a House

I am hoping to start building a bungalow (Approx 2,200 square feet) in County Galway soon, and want to keep track of all quotes and expenditures in an excel format. To be honest I have no idea where to start, does anyone have a template of average costs Plumbing, Electrician, Plastering,Furnishings, kitchen, Roof etc. for the West of Ireland. I would hope to go down the direct labour route.

I would appreciate any assistance.

Hey Finola
It really depends on the type of spec you want, you can go mad or you cannot. Its normally worked out at 80-100euro per sq ft. We are building a 2200sq ft dormer in the west for 240k. thats most of the main rooms furnished. not including the site. we went for oak doors, kingspan insulation. drylining exterior walls. And a large garage (dunno how many sq ft but that upped the budget)!!
EG on prices
11.5k plasterer
16k carpenter
4k plumber
6k electrician
9k builder
7k raft foundation
Fascia and soffit 3k (materials included)
Insulation(inc slabbing) 7.5k(materials included)
Kithchen and granite - 13,350
The list goes on - just looking for tiles at the moment and all the ones i like are €60 euro per sq yrd etc!!

Do alot of research, there are lots of extras, like scaffold erection, and scaffold hire (didnt budget for that).
I did get an excel spreadsheet from someone here but i deleted it by accident. Sorry i cant be of any more help. Best of luck with it.

Case of how long is a piece of string Finola,

I found that the quotes varied dratiscally, for example plaster, cheapest 5k, dearest 11k, kitchen cheaper 5.5k to 14k so you can see what I am on about.

If you know any other selfbuilder I would suggest buying the scaffolding between you, it can be sold again no problem.

Good luck with it

Starting to do the same thing as soon as we can get the plannign sorted (please God!)

There's loads of helpful posts on this site. Also to get an overview try www.iaosb.com for some general info.


Unless you're very knowledgeable about building (and even then..)I'd strongly suggest buying the Homebond House Building Manual - Easons have it for about 44 euro - well worth the money.

Sincere thanks