Build Costs going down?

LouthMan said:
Spoke to a Contractor outside Dundalk and he said 77 euro a sq ft for Basic house ! They have dropped and loads of people I know in the trade that are doing very little, shop around and you save a bomb.
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Hi Louthman - i am from the louth area and are looking for contractors, are u able to post there details
 
fwiw, I got a letter in the post today from one of our suppliers - Rockwool going up by 8% from July 1.

Extruded polystyrene going up by 6% from end July.

I expect the price of timber to climb by Aug - some mills are cutting back production for July/Aug deliberately to get pricing up, by restricting supply.

So, in short, nothing coming down, there..........no point in putting stuff on the long finger, really.
 
what is the most expensive part of a house to build? would it be the roof?
 
Johnnie said:
Hi Louthman - i am from the louth area and are looking for contractors, are u able to post there details
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Johnie - I will be looking to build soon in the louth area also. Can you pm me to let me know what sort of prices you are finding?
 
Builders finish in the West am seeing clients getting quotes around the 85 per sq foot.

BTW which is more expensive= flat roof, good material zinc, or pitched normal roof? Presume zinc but by how much?
 
Peeete said:
Johnie - I will be looking to build soon in the louth area also. Can you pm me to let me know what sort of prices you are finding?
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Please post items like this publicly so that others can benefit.
Leo
 
We're building a 2500 sq ft storey and a half house. Our architect got a quote for E235 excluding all the extras we'd put on our plans and standard insulation everything. We decided not to go with him and went direct.

So far so good. We changed architect too as he doesn't approve of this 'type of build'. But we have a good engineer overseeing things now who has worked with most of contractors. We're trying to remember that cheapest isn't neccessarily the best but my dad worked in the building field a few years ago so is proving invaluable.

We're shoping around on everything and haggling with everyone. (well dad is much to dh's mortification).

So far like with like we've saved E4k on windows, E2.5 k on fireplace, E2k on slates, E1.1 on timber for roof. We've haggled hard saved E3k on initial quote from blockie, E3.5k on plasterer (who is also going to dry line garage).

We reckon the house will probably come in around the E235k mark still but that will be with garage, with the stonework and additional brick work, concrete floors and timber look windows and slates rather then tiles.
 
I am building a 3600 sq ft 2 storey by direct labour and no matter what way I cut it, I'm still going to end up at 100 euro per square foot. Nearly finished now though and worth every red cent.
 
Nedtastic said:
I am building a 3600 sq ft 2 storey by direct labour and no matter what way I cut it, I'm still going to end up at 100 euro per square foot. Nearly finished now though and worth every red cent.
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Is that price for a decorated finished house or builders finish so to speak?
 
We are building a 3200 sq foot house and a 320 sq foot garage using a builder who will complete to builders finish including decoration and is working out at approx 100 euro a sq foot, he could have built it for 76 euro's/foot but we upgraded insulation/tiles/joinery to oak/windows/fascia/concrete floors/geothermal/UFH..very happy todate up at wall plate level at the moment and no problems with them (touch wood!!!)
 
I know some Polish builders who have got glowing reports from previous house builders and fellow builders who are now charging 40 cent a block, down from €1.15 18 months ago.
Anyone know how many blocks would be in an average 200 square ft bungalow?
 
SAS - I did it by direct labour so hired all the individual trades myself. Had a lot of contacts though so this was the way that suited me. The 100 euro per square foot figure would be a finished article cost. Did not scrimp on anything but did a fair bit of work myself which I reckon would have saved me about 15k. If you need any details I'd be happy to share.
 
CrazyGirl said:
what is the most expensive part of a house to build? would it be the roof?
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The most expensive part is always the fit out. It is the most difficult to quanitfy at the start of the build and can vary wildly.
If you are looking at building a house you should get and want to save money go direct labour but be prepared for heartache. I recently finished my house completely for 85 per sq ft including all fit out and some furniture took 1.5 years and alot of blood sweat and tears but saved about 40k.

Just spoke to a friend who has a builder in (in carlow) and he is charging 85 to a builders finish but my friend is delighted with the work and reckons its worth the extra cost for the peace of mind.

It all depends on whether you are willing to pay that bit more to have your weekends to yourself.
 
Vanilla said:
Builders finish in the West am seeing clients getting quotes around the 85 per sq foot.

BTW which is more expensive= flat roof, good material zinc, or pitched normal roof? Presume zinc but by how much?
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We've done 2 buildings in the last 6 months, which will be zinc'd (by others). There's nothing cheap about it - I've heard pricing of Eur220/m2(for zinc only, not the roof under it) Cheaper to do it in marble !!

Avoid flat roof's like the plague - it's a roof you'll end up replacing, ultimately, in the future again....we do them, but we're not fans of them by any stretch. If you can put a decent fall on it so it's not actually flat, it's better.
 

Ah, very expensive alright. Would a zinc roof, properly laid and maintained not last as long as standard roof? Would the answer change if there was even a slight pitch?
 
Ceist Beag - I live in the country and almost every neighbour for a half mile around has built on an extension of some sort over the last 10 years or so ... f*@ked if I'm going to do the same
 
Nedtastic said:
Ceist Beag - I live in the country and almost every neighbour for a half mile around has built on an extension of some sort over the last 10 years or so ... f*@ked if I'm going to do the same
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Damn straight. I often hear complaints from people that they didn't build big enough the first time. Complaints about having built too big are scarce.
 
Ceist Beag said:
Ye like yer big houses lads!
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its cheaper to build once and not do it again IMHO, the way things are going in a few years down the line, an extension could cost what it cost to build the house now...also the cost was minimum to make the house bigger, where the cost will come in is the fit out..thats where the pinch will be
 

Aye won't argue there but just wondering how big do people feel a house needs to be? Seems like a very big house to me - unless of course ye have a family of 8 or so!
 
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