self build an a budget

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nmonaghan

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We have just got pp to build a 2455 sq ft dormer style house. The bank will only give us a mortgage of 230,000, we have savings of 40,000. ( i have already accounted for the cost of legal, architect and council fees). our site costs 80,000. Can anyone give adivce if it will be possible to make the house liveable on 190,000. i would appreciete any advice you can give me.
 
Hi, all I can say is I am just about to complete a new build dormer style 3,100sq ft house, timberframe, and we were way over the budget you have by 160,000ish.Saying that, we got a handmade kitchen whereas you could go ikea, we got solid oak doors,you go pine. You will save heaps getting some stuff in England (esp if you have a VAT number). We got a good deal on engineered antique oak floors off carpenters of york for €28 sqft floors over in England. You can do stuff like that for the interior, right price tiles in January and got huge discounts for floor tiles. Just got to research. We got expensive wooden windows whereas you can get coloured pvc or something. We got sandstone cills and coins, you go cement.

Saying all this though, our costs are high enough even though we had contacts which are vital in keeping costs down. We had a friend who did our foundations and another who is an electrician. I am painting the interior myself and the doors, so that is quite a saving and most other jobs, CASH IN HAND!!

I would say by managing it ourselves, we lost €15,000 down to naiveity and trust. But I couldn't get over the cost and amount of the materials, i.e. cement, sand, bricks, pipes, plaster etc to get the house up, the foundations require an awful lot as do the walls and roof of the house. Go to a local building supplier and ask him can you open up an account and pay cash in hand and you will buy everything off him. He will more than likely take that offer than lose you to somebody else. Then there is always the labour, get the price before they start! We did go for the passive solar air tight house, quite expensive but you could always go for the cheaper radiators and oil etc,. but obviously not cost effective in the long run.

The costs are really all up to what you choose to go with, good research and most importantly, who you know!
 
Cash in hand for tradesmen. Be quiet clear about what you want done. We've had a few oh I didn't realise you wanted stone and brick work . . . that costs extra. Get material quotes in writing so that there can be no misunderstandings.

Don't be afraid to adapt the 'tinker' attitude in terms of haggling hard. My dh is happily mortified at my fathers very effective haggling even with members of his own family!

Be aware that cheapest isn't always the best. Decisions to insulate, solar panel might be overlooked at this stage but will pay off in longest run.

Open accounts in all local hardware shops and use their credit terms and shout for discounts. Everyone is hungry for business. MILK

Get your engineer onside too to make sure that your drawdowns are enough to get you through the next stage. Helps avoid expensive bridging finance.
 
Yes it can be done for 190k... But you will have to be very realistic about the standard of finish and overall quality of the house.

Before you build you can save money. For example. I have a bay window in the house I'm building. The steel structure/frame to support this cost €855... Simple windows would have saved me €855 there. Also, the amount of valleys in your roof will impact on the amount of lead you need (very expensive stuff) and the labour will be more as valleys are labour intensive...

I have paid for all of my up to floor level bills and I am close to paying all of my blockwork bills and both phases seem to come in at 70% materials and 30% labour. The price of materials are on the way up also, so as you can see for all the talk of labour increasing the cost of builds materials do make up the majority of the overall bill!
My roof budget isn't as set yet, but it's looking like 60% materials and 40% labour..

You can save big money on the finishes. If you go for an average/poor plasterer you can save thousands of euro. Also as mentioned before go for the cheapest doors/windows/kitchen/flooring/stairs etc. Go for the cheap B&Q bathroom suite (bath, toilet and sink) for €300. Also, no shower!!! Shower trays, glass doors, pumps and electric showers cost a bomb... You can get the B&Q bath suite with a shower mixer for €350 all in. If you get a shower tray and glass doors they alone could cost €700/800 for the cheapest. Only tile around the bath and sink - not the whole bathroom... Do not finish other bathrooms for a few years.... Go for the cheapest floor tiles in halls/kitchen/bathroom. Also, a big saver is to do as much work yourself as possible. You can also leave the upstairs part of your dormer "minimally finished" for the first few years....

To get in for 190k you will not be able to pay for the best materials and you be in no way able to pay for the best tradesmen... You will have to be realistic that you will have to go for the simplest of everything in the finish and that you will have to try and negotiate cash on as many deals as possible....
 
Agree with all mummo has said above especially re haggling - you can get 20% off goods from hardware stores maybe more. Tradesmen are crying out for work too.

