self build an a budget

Some very good info here. I am at the very early stages of planning on building a four bed house in the country. I have a large site so space is no constraint. I am wondering how much extra does the dormer bungalow cost. i.e what would the difference be between using just 3 velux windows or using 3 dormer vertical windows. I wish to have two bed upstairs bathroom and hotpress. Do you have much more height upstairs rooms with the Dormer windows?

please understand I am a complete amateur when it comes to this area.

Thanking you in advance
 
ssiaman said:
Some very good info here. I am at the very early stages of planning on building a four bed house in the country. I have a large site so space is no constraint. I am wondering how much extra does the dormer bungalow cost. i.e what would the difference be between using just 3 velux windows or using 3 dormer vertical windows. I wish to have two bed upstairs bathroom and hotpress. Do you have much more height upstairs rooms with the Dormer windows?

please understand I am a complete amateur when it comes to this area.

Thanking you in advance
Click to expand...

Tbh, dormers are a right pain in the neck from a roofer's perspective. More expensive to build, valleys, flashing, how to finish the dormer walls, small fiddly detailing for fascia & soffits, etc.

From an owners perspective, they are: useless. Dark, and do not contribute anything of note to room size - you'll still hit your head off the rest of the roof..........

We moved out of our dormer after 10+ years and.........never again !!!

BTW - downer on velux's is........noise. Especially rain. Deafen you in a storm, tbh.......and on windy nights. I know someone who sold their house over it, it was so bad..........
 
was talking to a roofer who said you would want to allow 2500 for each dormer on a house build.
 
After spending half hour reading all the posts, I decided I'd tell nmonaghan that it's possible but wit alot of patience time work and sweat.
My helpers(Fiancees father, my father, my 3 brothers, numerous friends) to be known as CO.
Were presently building a 2900 sq.f. dormer in Roscommon. Started June bank holiday 2007. Borrowed digger and couple of dumpers from work and dragged some of CO. out of bed at 6 o clock sat sun mon and tue, and worker through till dark 11 - 11:30. Got access to site, site levelled(around 3m dig at rear) foundations dug poured in weekend.
Got block layer for footings. Didn't start footings till October due to mortgage reasons.
Meself and mates done radon and insulation.
Meself, F in L, cousin and uncle done concrete floor.
Block layer to joists. Cousin(Chippy, all through books) done Joists.
Got scaffolding from work and again CO. gave a hand for day and got it up. (adjusted it meself than ahead of plasterer).
Went 2 blocks above joists which gives that little bit extra room inside.
Cousin done roof with one dormer(because council wouldn't give me planning for two:confused::mad:), 2 velux's, 4 valleys, 2 chimneys, and a one storey roof lower than main roof(again through books)(17k for helping at concrete floor, doing joists, doing roof)
I priced roof in 3 hardwares. My local was the dearest and the owner knows me well(I think €1400 on lead alone, which I didn't leave at the site)
Ended up buying slates in northern ireland. Done 2 trips with trailer and got them €700 euro cheaper than anywhere in republic.
Windows are black PVC, again shopped around and prices were 4 grand in differ from lowest to highest.
Have 2 gables in stone approx 110sq.m. which I should get built(on going) for €10000(this includes cost of stone, being built by non nationals, who are excellent)(got price of Irish stone mason for €10.5k plus VAT)
Have a well drilled(€3400)
Sheeted out first floor with ply, myself and CO..
Done timber studing myself and CO.
Slabbing it at the minute myself and CO. and me cousin helping alot too, with advice and alot of saturdays(not through books). Another 2 weeks should finish slabbing.
Not sparing insulation though.
All external walls 50mm cosy board.
300mm fibre glass in attic.
4 inche(Quintherm) & 2 inche & 50mm cosy board between rafters on pitch.
2 inche behind studding(1500mm partition walls) and 100mm fibreglass between studding.
100mm rockwoll in internal studded partitions.
4 inche (Quintherm) behind studding @ dormer and 100mm rockwool between studding and cosy board.
150mm Rockwool in first floor joists.
Outside is plastered, Hopefully I'll have slabbing done in 2 weeks and he'll start inside.
I'll have builers finish, No(stairs, kitchen, fitted wardrobes painting tiling)
will include(prefinished oak doors and skirting, sewrage treatment plant, all legal fees, :rolleyes:council development charges(which I hate as I had to drill my own well, own sewerage, no bins by my house:mad:)Well and pump)
All done for 135 - 140
Solid Oak kitchen(U shape 3.8, 5.2, 3.8) with Granite worktop, fridge, carracells, dish washer. and massive island €17.5. Again shop around and make sure your clear what your getting
P.S. going to try up north today for baths showers etc as sterling in good(for us that is)


So Nmonaghan I think it's possible, with alot of shopping around, haggling, and hard word, saying that I probably saved €5-7 grand digging it myself(and co) and another €10k+ doing all the work we've done ourselves(radon, studding, insul, slabbing)

Hope this is off good help:D
 
where in the north did you get slates and how much ,i am building in donegal thanks
 
Trutone plus slates off F R Cathcart Ltd
[broken link removed]
I have no direct link with this company.
The main difference at the time was the sterling/euro.
Hope this is off help to you.

