Cost of finishing 'Builder's Finish'

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MsCutha

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We are in the process of buying a new build and to get it all fitted out including curtains, tiles (1 wc, 1 ensuite and 1 main bathroom) carpets, timber floors at an additional 12k, including Nordemende appliances. Will I be correct inassuming we will get it cheaper if we opt to do it ourselves ie get in a tiler? The plan is to buy the essentials first fridge, cooker and washing machine.
Dimensions are:
Living room: 5040mm x3185mm
Kitchen/Dining: 2285mm x2525mm
Hallway: 2030mm
WC: 1600mm x 2030mm
Main bedroom: 5000mm x 4335mm
There are 3 other bedrooms large doubles and 1 small single.
Any ideas approximately how much it would cost for to get it done with average tiles and average labour costs? Nothing extravagant but good quality.
Thanks
 
Really? We haven't got a clue so hopefully others can confirm or deny.
Thanks for your reply.
 
Quality of the curtains & tiles etc.?

You'd get curtains from Harry Corry online that will do the job at a very reasonable cost for the moment. But you'd have either put rails/poles up yourself or get a fitter in.

A standard sitting room 12' by 14' could cost the bones of €1,000 to €1,200 for laminate flooring (fitting included)

If it was me I'd do it myself but I'm good at DIY and I know I'd save money by doing it myself or getting a professional in at a reasonable cost.

€12k is a lot of money... what are you getting for it? Quality? Could you do it yourself/organise it with 3rd parties? etc.

If I was back again I wouldn't put in carpets... easeier to keep laminate flooring clean.

Can you afford the extra €12k? If you can, well decision made. If you can't, well decision made.
 
Fridge, dishwasher,dryer oven,hob say at least 2k
kitche/diner tiling 1k
Living room hall good laminate say 2k
Main bathroom en-suite tiles tiller 1.5k. Depending if your going all the way up and around.
Bedrooms x4 say 2k
Builders finish usually includes very basic bath shower sink etc. To do an average bath and en-suite with good quality bath cubicle etc. say 3k

Very hard to estimate because you could certainly do it cheaper than 12k but you could easily spend over 20k.
Break down each room. Look online at cost of materials.
Tiler would probably charge 20-25per m2 to tile.
Good laminate including underlay and fitter probably around 26-32 per m2.
 
Thanks for the replies.
Paddy going by the PC sum we got for the kitchen which is next to nought is one of the reasons we are considering doing it ourselves and also we can't afford it as almost all our cash is gone. We also have two young children and trying to decide if we have the time to find tradesmen to to it. Also we moved from Dublin to Cork a year ago and so don't know any tradesmen, been given the details of two tradesmen by a work colleague so will be meeting him to show him the house and get estimates.
DCD thanks for the estimate there, the bathroom comes with the bath just no tiling (I hope I am right) will confirm tomorrow. I probably would have gone with the 12k if they gave an option of a different brand for the appliance. Here if we want a different brand we have to pay the difference.
 
MsCutha said:
we can't afford it as almost all our cash is gone.
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What happened to the time when people moved into unfinished houses and did rooms up one by one?

I moved into mine; had bare walls and bare floors for a long time.

You've said yourseld that all your cash would be gone if you stump up the extra €12k ... a lot of money to be saved/earned after tax.

Hasten slowly... do it in your own time and how you want it and you'll save money in the process.

The likes of Harvey Norman, Harry Corry etc. have sales on a regular basis... just keep an eye out for them.

Right Price Tiles (I dealt with Ballincollig) gives deals/have sales/pay the VAT offers every so often... call into them, sign up for offers by text, look at their range of tiles, look for a recommendation for a tiler, look at the tiler's work etc. You'll always find an honest and reasonably priced tradesman out there if you take the time to look.

Always look at their previous work and always get a detailed breakdown of what you'll be paying for.

Re. tiling... think outside the box... do you need tiling in certain areas? Some paints now are waterproof to such ann extent that you could paint the area. There are kitchen paints that are washable etc.