Still fear for your budget though - I think it will be very tight / impossible to get it finished to any standard at tha price. Can you finish ground floor and not upstairs ?

I advise that whatever you cut costs on you don't skimp on insulation. - You will pay in oil or gas if you do. My advice - put in more insulation in every area than is the current regs. good luck
 
mummol said:
Be aware that cheapest isn't always the best. Decisions to insulate, solar panel might be overlooked at this stage but will pay off in longest run.
Click to expand...

This is going to be your biggest problem.... You will find it near impossible to build a house for 190k of you spend money on insulation/solar panels etc...

I personally am going for solar panels and I am going with insulated plasterboard in the house (along with standard insulation in the walls and roof). I am also going with a condensing boiler and argon filled windows. I have also gone with 100mm of foil backed Kingspan in the floor (most go with 60mm)... All these extras, which I believe will save me money in the future will add at least €15,000 to my build cost... That's 15k that a 190k budget can't manage....
 
We are nearly finished our self build - 3500ft2 steel frame storey and a half built on family land. Coming in at €370,000 excluding all furniture. No fancy features, basic electrical work bar a few 5amps and sound cables, middle of the road kitchen, pvc windows, oil central heating and solar panels as we could not afford geothermal, bathrooms on sale from B&Q. We did however spend an absolute fortune on insulation and manually sealing every single little gap. We also spent €10,000 on a concrete 1st floor.

Priorities were simple - can this be done again in a few years time - Y/N?
e,g, (Yes) we spent €13,000 on pvc windows instead of €35,000 on alu-clad
(No) we spent €350 on one HDMI lead for a projector which is hidden behind the plastering
(No) A concrete 1st floor cannot be put in after the fact
(Yes) We bought mostly Hotpoint appliances instead of Miele

Structurally, keeping the house design simple will save you a lot of money. Our house is a sort of Z-shape or L with an extra piece on top left, which meant 3 separate roofs (and then we added on a boiler house to the back so it ended up being 4 roofs) and a more complicated (thus costly) steel frame design process. My fiancé's sister built a broad two storey rectangle and saved €40,000!

We were very naive and thought that we could build our house for €220,000 - €250,000. Fortunately, we decided to err on the side of having too much money and got a much bigger mortgage. We also had substantial savings so it hasn't been a complete disaster. But I do think that if we knew a year and a half ago how much the house would end up costing to build, we would have just bought a 3 bed semi in the suburbs.

If I were to do it again I would definitely spend a few hundred on a quantity surveyor and get a more realistic view of the budget.
 
maribor - no fancy features yet €350 on one HDMI lead???? Hope it's v1.3 :)

OP - I'd say you may just get the house built for that but as other posters have said you'd need to be realistic on finishes. I think the suggestions about leaving the dormer rooms unfinished until later are good ones. Whilst labour is getting cheaper materials are getting pricier, almost by the day it seems.

SSE
 
SSE

As I said it's all about priorities - some women want a jacuzzi or chrome light switches, or god forbid, actual furniture! As for me, when my social life is crippled by mortgage repayments, I will be sitting there on my beanbag/keg/tea chest, drinking a bottle of €5.99 wine from Aldi happy in the knowledge that I am watching Planet Earth in the way that the gods intended!!!!!!!
 
A mate of mine built a 2900 sf ish dormer for €120K dormer (and €40K furnishing it!). He is a chippie by trade which is a huge advantage (no more than €35K).
I would agree on haggling,(with suppliers and tradespeople or anyone esle for that matter) if you don't feel comfortable, you soon will and maybe even enjoy it. Also the cheapest price isn't always the best so get written quotes including the proposed materials(quality or not) and compare with other tradespeople. You will learn as you go. Pay VAT and tradespeople with insurance, legal complications will follow if work is done incorrectly cos you tried to save a few €€€€.
Extras will cost you more money, discuss extra with tradesperson, get a price and then decide do you want to change. if so, sign change and price with tradesperson and proceed. Do this with the smallest of extras to keep on top of budget.
And don't be afraid to kick a tradesperson off your site (future home) if you don't think they are up to the job.
 
