Building your own house

M

MLO'B

Guest
Hi,

I am looking at building our own house, about 2500sqft. We are looking at the costs and was looking for an opinion and other's experience of the following;

  • Architect's fees to receipt of planning only.
  • Architect's fees for the complete build.
  • Build cost (per sqft or other)
  • Any items to watch out for?
  • Are the energy saving items such as solar panels, geothermal heat pumps, underfloor heating, etc. worth the inital spend?
Thanks
 
Can I add to this -


The comparative costs of a raft foundation verses a standard strip foundation

Im about to start building a 2500 sq ft dormer & the site is suitable for both, are there any savings to be made?

Thanks in Advance
 
You will be paying an Architect to prepare and submit the planning application... you will not be paying him him to GET permission for you.... thats a common misconception out there.

Most architects charged a percentage of the final building costs.... ie maybe 4% for planning stage... so if you are building 2500 sq ft (lets assume €100 per sq ft) thats 4% of 250,000 which is €10,000.....

definately price around, and realise that there are other professionals that can do a comparable job as an architect... an architect cost so much because you are paying for his/her artistic design... if you want a standard / traditional design then perhaps consider approaching an architectural technician.

Mr Tayto..... a site cannot be suitable for both a raft and a strip... the strip foundation is the basic cheapest foundation... whereas a raft is an engineered expensive foundation.. definately use a strip if you can... a raft can sometimes cost 4 or 5 times more than a strip.... (ie usually comparing 5,000 to 25,000)
 
Cost per sq foot depends on where in country you are.
Sister-in-law in roscommon €75 per sq foot, sister in galway 120 sq foot, depends on how good a finish you want as well.
My neighbour got both solar panels for hot water and wood pellet system and says they are both rubbish.
As a tiler i'm guessing you will have about 120 sq yards of flooring amd maybe 4 bathrooms(2-ensuites maybe) you're prob looking at 4k labour for that and prob another 4k for tiles. Jury still out on underfloor heating.

Good luck
 
sydthebeat said:
Mr Tayto..... a site cannot be suitable for both a raft and a strip...
Click to expand...

I'm interested in this statement. I was always under the impression that a raft is used where ground conditions didn't suit a strip foundation.

However, if the ground is suitable for a strip, then for price reasons thats the way to go. I didn't realise that you couldn't opt for a raft if "money was no object".
 
sas, perhaps i was presumptious...

ok, in a 'money no object' world you could pour a raft foundation on ground thats suitable for a strip foundation.... but it would be complete overkill.....

interestingly, you can pour a raft foundation on a bed of structural polystyrene... this method is used to increase floor u values and is used in some passive houses.....
 
sydthebeat said:
interestingly, you can pour a raft foundation on a bed of structural polystyrene... this method is used to increase floor u values and is used in some passive houses.....
Click to expand...

Yes, I've come across this before although I still reckon you'd be well pushed to find someone who'd sign off on that in this country. Plus I'd imagine it would be restrictively expensive. You're in the business so would you sign off on it?

Are you talking about one of the products e.g. www.supergrund.se
or are you talking more about a DIY effort. i.e. purchase blocks of required polystyrene from someone like DOW and create the equivalent?
 
I'd second what Syd says about architectural costs (and there's another fully informative debate on this if you use the search function you should pick it up).

My view is that if you know exactly what you want and require little creative input then you could use an Engineering/ planning practice instead.

We did this and the total fees for drawings (many revisions over about 3 months) and the full application pack came in about 3.5K I think.

Also would advise being as specific as possible when sending costs specs out to builders/ contractors for quote so there is no room for error and budget increases

All the best, Micheller.
 
sas.... at the risk of bringing this thread off topic (sorry MLO'B)
1. yes i would sign it off, once proper agreement certs an EN declarations are complied with.
2. i wouldnt advise a DIY job with this.. the polystyrene is specifically designed for the proposed loading...
3. and yes that 'supergrund' system is the one i was talking about..
 
a raft shouldnt cost 25000 i recently had a 1200 sq ft one put in for a garage and including steel,concrete and 26 truckloads of fill for the roadway, it cost 12,000 inc vat
 
Hi,

I used an architect to design our house - the house is 3400 sq ft, the garage 540 sq foot. The cost to get this done was E3,200. You can then get what you call working drawings but most builders are able to use the drawings submitted for planning permission. With regard to pricing, it does boil down to your specification. We are going the renewable route which is more expensive but for a highly speced house in or around E126 per square foot this includes poroton block, natural stone entrance wall, natural stone on some of house, double glazed aluclad windows and so on. It depends on your budget but get as many quotes as you can. Decide on whether you want normal block with lots of insulation, poroton block or timberframe. Start to do your research on this first, then your windows and heating.
 
 
Garbow.....
you would be surprised how many buildings are constructed from 'planning' drawings.... it exasporates me...... especially with this new blight of the phenomenon of 'direct labour'.....
 
Hi Garbow,

We're not at the building stage yet but have put out to tender on the planning drawings and have received back quotes. I'm not being smart and do excuse my ignorance but is there a huge difference between working drawings and detailed drawings submitted for planning?
 
I don't doubt the fact.

I'd say what you save in not having them produced would be far outweighed by your phone bill after answering 1001 questions on details you probably don't even know the answers to.

Not the way to go at all IMHO
 
Angela,

Planning drawings are more to show the layout, positioning and general aestetics of the proposed build.

Working drawings are produced to show how the building is put together (the instructions if you like). i.e. floor plate details/eaves details/window & door opes/ roof truss etc.

They will be the elements that will fall under building regs also

GarBow
 
Having recently gone through the renovation/ extension process, I can only say that I can't decide whether novice housebuilders are brave/foolish/innocent/naive/ confident/overconfident - the list is endless.

I very soon realised that this was something I have no knowledge of, little grasp of, too little time to devote to learning and something that I needed serious professional advice on. I had an architect and an engineer both of whom put a lot of effort into resolving tricky issues with the builder - all of them great guys I have to say and all of whom were paid handsomely. We might have done it cheaper, our pocket was deffo lightened considerably but do I feel that I've ended up with a structurally sound , well built, beautiful space.

In the unlikely event we ever decided to build, I'd be bringing in the experts and I would be slow to build a 17,000 sq. ft house with 11000 bathrooms en suite! Who is cleaning all those loos?

mf
 
Hi Garbow,

Thanks for that. In fairness the architect I dealt with even though they were for planning had a fair bit of detail in regarding roof truss, cross section, door ops and windows - the only detail I find hard to make out is the hight of ceiling in various rooms - I know what hight we discussed during drawing up the plans and again it doesn't show there is a double height valuted ceiling in some parts. There is a fair bit of glass in our house and it does go through cross section of this. Do working drawings also show electrical points etc. We are going with poroton block and concrete floors and the details of the windows and door ops are clear - the ceiling hights in my opinion are not clear but I know what they are supposed to be. Do you think I would be better to get working drawings done up?
 
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