Self Build - The costs?

V

Venus

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Hi,

We are soon to start building our first house. The Architect has made it bigger than we originally wanted. It's now 3066 Sq ft Approx. dormer

Can anyone tell me what would be the costs involved - a ball park figure?

We have no children as yet, so we would just leave upstairs plastered and finish it gradually.

We are hoping to save the money for the inside - kitchen etc.

So if anyone can help or has any information I would be really grateful!!

Thanks
K
 
Venus - 3066 ft sq - simply multiply it by 100 and you get an idea of how much it will cost to do the house. Always better to over estimate the costs because some things do go wrong. Also if the house is a high spec. It would cost more.

But at the end of the day if it was low spec self build. no fancy materials ie solid timber flooring etc you could prob do the whole house finished for 260,000. but do shop around for the best value goods.
 
We are hoping to do it for 200,000... this is probably not realistic though!

My husband to be can do the Tiling and any other work possible on the house..

We don't want to get in debt over this so maybe the best thing is to go back to the architect and say we can't afford to do it?
 
venus - Useless you are planning on having 5 kids or more. 3066ft is very big - besides you mentioned that the "architect made it bigger than you orginally wanted" why not give yourself a easy life and tell the architect to drop it down 500 feet? Some people go for a big size but for myself i would just go for a home. Quality not quatity.
 
Thanks Moneyworry - I think its best to go down in size rather than killl ourselves worrying about it!
 
Venus

I would be tempted to try and build big now and get the money from the bank to do it.
You could end up in 2 years time wishing you had the space and wanting to extend.

It would a be a shame to look back in a few years saying if only we had done ......
 
Frank this is what I think too but there is no point being in a big house that we can't afford and then being miserable!

I really don't know what to do at this stage.

We are getting married in September also which doesn't help financially!
 
I am in a VERY similiar situation. The girlfriend and myself are building our home. It is being plastered in 2 weeks.
For our 3660 sq feet dormer.
We will finish the kitchen, dining room, sun room, bath room (with jacuzzi), en-suite, utility toilet, main bedroom and have our stairs in.
Hall, sit room, dining room and sun room have solid wooden floors. Bed carpet and other bits too. This will all and more be done for 170k. Price around, cash speaks more than cheque.
And no corners have been cut on materials, if anything we have gone overboard on quality.
If you want to ask any questions on prices feel free.
 
Hi Venus,
Have a look at this website http://www.iaosb.com/
There is a section included "Cost of construction" which breaks down the cost of a self build. I am not sure how accurate this is, we are just at the planning stage our selves but there is loads of info there. We have our plans so we got a quote from a builder to do the whole thing, which has been a huge help from a costing point of view, we are probably going self build.

Good luck with the house.
Hacker.
 
Plane,

That sounds like a really good price for building a 3600 ft house!! I am building a 3200 and was wondering if you could give a quick breakdown of where all yer costs were? E.g. Groundwork, Walls, roof, plastering, electrics, plumbing etc! I know I will be keeping an excel spreadsheet for expences but was wondering if anyone else could post one up, it would be a great help.

Oh yeah, where are you based and did you do much of the work yourself??
 
Plane

As was said souds like a great price for plenty of room to swing a cat.

Would be interested in the breakdown as well.

Folks have a site, I would ove to build meself a place, depending on costing and how much project managing is needed.
 
This post will be deleted if not edited immediately ... Plane that price sounds too good to be true !!! Pleae tell me you're not building in Dublin area !!
 
Plane said:
I am in a VERY similiar situation. The girlfriend and myself are building our home. It is being plastered in 2 weeks.
For our 3660 sq feet dormer.
We will finish the kitchen, dining room, sun room, bath room (with jacuzzi), en-suite, utility toilet, main bedroom and have our stairs in.
Hall, sit room, dining room and sun room have solid wooden floors. Bed carpet and other bits too. This will all and more be done for 170k. Price around, cash speaks more than cheque.
And no corners have been cut on materials, if anything we have gone overboard on quality.
If you want to ask any questions on prices feel free.
Click to expand...
 
Hi Plane,

Thanks for this - you make it sound too easy! We sent in the plans yesterday, think its 3100. How did you manage to keep the costs so low? Most people say its about €75 per sq foot... Any chance of a rough breakdown on costs? Thanks
 
also we are looking at whether to use blocks or go with wooden frame...
Anyone have opinions on this?
 
Folks,

Just wondering if anyone has experience of contracting the 'shell' of the house, and finishing it off themselves using sub-contractors?. By this i mean selecting a contractor to carry out all the groundwork, external and internal walls, and roofing.
Would this be a good way of sharing the workload involved in building a one off house as well as keeping the costs down for the build?
 
Irishlinks,
Great site, and you seem to have done pretty well pricewise
Do you mind me asking where you got your windows/ext doors from, they seem competitive prices
 
Venus said:
also we are looking at whether to use blocks or go with wooden frame...
Anyone have opinions on this?
Click to expand...

Why not try an ICF system - Insulated Concrete Form . We have just built our house using this type of system.

ICF are basically forms for poured concrete walls, that stay in place as a permanent part of the wall assembly.
The forms, made of foam insulation, are either pre-formed interlocking blocks or separate panels connected with plastic ties. The left-in-place forms not only provide a continuous insulation and sound barrier, but also a backing for drywall on the inside, and stucco, lap siding, or brick on the outside.

It works out much the same as blocks and is much quicker in construction.
 
ludermor said:
Irishlinks,
Great site, and you seem to have done pretty well pricewise
Do you mind me asking where you got your windows/ext doors from, they seem competitive prices
Click to expand...

They were from TJ Grady - based in Charlestown Co Mayo. I ws recommended them by someone else who had just built a house - he had plenty of quotes. I think they cover most of Ireland? see
 
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