IKEA do colourful splashbacks (they now do order/pay online and deliver to your door): https://www.ikea.com/ie/en/search/?k=spalshback
 
Thanks for your reply Paddy.
Doing the rooms one by one is on the cards, we are trying to figure out how best to do it with a boisterous 5 year old and a nearly 3 year old.
The house is over 3 floors and one of the options is to get the tiling in the common areas (HSL)kitchen and main bedroom/bathroom (top floor) done up first, use them for the next 3-6 months with TV in kitchen (biggish kitchen) and then get on to doing the living room and other bathrooms.
Another option is to tile the common areas up to the first floor bathroom and 2 bedrooms and leave the topmost floor for later. We are not sure which is most practical and we are way outside our comfort zone.
I am making a list of carpet places to trawl tomorrow and have added right price tile to it. If you don't mind me being cheeky and asking for recommendations for kitchen companies please.
I will have a look at Ikea, to think we used to be a 5 minute walk from the lovely swedish store and now it is so far away :eek:
 
MsCutha said:
If you don't mind me being cheeky and asking for recommendations for kitchen companies please.
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To be honest I haven't got any. It's been awhile. I did contact Cash and Carry Kitchens about 3 years ago for a price... a simple, cheap kitchen for a holiday home... they quoted me €6k (without appliances) for the cheapest piece of plasticky wood you could ask for.

I made my own - made the carcasses doors, installed sink, worktop etc. All in the timber work cost me about €2k and the appliance another €1k approx. and I ended up with a solid kitchen. I hand painted it with French White paint. Worked out perfectly for me.

From my shopping around... kitchens are now a mad price, lots use cheap mdf in their frames and even the fittings are often not the best.

The kitchen will cost you but again... keep it simple, don't go with fashion trends as they will get dated and then you're in trouble, simple kitchens can be repainted, new doors put on etc.

See what people are getting rid of in Cork on DoneDeal: https://www.donedeal.ie/all?area=Cork&campaign=14&words=kitchen

MsCutha said:
I will have a look at Ikea, to think we used to be a 5 minute walk from the lovely swedish store and now it is so far away
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All online now so you don't have to worry about it. I've seen tradesmen on DoneDeal offering a fit together service for IKEA furniture. You could look at kitchen layouts/carcasses/cabinets and see how you might take to them.

There's a kitchen company near Right Price Tiles (Ballincollig) to their left near entrance but unless you have a plan they probably won't have much to say to you. Kitchen companies are slow to get into details with customers anymore because they'd put in the work, help you with layout and print off a plan and not see the customer anymore.

Most won't give you a plan and if they do they'll charge you €50 or so for it (discounted when you buy the kitchen from them).

Make sure you have floor areas and wall area when you go shopping for carpet and tiles.

There are lots of tile shops in Cork... don't let Right Price Tiles be your only stop. They worked for me at the time but I did shop around and I did like the tiles I saw there.

Just one thing to be aware of... tiles often come in cheap but when they add in adhesives, grout etc. it seems to go up. Tile shops seem to make their money on the extras.

With a house over 3 floors ... don't forget to invest in stair gates!
 
Thanks so much, I have a plan so hopefully I can get some ideas.
I have City Tiles and Select floors on my list also.
This may sound a bit dumb but we are clueless; if you take a disassembled kitchen, do you just take it apart and then put it back together to suit your kitchen shape?
We were at express kitchen and a pvc will cost 3500 minimum, our pc sum is 2800 which buys the compressed wood type.
Another silly question; can the adhesives grout etc not be bought together with the tiles or do you have to buy them separately?
Thanks so much, there's so much more to this house buying business it is headwrecking.
 
