ᐅ Potential savings with a turnkey prefab house – your assessment?
Created on: 6 Aug 2018 10:03
G
Golfi90
Hello everyone!
Yesterday, we visited the Viebrockhaus model home park.
We looked at the "V1."
The design is simple and straightforward. But we really like the size, room layout, and construction style—it fits our needs perfectly! That’s how we want it to be, except for two small changes...
The model home was built with "extra features" and to KfW 40+ energy efficiency standard, priced at 260,000€ turnkey!
However, we do not want to build through Viebrockhaus; we prefer to manage the construction ourselves.
We also don’t want to build to the KfW 40 Plus standard, since I’ve read several times that the additional cost is often not worth it...
Additionally, we want to do some work ourselves and have several skilled tradespeople in our family who are willing to support us.
What are your thoughts? How much savings potential do you see compared to the turnkey build from Viebrockhaus?
Is a construction budget of 200,000€ realistic? We don’t want the most expensive bricks or render, nor the most expensive tiles and roof shingles. Just a nice, solid single-family home for the future.
It’s not that we can’t get financing or anything like that. We simply don’t want to take out more money than necessary.
I would really appreciate an expert assessment from you!
Yesterday, we visited the Viebrockhaus model home park.
We looked at the "V1."
The design is simple and straightforward. But we really like the size, room layout, and construction style—it fits our needs perfectly! That’s how we want it to be, except for two small changes...
The model home was built with "extra features" and to KfW 40+ energy efficiency standard, priced at 260,000€ turnkey!
However, we do not want to build through Viebrockhaus; we prefer to manage the construction ourselves.
We also don’t want to build to the KfW 40 Plus standard, since I’ve read several times that the additional cost is often not worth it...
Additionally, we want to do some work ourselves and have several skilled tradespeople in our family who are willing to support us.
What are your thoughts? How much savings potential do you see compared to the turnkey build from Viebrockhaus?
Is a construction budget of 200,000€ realistic? We don’t want the most expensive bricks or render, nor the most expensive tiles and roof shingles. Just a nice, solid single-family home for the future.
It’s not that we can’t get financing or anything like that. We simply don’t want to take out more money than necessary.
I would really appreciate an expert assessment from you!
Okay, these are concrete answers, thank you! Let me provide some background...
We have an architect who is initially handling the building permit / planning permission and related matters. Getting approval from the local district council is not easy, and he offered to take on the process. As a private individual, this would have never worked. The council is extremely difficult when it comes to building anything in the outer district...
If the first discussions with the building official go well and he gives his verbal consent (he is coming tomorrow to inspect the situation on the property, etc.), our architect will need to start working on drawings and so on.
To get an initial overview, we looked at floor plans of prefabricated houses and came across the V1 model from Viebrockhaus, which we really, really like and could practically build exactly as it is!
However, if our architect pushes the project through the building authority for us, we obviously cannot then go directly to Viebrockhaus to order the house. That would not end well, because I don’t think Viebrockhaus deals with such “problem cases” or puts the same dedication into getting special cases approved as our architect does. Also, it would simply be "unfair" to undermine the architect (who is, by the way, an acquaintance of my father) like that.
So, our idea now is to present the V1 building plans to our architect and have them adjusted to suit our needs (roof pitch might be a requirement from the building authority...) and then proceed on our own.
I just can’t wrap my head around the idea that it’s not possible to build a house cheaper than a company that obviously has very different overhead costs to calculate, especially when you have many acquaintances in various trades who can help you.
Maybe I’m just too naive and idealistic about the whole thing...
We have an architect who is initially handling the building permit / planning permission and related matters. Getting approval from the local district council is not easy, and he offered to take on the process. As a private individual, this would have never worked. The council is extremely difficult when it comes to building anything in the outer district...
If the first discussions with the building official go well and he gives his verbal consent (he is coming tomorrow to inspect the situation on the property, etc.), our architect will need to start working on drawings and so on.
To get an initial overview, we looked at floor plans of prefabricated houses and came across the V1 model from Viebrockhaus, which we really, really like and could practically build exactly as it is!
However, if our architect pushes the project through the building authority for us, we obviously cannot then go directly to Viebrockhaus to order the house. That would not end well, because I don’t think Viebrockhaus deals with such “problem cases” or puts the same dedication into getting special cases approved as our architect does. Also, it would simply be "unfair" to undermine the architect (who is, by the way, an acquaintance of my father) like that.
So, our idea now is to present the V1 building plans to our architect and have them adjusted to suit our needs (roof pitch might be a requirement from the building authority...) and then proceed on our own.
I just can’t wrap my head around the idea that it’s not possible to build a house cheaper than a company that obviously has very different overhead costs to calculate, especially when you have many acquaintances in various trades who can help you.
Maybe I’m just too naive and idealistic about the whole thing...
You might want to slow down a bit with your enthusiasm; the floor plan is not impressive at all, and I'm sure the architect can come up with something better.
Also, put the price aside for a moment and consider what you can realistically afford.
This approach is much more sensible than glorifying this show home.
Also, put the price aside for a moment and consider what you can realistically afford.
This approach is much more sensible than glorifying this show home.
Viebrockhaus charges a premium not only for its marketing machine but also for its construction time of only about 3 months. Generally, they are among the most expensive “standard” providers (i.e., not in the obvious luxury segment). It should therefore be easily possible to find a lower price than theirs. However, a 23% lower price? Probably not, especially for a V-house (which is comparatively affordable for Viebrockhaus standards). The foundation slab is indeed included with Viebrockhaus (as with all providers I have spoken to, whether timber frame or solid construction). But there are occasionally cases without it, so always double-check. Earthworks can still cause significant additional costs depending on the property, but that applies regardless of the builder.
Stick to what Readytorumble wrote.
Viebrockhaus always builds the same house in large quantities. The construction process is optimized for efficiency, and their purchasing prices are something many can only dream of.
For work you can’t do yourself, you will need to hire tradespeople, who sometimes charge high prices and have long waiting times.
Have your house designed, plan your own work realistically, and get quotes.
Viebrockhaus always builds the same house in large quantities. The construction process is optimized for efficiency, and their purchasing prices are something many can only dream of.
For work you can’t do yourself, you will need to hire tradespeople, who sometimes charge high prices and have long waiting times.
Have your house designed, plan your own work realistically, and get quotes.
@Golfi90 I think you’re right! Check out my thread in the Architects / Site Managers section (it’s the latest one) – we had a similar approach to you: the local companies should be able to compete with the big ones; and that’s how it turned out. I don’t want to talk about prices here, but we designed our house completely ourselves and hired a locally very well-connected civil engineer as the site manager, who, together with his crew (specialist trades), built the whole thing. The result: I know every window by name (just a little joke) and worked individually with each trade to discuss what we wanted and the feasibility / implementation. All of this at a price for which you’d probably only get a two-bedroom flat in big cities. As for Viebrockhaus and others, they source quite differently, etc., etc. The local people also have their contacts. If you have any questions, feel free to ask anytime! Good luck from the Münsterland.
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