Builders Estimate

jamminca69

Just a quick question, contacted a few builders with the design for a potential house on land i am looking at buying.

It has DPP and so has all the drawings etc but one builder will only give me a rough estimate and will then only provide the detailed quote if i agree to the work.

Is this the norm? as i cant accept a quote like this without knowing the full details. Can understand its a lot of work but if he has gone to trouble of creating a quote surely he should already have a list of the costs?

waveyjane

Do you have a detailed specification for the design, in addition to drawings? If so (and it's detailed enough - right down to how many coats of paint you want on the skirting boards and what kind of taps you'll have in the kitchen), then avoid anyone who doesn't want to put a fixed quote on that. They might not want to rip you off, but without some solid indication of what you want, it may well end up seeming like that.

A fixed quote on a properly detailed spec is completely normal (and all pinned to a standard contract, obviously).

jennifernil

Yes, I think the problem is that you do not have enough detail. The type of finishes, hardware etc etc you want will greatly influence the cost.

A "ball park" cost these days could be around £1000 per square metre, but can vary considerably either way depending on finishes and where you are.

You do need to make quite a few decisions before you get to the fixed price stage.

Preparing a detailed quote does involve a lot of work.

diggerman123

bear in mind that an estimate can be changed considerably , a quote cannot. the builder is quite right in my opinion

diggerman123

i would also say that this builder would be the better one as he obviously "knows the form " and needs to know exactly what you need before commitment. any builder that has already quoted is chancing it (in my opinion ) and will not complete to your specification

jamminca69

Thanks for the replies, i can see the point of him not giving me the full quote without the detailed spec to go with it.

Problem is its a bit catch 22 in that i need to know the likely cost before committing to anything. Seems though ill have to come up with a detailed spec to go with designs so that i can get the detailed quotes?

diggerman123

yes , or give builder a set budget for internal finish ( which may not be to your spec )

jennifernil

Is there any danger that someone else might snap up this plot while you are working out costs?

If so, and you are really keen on it, I would work out a rough cost either from this estimate or/and using the RICS site which gives rebuilding costs for insurance purposes. Building from new can be slightly cheaper than rebuilding. If I remember correctly you can chose "luxury" or "standard" finish etc to generate a cost in your area.

If this is affordable then I would go ahead and secure the plot, then get down to details and firm prices.

From experience, if say £100k is affordable and £115k is not, then you should not be doing this as there is always the risk of something unexpected arising.

Allowing yourself a 10-15% contingency amount is not excessive.

Costs can be cut if necessary, for example by fitting a less expensive kitchen, undertaking work youself. You could ask for a price to exclude certain items such as kitchen units, then chose them according to the money you have left.

The important things to get right are those that cannot easily be changed/upgraded.......

the structure, the wall insulation, the external finish, the electrics, the plumbing and the heating.

When building a house, it invariably costs more than you think it should!!

Plasterer

Any builder that does new builds will always use a quantity surveyor. It is their job to advise the builder how nuch to put in for the build. A good QS will work to within a tollerence of 5%, however as metioned above - account for a contingency 10-15% as when the build goes along there may be a few problems or even extra's/slight changes required.
The builder that has said he will give you a qoute if you agree to give him the works??? never heard of this. As always with getting any trade to do works get some evidence of previous jobs and reccomendations if possible.

Aslo as above - Choose your own kitchen - This is a well known "nice little earner" for the builder as inevatably he will wack of good 10-20% on the cost price of the kitchen.(Please no comments on this as I have accounted for the "builders discount")(all you builders/kitchen fitters out their that are gonna slate me for this please go steady).:o

keystone

The simple solution to this little conundrum is to PAY him (or someone else - like an architect) to construct a full specification for you. You can then use that spec to subsequently ask him to quote against. Such that you pay to him can be offset against the quote should you contract with him. The rider to that must be that once done the full specifications are your property to do with what you will (and that MUST be written into the contract) so that you may put your spec out to other contractors for comparative quotations.

Cheers

jamminca69

jennifernil wrote: »

Is there any danger that someone else might snap up this plot while you are working out costs?

If so, and you are really keen on it, I would work out a rough cost either from this estimate or/and using the RICS site which gives rebuilding costs for insurance purposes. Building from new can be slightly cheaper than rebuilding. If I remember correctly you can chose "luxury" or "standard" finish etc to generate a cost in your area.

If this is affordable then I would go ahead and secure the plot, then get down to details and firm prices.

From experience, if say £100k is affordable and £115k is not, then you should not be doing this as there is always the risk of something unexpected arising.

Allowing yourself a 10-15% contingency amount is not excessive.

Costs can be cut if necessary, for example by fitting a less expensive kitchen, undertaking work youself. You could ask for a price to exclude certain items such as kitchen units, then chose them according to the money you have left.

The important things to get right are those that cannot easily be changed/upgraded.......

the structure, the wall insulation, the external finish, the electrics, the plumbing and the heating.

When building a house, it invariably costs more than you think it should!!

Hi Jennifer

Yes thats the problem, we are not willing to purchase the land until we have a detailed quote that gives us an idea of how much it will cost. Only details we have are the ones included with the detailed planning permission.

We have had general quotes for builders to complete whole project but they are way over budget (180k/160k v's budget of 100-120k)

We are now chasing costs up to get the structure complete (without internal finishes) and see what they come up with. I can do some work myself and my father is a painter and decorator so can save there, but not sure that that will save us enough given the quotes. Thats why we wanted the detailed quotes to see where else we could save.

It does seem though the DPP plans are too big for us, the house is larger than we would have wanted and the quotes are confirming this. So we may have to pass this land by as dont fancy buying it and then re-applying for DPP after changing plans as could end up buying a plot with DPP and then losing it!