Where to start on budget for self build?

[Shealin]

Hi Everyone,

I am new to the forum. We are currently having our plans drawn up for our new house in order to apply for planning. Our brother (engineer) is drawing our plans for us. We have have the plans already just to tweak them to what we want.

I am starting to draw up the budget for the build and was just wondering how people went about this. Do you go to builders for quote to include materials and labour or where do you start? I would prefer to be honest to look around for the materials and get prices that way.

But really how do I know the materials I need, the amount etc. Or are we better making a copy of our plans and going to builders for prices etc.

Thanks in advance

Shealin

 

[onq]

First, read the Self Build FAQ on this forum. Read the other relevant posts on this forum. There are many, some only recently answered on this subject.
There are also several showing you the pitfalls of the direct labour route, insurance, certification, H&S, etc.

If people are working directly for you on site you have the responsibilities of a Contractor under the Health and Safety legislation and you will need full Contractor's insurance.
Unless you are competent to discharge the duties and take on the role of a contractor you should think twice about this approach.

Appointing a main contractor absolves you from this and from a vertical learning curve, as well as this project taking over your life for the duration.

Then the choice is yours.

ONQ

[broken link removed]

 

[bigbuild]

Hi Shealin,

1st of all let me say best of luck with the planning permission. I got mine before Christmas and am hoping to start building in March (direct labour). You need to allow yourself PLENTY of time to price around. I started off by photocopying about 20 sets of plans and just left them into all the people i wanted a price from(builders, foundations people, plasterers, plumbers etc). They gave us back a quote for labour and when we decided who we wanted to do the work for us we approached them and asked for a bill of materials. At the moment we are going off pricing all the different lists of materials we have. I wrote out the lists and handed them into a building suppliers and put my number on the bottom. We are getting a huge variance in prices so please allow time for this- u could end up saving quite a bit. We have also put together a budget for finishing the house by looking round shops etc- this is the part that you will need to price around the most. It takes alot of time but believe me it will all be worth it in the end. If you need any other info, please feel free to PM me and i can give you a breakdown of our quotes- best of luck