Cost of building a house

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kingspoofer

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Hello,
I am going building a bungalow about 2000sqft on my own site and now that the building has slowed down could anyone tell me roughly what it is going to cost for a builder to do it.? It will be a plain enough bungalow not too much design. Would appreciate any comment. Thanks.
 
I just got planning myself to build a bungalow of 2500sq ft so interested in the response myself. Are you going direct labour or contractor? The only quote I got so far was for blocklayer-70c a block,which is half what they got last year
 
Feardorcha said:
I just got planning myself to build a bungalow of 2500sq ft so interested in the response myself. Are you going direct labour or contractor? The only quote I got so far was for blocklayer-70c a block,which is half what they got last year
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A point to remember, and word of advice , do not rely on the down turn in the construction industry, you pay peanuts and get monkeys
 
In the South East, my brother paid a very reputable local builder to build an extension 18 months ago for €80 sq.ft, which was the same price as he paid the same firm to build the house itself, in '99.
 
I work a lot on the road so it will be fairly hard for me to organise the house direct labour but if it costs too much i will be doing it direct labour. hopefully i will be getting it done by my uncle who is a builder provided he gives me a good price. it easy to say do it direct labour but you would want to be there a lot of the time watching that things are done right. People will not do it for nothing but from jan on things will get very tight there's no work there so people can either give you a good price or not work. make sure you get someone who has a good reputation to do it heard of alot of people getting friends of friends who they don't really know and the standard of work was not good. Heard about 70/80 sq ft but all depends of the design of house. the simpler it is the cheaper it will be so i am told anyway. Would be interested in anyone's opinion on the cost ?
 
Im in the middle of a Direct Labour build at the moment, the roof is finished and the windows are arriving on Friday.

- I expect to come in at 80e per sq ft but my Da will do my tiling, painting, floors, 2nd fix carpentry so that will save a lot of money. You need to control the budget with a tight fist, keep a spreadsheet and record everything, its easier to manage. Shop around for materials, it can make a difference of 100's of euro. So get out the phone book.

I spent 3 months sending out plans to local tradesmen, and asking people for their recommendations based on their own direct build experience. In the end I didn't necessary go for the cheapest tradesmen, I went with the ones based on their experience and their reputation. I did haggle with the roofer because he was the most expensive, he did lower his prices to get the job and he was fantastic.

I'm on the road a lot so my Da pops in twice a day to make sure everything is ok, but in general there has been no disasters but I put that down to the tradesmen I have employed to do the job.
 
When did you start building ?I will be building next year so hopefully the price will be down more then.
 
As someone in the trade, I don't see any great scope for reductions from here. People cannot work for below cost. All that will happen is the numbers of builders will decrease, but those that remain will still need the same rates to keep the doors open for business.

For a start, raw materials are set to rise, particularly timber. Just as petrol/oil has a trading market, so too does timber. And the best timber on the market (imho) comes out of Russia. Russia has just decided to NOT introduce export tarriff's on timber until Jan 2010. So, outside of normal increases next year, I expect an extra jump in price from Jan 2010 again.

Insulation has just had a big jump in price, so that's not going to come down, either.

As someone says - if you pay peanuts, you most assuredly will get monkey's.

A simple, straightforward build, using a contractor, would be in the region of Eur 100 m2
 
The cost per square foot will really depend on the spec of the build.The type of heating system will affect the cost also.If you go high end on the build you could pay up €90 euro per square foot.
 
That fair enough to say that the price of raw materials are increasingbut with the price of oil dropping now wont that effect shipping cost /deliver cost?.I know good builders will always be in demand but with so little work around do you think that they will be giving good prices to get the work rather than laying of there labours from lack of work?When you say 100m2 do you mean 100 sqft? or what is the conversion?
 