Clerragh
 
<quoted ad removed by mod>

Sorry to raise this old post but I was just trawling through the velux posts and notice that Decoman has made only two posts both advertising this site so take his advice with a cellar of salt.
 
nmonaghan said:
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.
Click to expand...


Every deviation from a rectangular plan form costs money
Every subdivision of a simple one-room building costs more money.
Every deviation from a
  • single-bathroom
  • single kitchen
  • no utility
  • one downstairs bathroom
house costs money

Think about the spatial complexity you absolutely need for living.
  • Larger windows costs more money
  • More windows cost more money
  • Internal doors cost more money
  • Iiternal partiitions/room dividers cost more money
  • Anything more than white ceiling paint on good plaster walls costs more money.

That having been said;
Leave service connections in place for later appliances - do your clothes and dish washing by hand for now.

Commit to your Part L compliant spec house NOW and reap the benefits for years to come in terms of saved heating bills.

Some nice timber floor finishes wouldn't hurt though...

:)

ONQ.
 
fyi... we just coming to the end of a self build.
2,800 sq feet. 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms , playroom, utility,
good spec e.g. polished porcelain tiles, good engineered (walnut) wooden floors, underfloor heating upstairs and down, hollowcore flooring upstairs, walnut doors, black PVC windows inside and out, fab contemporary high-gloss kitchen, natural stone (not cladding) on some of house, contemporary bathrooms, very unusual tiling (i.e. not plain white tiling or anything), solar panels.
We hve 2 small kids so I am not moving them into a building site - all the rooms will be finished, furnished and VERY habitable for under 200k.

Did it direct labour, and my husband did as much of the donkey work himself - he is not tradesman, but is handy e.g. bought the solar panels then he and his brother installed them.... His brother and his dad and he did all the ground work, clearing site, levelling it, laying about 6 lorry loads of stone on the driveway..... he is doing all the painting, and would have done the tiling except I insisted on getting a tiler in to do it.

You wouldn't bring it in under 200k with a contractor I'd say (times haven't changed that much, have they?) , but direct labour you should.
 
paddyp said:
Sorry to raise this old post but I was just trawling through the velux posts and notice that Decoman has made only two posts both advertising this site so take his advice with a cellar of salt.
Click to expand...

Please use the 'Report Post' function to make the mods aware of such suspicions.
Leo
 
Hi All,

Only new to this site, have been looking at the threads and most give a good breakdown of costs etc. Im hoping to start building a 2800 sq ft 2 storey next yr. Just wondering how much it would cost for stonework and quoins on front of house only. Anyone got a ballpark figure? Also do you think id manage to make the house live-able for €200K? My dad and brother are electricians and plumbers and my brother is carpenter so they would be doing that work, also have a painter and digger driver in the family who will do that work for cheap.
 
bigbuild said:
Hi All,

Only new to this site, have been looking at the threads and most give a good breakdown of costs etc. Im hoping to start building a 2800 sq ft 2 storey next yr. Just wondering how much it would cost for stonework and quoins on front of house only. Anyone got a ballpark figure? Also do you think id manage to make the house live-able for €200K? My dad and brother are electricians and plumbers and my brother is carpenter so they would be doing that work, also have a painter and digger driver in the family who will do that work for cheap.
Click to expand...

Yes bigbuild - I think it's possible to make it very live-able for 200k - ESPECIALLY considering all the trades you have in your family.
See my post above detailing how we are coming to end of self-build,same size house as yours, and we are bringing it in at that cost without having any trades in the family.
Good luck with the build!
 
Hi Jewel,

If you dont mind me asking, how much did your stonework cost? Did prices vary much?
 
bigbuild said:
ust wondering how much it would cost for stonework and quoins on front of house only. Anyone got a ballpark figure?
Click to expand...

We were going to stone the front of our 2500 sq ft house, the quotes we got back were €12k for the stone and €2.5k in labour.
 
Hi Krissovo,

that must be some stone...!!
That seems a very big gap between the stone cost and the labour......
I got mine done and costs will be split roughly 50/50 between labour and stone...
 
The frontage of the house is very big and L shaped so more stone than a flat front I suppose. Stone quote came direct from supplier, labour was from a few stone masons
 
Krissovo.

Make sure you view their work and bring someone knowledgeable with u if u can....I viewed work of 4 or 5 before settling on someone and looking at it being built now, I am absolutely delighted with the choice..
 
TripMeUp said:
Krissovo.

Make sure you view their work and bring someone knowledgeable with u if u can....I viewed work of 4 or 5 before settling on someone and looking at it being built now, I am absolutely delighted with the choice..
Click to expand...

Would you mind me asking what type of stone are you using & is it expensive to buy, labour etc
 
Stone can be various costs, depends on what you have in mind. Granite, limestone, Quartz etc etc...I got a lovely (to us anyway) Sandstone that has a green hint/tint to it and it now looks very well as it is being built......Planning on cream fascia and soffit and cream windows so should look well...The stonemason I got wasn't actually the most expensive one in the end, so it is a matter of making a decision on the basis of what u have seen and maybe someone with experience to help....I brought my brickie who is very fussy and in the game a while..

Stone mason costs have come down a bit and can vary from 50 euro per sqm upto 90 I found....
 
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