As some of the posters alluded to above, it will be possible for you to build on your budget, but you need to be realistic about your finish. For example, a family member has recently moved into their new build, circa 2800 sq ft (+ 500 in attic) & their spend was sub €200K. Its a damn fine pad, excellent electrical spec, marble, porcelain & semi-solid flooring, sash windows to front aspect, but just for comparison, I haven't skimmed internally yet & I've already spent almost 200K & I reckon I've another 150K to spend to get in (excluding furniture) for a slightly bigger house. So it really depends on finishes. You will certainly need to compromise....you'll choose fibre-cement slates rather than natural, your exterior will probably be plastered (and/or dashed) as opposed to stone (either natural or reconstituted), your cills will be concrete as opposed to granite, you'll choose rads rather than UFH, oil as opposed to pellets/geo, ceramic tiles as opposed to porcelain etc., etc. There are also costs that will frighten you along the way....given your house is dormer style, breath deep when you go to price lead..(your's truly nearly died when he got his bill [also dormer style]) & even with the best plan in the world, you'll get hit with unexpected bills assuming this is your 1st time. Plan on setting aside 10-15K of your 190 for contingency. Take solace in the fact though that Rome wasn't built in a day. Serious pressure (peer & self applied) in recent years for houses to be fully finished & furnished before people move in. Get your kitchen finished, one living room, a bathroom (or just your en-suite & downstairs loo), & your own bedroom & finished the rest as you go. Don't over-extend...I have & wish I hadn't now. Its not worth the headaches.
 
Davy, where did your friend build? Did he get local builders/famly in on the work?Was it timber frame / brick? V.interested in this price! That's my sort of budget!
 
He is in Co. Limerick,
He had a few local blocklayers had to run one of them off the site.

A friend that does ground work gave some time and I installed the heating and plumbing (driving back from London twice to do it).
Electrics were done by local contractor,
He did all the timber work inc roof himself (being a chippie)
He worked every waking minute outside his own job to get things done and ready for next the next trade.
He has a full time job and started the house the may bank holiday weekend and was in for christmas with every room finished. I was amazed.

It is block constructed, four bedrooms.
 
Glad to hear I'm not the only one trying to build on a budget. The house looking to build is 2100 sq ft bungalow and hoping to build for 160K in the South East area abit worried if it will be possible or not?

Would like to have solar panels but think this may wait and also would have liked to have the natural stone that sticks on not real natural stone (apologies not sure of the correct name of it) does anyone know if this can wait till a later stage.

Have got planning now but wondering should I go ahead don't really care if not all rooms are finished with furniture etc. as long as kitchen, bathroom and bedroom are. Anyone any advise?
 
I am getting quotes for €75 per sq/ft which would bring yourl spend on 2100 to 157k. This is a builders finish but no kitchen or floors and basic finish. So yes you can do it....but only just, direct labour and shopping around (a lot) should drop that into the 135+k but that would take years to build and getting trades when they are quiet. Direct labour also might creep up with the add ons of engineers etc.
 
I've been watching thread with interest. Would it worthwhile getting builders to quote. Surely they must be willing to work at very low margins given the current economic climate. Has anyone any ball park of building costs per sq ft?
 
Thanks krissovo, good to know. I think however getting tradespeople at the moment won't take too long as a friend of mine got planning and had tradespeople call to the house looking for work so hopefully I will avail of the same as I too just got my planning. I know it will take me alot of time and haggling to do it but I feel that it would be worth it in the end.

Seawinds - I was told from others that in the Carlow\Kilkenny\Wexford area that you could build for €70-80 sq ft for a builders finish.
 
In Dublin they used to say it cost 225Euro a per SQ foot but I have a feeling you could do better now
 
Hi,

Just to let you know that we are currently building a dormar 2300sq house. As from today the house is completly plastered and we have spent €105K so far. We had to pay €7,500 to the council for fees out of the mortgage also. My DH is a blocklayer so that helped. We are hoping to have the house completely finished between €180K and €200K. We have pumped loads of insulation into the house and are installing solar panals. The grant is now gone for new builds so we are having the plumber install everything and get the actual solar panal after we are living in the house for a year, then we can apply for the grant, its €2K.
I do believe you can build the house for €190K and not everything has to be the cheapest thing, you just won't have UF heating (costs abt 20K) or a jacuzzi which you prob don't want anyway. We have allowed for a kitchen to the value of €12K.
Direct labour can be a headache but it will save more in the long run.
We are building in Mayo. Best of luck
 
That was the quote we were getting for geo thermal, we didn't go with it in the end, we put in loads of insulation and we'll have a stove to heat the house and solar panals for water for some of the year and oil for when we need it.
We needed the radiators to help dry clothes in weather like this.
 
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