E70 /ft2 would be a good price at the moment. Things won't get much cheaper than they are now. I'm in the trade and rates are at rock bottom at the moment. I know subbies who have offered to lay blocks for me for 70c and I won't touch them and my advice to you would be to not go near them either. I would still rather pay E1.10 To E1.20 a block for quality. Whether you go for a builder or direct labour make sure to pore through every quote with a fine-tooth comb to make sure its a comprehensive quote with as little room for extras as possible. And if you are getting quotes for a roof for example and 4 guys are alll within a few grand of each other and another is 5 grand less, throw that quuote in the bin!!!
 
I recently priced the plasering of a house...a big one and was beaten out of sight on price by a gang who were travelling from around 80k away. They were in and out in a flash. When I drove by the state of the external work was abysmal, clearly no scratch coat and horrendous napping and Quoins. Inside was even worse by all accounts. The lads went and did a job as quickly and shoddily as was needed to make a basic days wage and whoever believes that simply because a price is half what was paid last year the work will be A1 is deluded. I had not the slightest bit of sympathy for the guy who had this two storey 3000 sq ft house plastered for €7,500.
Same appllies across the board....do people honestly believe the quality of work will be up to first class standards when a guy is only taking home half of his last years pay packet. Is the blocklayer going to pay anywhere enough attention to detail when he needs to lay twice the number of blocks to earn a days wage, half of them were shocking enough in the best of times.
 
baldyman27 said:
E70 /ft2 would be a good price at the moment. Things won't get much cheaper than they are now. I'm in the trade and rates are at rock bottom at the moment. I know subbies who have offered to lay blocks for me for 70c and I won't touch them and my advice to you would be to not go near them either. I would still rather pay E1.10 To E1.20 a block for quality. Whether you go for a builder or direct labour make sure to pore through every quote with a fine-tooth comb to make sure its a comprehensive quote with as little room for extras as possible. And if you are getting quotes for a roof for example and 4 guys are alll within a few grand of each other and another is 5 grand less, throw that quuote in the bin!!!
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Have to agree.

Very important to get detailed quote. How else can you compare like for like.
 
MacTheKnife1 said:
Wish I could get prices that cheap, I think he means 1000 per sq m or about 100 per sq ft.
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I know, only joking. This now means that construction prices in Ireland are cheaper than in the south of Germany!!!


Joejoe
 
i dont know what im paying per foot but my blocklayer is charging 7000 to build the whole house, put up the rsjs and has his own scaffolding all included in the price. the house size is 320sq ft. im in galway and he is excellent. block work is perfect.
 
joejoe said:
I know, only joking. This now means that construction prices in Ireland are cheaper than in the south of Germany!!!
Joejoe
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Joe, I got offered 70 euro for a builders finish in the last week. Costs are coming down, a friend in the industy tells me I will get 60 euro a sq ft next year.
 
MacTheKnife1 said:
Joe, I got offered 70 euro for a builders finish in the last week. Costs are coming down, a friend in the industy tells me I will get 60 euro a sq ft next year.
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That would be shockingly good value, providing you get a good job.

Joejoe
 
galwaytt said:
As someone in the trade, I don't see any great scope for reductions from here. People cannot work for below cost. All that will happen is the numbers of builders will decrease, but those that remain will still need the same rates to keep the doors open for business.

For a start, raw materials are set to rise, particularly timber. Just as petrol/oil has a trading market, so too does timber. And the best timber on the market (imho) comes out of Russia. Russia has just decided to NOT introduce export tarriff's on timber until Jan 2010. So, outside of normal increases next year, I expect an extra jump in price from Jan 2010 again.

Insulation has just had a big jump in price, so that's not going to come down, either.

As someone says - if you pay peanuts, you most assuredly will get monkey's.

A simple, straightforward build, using a contractor, would be in the region of Eur 100 m2
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Absolutely untrue-Prices on all materials are falling as you'd expect with the current oil price slump, current economic slump and supply demand situation-i.e the demand is simply not there at the moment. The only building of note that is taking place is once off housing and slatted sheds -the latter will be finished at Christmas. Prices on timber may go up nesxt year but for the moment steel, concrete etc are in freefall. Im especially surprised with your comment on insulation. Prices on Kingspan, Xtratherm products are falling over the last 18 months (almost 20% down ion what I paid 2 years ago)
 
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