MsCutha said:
if you take a disassembled kitchen, do you just take it apart and then put it back together to suit your kitchen shape?
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You'd probably need a good carpenter to disassemble and to reassemble BUT.... taking things apart and putting them back together isn't easy... timber splits, screw holes get too big, they won't fit quite right together and so on. Buying a second hand kitchen is a risk... it has to closely match where you want to fit it and even then you have to accept it wasn't custom made for that area. Some kitchen might appear for sale disassembled... hard to make sure all the bits are there. Personally, unless the dimensions matched exactly where I was putting it, I wouldn't go there.
MsCutha said:
can the adhesives grout etc not be bought together with the tiles or do you have to buy them separately?
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Tile shop will make out what you need based on the amount of tiles you get.. but you'll always end up with more than you need and grout/levelling compound etc. is not returnable. I threw out three bags of it myself and at around €25 to €30 a bag it's expensive land fill.
MsCutha said:
there's so much more to this house buying business it is headwrecking.
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You're going about it the wrong way... you've got your dream house. Rome wasn't built in a day. Take your time and you will get it right.

Maybe you are trying to do too many visits together... kitchen, tiles, carpets, timber flooring etc. Focusing on one might be a better approach. The kitchen hunt will take a lot of time/research so may need a separate hunt. Google kitchen manufacturers/suppliers in Cork and browse their websites. Stick their name into google with the word review and see what comes up.

Every visit to a tile shop and kitchen shop etc. will educate you... just keep your paperwork organised in a folder or such.

Don't admit you are clueless about things... they'll see you as a soft touch then. Act confident and you'll get on fine.
 
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Also keep in mind that yr 5yr old & 3 yr old (plus any others that arrive) will pretty much trash everything over the next few years.

My advice, for what its worth is to spend money on things like flooring, fireplace, downstairs loo (visitors dont use yr upstairs) and utility room.

On appliances, spend money on freezer & fridge (I still am cheerfully using freezer purchased in 1985) and dishwasher. Washing machine will get well used & you can expect to replace in 8 years time.

Ask relatives & friends for second hand furniture & curtains. Learn to sew & you can make / redo curtains / cushions.

Edit to add: I painted & stencilled concrete floors in my house when I first moved in. It's amazing what you can manage with.

Houses are for living in, not looking perfect.

Best of luck in the new home :)
 
Thirsty said:
Also keep in mind that yr 5yr old & 3 yr old (plus any others that arrive) will pretty much trash everything over the next few years.
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they really dont have to, but they will if they are allowed to.

If you havent got the time and the knowledge to do all f this im pretty confident you will spend more than 12k so proceed with caution if you decide to do yourself.
 
If someone offered me to do what you've been offered for €12k and the material was good quality and well fitted i'd grab it. You'll spend hours trawling around shops/stores, get totally confused with all the different choices, get caught up in all the sales talk and your own/wife's vanity and very easily spend an awful lot more than €12k, then get good trades people? I wouldn't mind having a bet with you that you'll be sorry going down the DIY route. Believe me and I can do DIY as good as anyone.
 
"they really dont have to, but they will if they are allowed to."

Well of course, perfectly brought up children will not vomit all down the stairs, or have a pee accident on the living room rug, or poop on the sofa.

They will not fall & cut their knees and leave blood on your wood kitchen counter tops, they won't play with their toy cars, with one wheel missing, and scrape your parquet flooring.

They will never kick a football and smash a window, nor put lego in the oven.

Best of luck with that Blackrock1!
 
Thirsty said:
"they really dont have to, but they will if they are allowed to."

Well of course, perfectly brought up children will not vomit all down the stairs, or have a pee accident on the living room rug, or poop on the sofa.

They will not fall & cut their knees and leave blood on your wood kitchen counter tops, they won't play with their toy cars, with one wheel missing, and scrape your parquet flooring.

They will never kick a football and smash a window, nor put lego in the oven.

Best of luck with that Blackrock1!
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you are assuming that i don't have kids, i do.
 
Gordon Gekko said:
I’m not sure about the inevitability of kids wrecking things...mine don’t
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indeed, its something people whose kids wreck things say, and they will say you cant stop kids from doing stuff like, of course you can,

im not judging anyone who chooses not to but its not inevitable if you dont want it to be.
 
Before we all get into point scoring about how neat and obedient our darling children are, it was a valid point.

In most houses with kids, furniture and stuff gets more wear and tear damage than a house with just 2 adults. Its worth considering this when purchasing. Thats all, nothing to see here, move on folks.
 
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