ᐅ Self-performed work – Flooring, painting, tiling, and what else?

The issue with time remains. If you stay home for this purpose, you practically gain almost no real financial benefit unless you are a true professional in the field. Especially with houses built by construction companies, where the individual trades have very slim margins, this is usually not worthwhile.

In construction, €1000 is not much and can easily disappear. Anyone who makes a big fuss over €1000 should probably avoid building.

PS: Self-performed work must be reported to the BG (professional association) and typically costs a flat rate of about €1-2 (not sure of the exact amount) per hour for insurance purposes. Homeowners are exempt from this.

You can save a lot of money on the outdoor landscaping if you install the driveway yourself and erect the carport on your own! The advantage here is that there is usually no major time pressure, and you live quite close to the construction site. However, laying stones is not easy. The pieces are quite heavy (and many of them!!!!!!). On the other hand, setting up a carport is doable with some basic handyman skills.

Payday schrieb:
the issue with time remains. Whoever stays at home for this practically makes no real profit, unless they are a true professional in the field.

I don’t fully understand that part – of course, you have to stay at home to perform the work. How else would that work?

Without our homeowner’s participation, we would never have been able to build to this standard at that price...

If you stay at home, it means either a) you are on vacation or b) you are at home without pay.
If you work from home, you can’t say, "I’m home anyway, so it doesn’t cost anything." You need to account for your working hours with a wage.

What you work on the house is not leisure time; it’s just like working overtime in the office and paying the contractor with the extra money earned.

This unreasonable calculation... as if everyone a) gets paid for their overtime, b) can pay for even one hour of skilled labor out of their net income, and c) there is even work available to do overtime.

No matter why someone would want to offset their OWN hours — what is the point of self-work then? It doesn’t cost me anything, I do it for my family and myself... and in any case, only for a very limited period.

Sebastian79 schrieb:
This pointless calculation... as if everyone a) gets paid for their overtime, b) can afford even one hour of a professional craftsman’s work from their net income, and c) there actually is work available to compensate for those overtime hours.

No matter why someone would try to offset their OWN hours – what’s the point of doing your own work then? It doesn’t cost me anything, I do it for my family and myself... and it’s only for a very limited period anyway.

I completely agree with that. The self-performed work is done during time when you might otherwise just be lying on the couch or engaging in leisure activities.

Only if you take unpaid leave do you need to calculate carefully—but even then, it can work out. It depends on the hourly rate of the saved tradespeople and the skills of the homeowner.