ᐅ Are the doors too expensive? Calculating house construction costs

Hello everyone,

I’m new here. I’m near the end of my house planning and wanted to double-check if my cost calculation looks correct, or get your opinions on it. I gathered the prices myself (partly by getting quotes, partly by searching online, partly by talking to people).

Facts about the house and land:
Plot size: 808m² (9748 square feet) – already owned
Living area: 180m² (1938 square feet)
Double garage (extended to 9m (30 feet) to gain an additional parking space)
Double garage with basement
2 full floors
Hip roof

Location
Site setup: €1350
Earthworks: €6436
Sewer works: €1837
Reinforced concrete work: €45599
Masonry: €36609
Insulation: €4318
Plastering: €22966 (interior and exterior)
Heating: €25000 (air-to-water heat pump + underfloor heating)
Tiled stove: €13000 (as a room divider between dining and living room)
Ventilation system: €8000 (central)
Electrical: €8000
Floor coverings: €17000
Painting: €5000
Sanitary installations: €13000 (including fixtures)
Windows: €21000
Doors: €18000 (interior doors, front door, garage door)
Kitchen: €15000
Outdoor work: €8000
Roof: €10000 (calculated only for timber and roof shingles; I will do the rest myself :cool

Net total: €284,532.40
VAT: €54,061.20

Grand total: €338,594

What do you think? Does this look reasonable?

Thank you very much!

Kind regards,
Massivhaus85

It looks roughly the same for me. For me, everything is just a bit more expensive since we have 250 sqm (2690 sq ft) of living space and a 60 sqm (645 sq ft) garage.

The only thing that seems expensive to me in your list are the doors.

Landler schrieb:
It looks roughly the same for me. For me, everything is just a bit more expensive since we have 250sqm (2700 sq ft) of living space and a 60sqm (650 sq ft) garage.

The only thing in your list that seems expensive to me are the doors.

The doors seem very expensive to me as well. For our 162sqm (1740 sq ft) house, we needed 13 interior doors. The total cost including installation (not cheap, but good mid-range quality) was 3500 euros. On top of that, an entrance door with a side panel cost 5000 euros including installation. What could possibly cause an extra 10,000 euros in costs for this construction project? Solid interior doors for 1000 euros each? At the same time, the "sewer works" seem way too cheap. What exactly does that include? We were lucky in that we didn’t have to install inspection chambers (the municipal one is only one meter in front of the property) and only had about 3 meters (10 feet) of pipeline. The total costs just for drainage came to a neat 5000 euros: 2300 euros building fee paid to the city, and 2700 euros for our own rainwater and graywater system on the property. Our neighbor had to install inspection chambers due to the distance and ended up paying around 3000 euros more.

@heltino: Are you referring to net or gross prices?
I have offers (although from prefab home builders) where the item for interior doors is listed at around 8,000€ net.
The front door with 2 sidelights is about 5,000€.
Garage door I estimate at 2,500–3,000€.
Then all of that plus tax.
I have also factored in a buffer.

Have I forgotten any items to calculate, or is that about right? So that I can move in afterwards...

The staircase will be a wooden staircase... That will be an additional cost... or can I include it in the other costs?

Thank you very much!

Massivhaus85 schrieb:
@heltino: Are you referring to net or gross prices?
I have offers (although from prefab house builders) where interior doors are listed at about 8000€ net.
Front door with 2 side panels about 5000€
Garage door I estimate at 2500-3000€
Then all plus tax.
I also included a buffer.

Have I missed anything to account for, or is this realistic for moving in afterward...

The staircase is supposed to be a wooden one... that will add to costs... or can I include that in the other expenses?

Thank you!

It’s hard to give a general answer; it always depends on exactly what you are looking for and what you install. As a guideline, here’s what I paid for these trades (individual contracts, no house manufacturer!): interior door 220€ (simple version, basement) up to 350€ (nice version for living areas). All net, including installation and complete with frame. Front door: high-quality branded plastic door including 60cm (24 inches) glass panel on the left and 50cm (20 inches) glass panel above. The whole thing with stainless steel accents, a 1m (39 inches) long stainless steel handle, and laminated safety glass. After tough negotiation, the price was 3200€ gross. Staircase to the attic (the rest of my house is concrete): two-stringer staircase made of finger-jointed beech, with railing and installation: 2600€ gross.

