ᐅ What is the most effective way to contribute your own labor?

Hello Forum,

My wife and I are planning to start building around the middle of next year. At the moment, the whole topic feels incredibly overwhelming, making it difficult to keep track.

We are planning a detached single-family house (approximately 150 m² (1,615 sq ft) of living space) with a granny flat (as a home office in the basement, since I work from home) and a double garage.

Our families include a wide range of skilled craftsmen, so it seems sensible for us to reduce construction costs somewhat by doing some of the work ourselves. My father will retire in April 2016 and will then be available to handle the entire water and sanitary installation (he has worked as a site supervisor at his company, mainly on large projects such as new hospital constructions, but has also worked on single-family houses both professionally and privately from time to time). My father-in-law is a master carpenter and works as a salesman for a window manufacturing company. For interior finishing, we can rely on experience from previous projects, where my two brothers and my brother-in-law also helped (e.g., two complete bathroom renovations in 2013, full interior finishing of a two-room extension at a cousin’s house, complete renovation of a 100 m² (1,076 sq ft) rental apartment including wall demolition and a new bathroom, etc.). We are a well-coordinated team and feel capable of handling most of the necessary work.

Regarding the overall approach, the question is how to best use this potential. With a shell-and-core house (e.g., an Allkauf house), you get everything delivered and then do all the finishing work yourself. However, the windows are already installed, and I believe we can get better quality at the same price or the same quality at a lower price through my father-in-law. How do prices for building materials compare? Would I get a better deal buying directly from a building materials supplier, or does a company like Allkauf have an advantage through larger purchase volumes that ultimately benefits me as a customer?

Or, considering price/performance and our skilled workforce, is it better to have just a shell built and then take over the trades we can do ourselves while subcontracting the rest?

Basically, we are currently wondering if it is even necessary to consider prefab house suppliers, or if, given our circumstances, we are generally not suitable customers for prefab houses and should instead look for a traditional masonry builder.

Thank you in advance for all tips and advice.
Best regards,
Holger

My brief summary is that with enough time and an architect who provides a custom design and contracts different trades separately, you may achieve better results. At the very least, working with an architect allows for much more flexibility than using any prefab home provider.

Whether wood or solid construction: with an architect-designed house, you can better incorporate your own work.

Hello Holger,

elVincent schrieb:

We are planning a detached single-family house (approximately 150 m² (1,615 sq ft) of living space) with a granny flat (used as a home office in the basement, since I work from home) and a double garage. Our families offer us a wide range of skilled craftsmen... so we are a well-coordinated team and feel confident handling most of the required work.

There are still some trades missing from the extensive repertoire 😀

elVincent schrieb:

However, the windows are already included, although I believe we could get better quality at the same price or the same quality for less through my father-in-law.

As far as I know, the mentioned supplier offers 5-chamber profiles, while other suppliers already provide 7-chamber profiles. Since the profiles come from the same manufacturers, I don’t see much potential for savings in this area.

elVincent schrieb:

What about prices for building materials otherwise? Can I get everything cheaper if I buy directly from the building materials supplier, or does "xyz" have an advantage through larger purchase volumes that ultimately benefits me as a customer?

You caught me surprised by this question...? You have craftsmen in the family; they should be well aware of bulk discounts... Are you a registered bulk buyer?

elVincent schrieb:

Or is it ultimately best in terms of price/performance and craftsmanship potential to have the shell of the building constructed and then take over the trades you can handle yourself and contract out the rest?

Knowing that I’m going against the grain here: if you don’t have a qualified bricklayer in the family who also has the time, stay away from the shell construction and buy it as a closed shell; possibly even finished. This means: masonry, windows, carpentry, and roofing; in a finished version with exterior plaster or cladding, depending on your preference. I just wouldn’t buy it from the mentioned supplier, but that’s only my personal opinion 😉

The advantage of this approach is that you have contracting partners who can be held liable in case of warranty claims; at least if you choose long-established market players. Furthermore, you can take your time with the interior work, contracting out only the trades that family members cannot do themselves. With this approach, you can also have an architect draw up “your” floor plan beforehand; when hiring individual trades, I would always insist on an external construction manager—especially when family is involved.

Regards, Bauexperte

Thank you very much, that already helps us a lot.

We definitely plan to outsource the construction of the shell to a company, as well as the roofing and plastering work. Basically, we are looking for someone to provide us with the building envelope (whether this will be a prefabricated/finish-to-occupy house provider, a solid construction company, or a timber frame builder remains to be seen and will require thorough comparison). We intend to complete the interior ourselves, with support from a few specialized contractors (electrical work will certainly be outsourced, as will tiling).

Regarding material costs: My question was meant to address whether a buyer of very large quantities gets better prices. For example, a prefabricated house supplier also wants to make a profit on the materials they sell. So the question is whether I can get building materials cheaper as a direct buyer from a building materials supplier than through a company, which may purchase more cheaply but adds a broker’s margin. Of course, I am not a bulk buyer, but I do have some contacts/acquaintances/friends in companies where I hope to purchase at reasonable prices.

How can the potential savings from doing some work yourself be roughly estimated? Is there a general way to say how much labor costs typically account for in the different trades?

There are very general tables and lists available for this, even on the internet.

But please use them with caution. They are really quite basic.