My builder went bankrupt during construction, so I had to continue with individual contracts. You’ll be surprised how much money you can save that way! For example, the same wooden staircase from the same manufacturer cost me 2000€ less than what the house builder estimated. Windows: I got better ones (0.5 thermal insulation value, fully insulated electric aluminum shutters) 1600€ cheaper than the builder’s planned price (who had 0.9 insulation value, plastic shutters with manual strap guide). He calculated 18,000€, I paid 16,400€ gross, including RAL-certified installation by the window fitter.

Your garage door estimate seems quite generous; check online to get a feel for prices. German branded products cost around 1000€, with electric operation around 1700€, simple up-and-over garage doors start at 500€. I never considered cheap shipping goods and always bought well-known brands, installed by certified professionals. Everything was done by local specialists including installation and warranty—no cheap or low-quality products!

Since I don’t know exactly what you plan or want, it’s difficult to give precise advice. The price range is huge. A front door can cost anywhere from 700€ (DIY store low quality) to 12,000€ (aluminum premium design high-end) — and that’s just “front door.”

Be careful when choosing your heating system too! The advertised “heat pump” is not always the best solution. Air-source heat pumps are not always economical and can produce a lot of noise, which you might have to endure on your terrace. Ground-source variants often have such high additional costs due to drilling that you won’t recover the expenses in 20 years.

I had a specialist company and a heating manufacturer visit the site to calculate the heating demand and to prepare submissions for the energy efficiency program. Based on that, I chose the most sensible option: condensing gas boiler with underfloor heating, a 400-liter (106 gallons) solar storage tank, and a well-planned circulation control system. It costs me about 150€ more annually in gas consumption but saved me 6,000 to 12,000€ compared to various heat pump options. (You can calculate yourself how long you would need to heat to break even.) The common claim about “independence from gas prices” is misleading, because a heat pump always requires electricity (about 50-80€ per month) and must use electric heating at very low temperatures—no one tells you that willingly.

Right now, based on calculations (I haven’t moved in yet), I pay somewhere between 50 and 70€ monthly for gas. My neighbor has a groundwater heat pump and currently spends about 40€ per month on electricity. He hasn’t experienced a severe winter yet. Looking at that, it does not pay off. Even if he consistently saved 30€ per month, he paid 8,000€ more upfront. Without interest, that means roughly 22 years to break even!

In general, you have to be very cautious with these “eco” investments—many turn into money pits. The advertised savings are often exaggerated, while the costs and the time until break-even are always optimistically calculated. Remember: every heating system will be about 20 years old when replaced. So if you only break even after 18 or 20 years based on theoretical calculations, forget it.

There’s a lot to talk about here, but I recommend you inform yourself online in general: forums, experiences from other homebuyers, and manufacturers’ sites for windows, doors, sanitary ceramics, and so on. You won’t become an expert overnight as I didn’t, but you’ll be able to follow the conversation, understand what matters, and have a sense of whether prices are reasonable.

Don’t get hung up on minor things like interior doors—they are not a major cost factor and have limited risk for hidden expenses. The main cost traps are generally in two areas: 1. The building contract (if something is not clearly specified and included, you haven’t bought it!) 2. The land (soil surveys must be done BEFORE signing the contract—about 1000€ worth it—this helps avoid nasty surprises like groundwater, soil replacement for insufficient load-bearing capacity, etc.). Ask precisely about utility connections and pricing (length of connection pipes, wastewater regulations).

We had a soil report done; we knew we had groundwater and needed a waterproof concrete shell, and partly clayey soil… so we had only marginal extra costs. I have to check exactly, but it was roughly: 1000€ for pre-screening at the garage entrance, 2400€ for partial sewer connection fees to the municipality, 2800€ for open water management during construction. That was about 6-7,000€ in additional costs.

Without a soil report, just ask my neighbor who wanted to save the 1000€—you become a cash cow for the builder. They will find many “could not have known” items during construction and charge you heavily. That’s why the soil report must be done before signing the contract, and the building contract must explicitly refer to it!

Sorry for the terrible text, somehow I couldn’t edit it in the browser. Damn Windows 8.