Hello dear home builders,
We are currently gathering quotes for prefab houses and solid (masonry) houses from general contractors. The plot of land is already available.
140 m² (1,507 sq ft) with a basement costs around 340,000 euros.
This is excluding additional construction-related costs, landscaping, carport, and the land.
In our family, a large new house was built with an architect two years ago, where, through a lot of personal effort from the owner in organizing, obtaining multiple quotes, negotiating directly, etc., a great price-performance ratio was achieved.
Our current thought:
What if we also build with this architect and use a so-called "follow-on approach," meaning we ask the same affordable and reliable tradespeople if they would do the same work again with, for example, only a 4% price increase?
Do you think this would be a good idea?
I believe we could benefit from the previous experience, basically just picking up and working through the established process...
It would be easier than starting completely fresh and inexperienced with such a project.
Of course, it would also be possible to put individual trades out to tender anew.
I am thinking that if I (on parental leave) and our fathers (retired) help with organizing, such as handling quotes, paperwork, resolving issues with utility providers, etc., these costs could be saved.
How much does a general contractor typically earn for their "all-inclusive" service? About 20%?
And roughly, what does an architect charge if you provide them with some assistance wherever possible?
Thank you very much for your brief assessment!
We are currently gathering quotes for prefab houses and solid (masonry) houses from general contractors. The plot of land is already available.
140 m² (1,507 sq ft) with a basement costs around 340,000 euros.
This is excluding additional construction-related costs, landscaping, carport, and the land.
In our family, a large new house was built with an architect two years ago, where, through a lot of personal effort from the owner in organizing, obtaining multiple quotes, negotiating directly, etc., a great price-performance ratio was achieved.
Our current thought:
What if we also build with this architect and use a so-called "follow-on approach," meaning we ask the same affordable and reliable tradespeople if they would do the same work again with, for example, only a 4% price increase?
Do you think this would be a good idea?
I believe we could benefit from the previous experience, basically just picking up and working through the established process...
It would be easier than starting completely fresh and inexperienced with such a project.
Of course, it would also be possible to put individual trades out to tender anew.
I am thinking that if I (on parental leave) and our fathers (retired) help with organizing, such as handling quotes, paperwork, resolving issues with utility providers, etc., these costs could be saved.
How much does a general contractor typically earn for their "all-inclusive" service? About 20%?
And roughly, what does an architect charge if you provide them with some assistance wherever possible?
Thank you very much for your brief assessment!
Hello,
seems realistic to me. That’s 2,428 €/m² (225.6 $/sq ft), we were at 2,200 €/m² (204.3 $/sq ft), but with plastic windows. The wooden windows alone are supposed to cost around 20,000 € extra; if you leave that out, you end up at roughly the same 2,200 €/m². You probably won’t find anything much cheaper.
As others have already mentioned, you don’t actually need a fireplace for heating. On the contrary, once you turn it on, you’ll immediately be opening the windows because it gets too hot otherwise.
Heating costs are negligible anyway. Regardless of the heating technology or the energy efficiency standard (KfW standard), you won’t spend more than 50-70 € per month on heating.
Omitting the waterproof concrete basement (“white bathtub”) is probably difficult. It requires drainage at the house wall, and disposing of the drainage water into the sewer system is often no longer allowed. So you often can’t avoid the “white bathtub”!
Personally, I would never build anything else. We had so much water in the basement of my parents’ house that I never want to experience that again!
Building a smaller house won’t save you much either. The “fixed costs” like heating system, sanitary installations, bathrooms, front door, stairs, etc. basically stay the same. In other words, if you save a few square meters in the kids’ rooms, it won’t make the stairs any cheaper.
You could skip the hardwood floors and install them yourself. You can also save a lot on interior doors. Things like a mechanical ventilation system can be installed by yourself. Possibly skip the fireplace and add a stainless steel chimney on the exterior wall later on. For bathroom tiles, you can stick to tiles costing 25 €/m² (2.32 $/sq ft) or go for ones at 80 €/m² (7.43 $/sq ft).
Best regards,
Andreas
Wildrose schrieb:
The general contractor’s offer so far is 340,000 euros for 140 m² (1,507 sq ft), including a waterproof concrete basement („white bathtub“) and a good standard (large windows, wooden windows, hardwood floors, good ceiling heights)
seems realistic to me. That’s 2,428 €/m² (225.6 $/sq ft), we were at 2,200 €/m² (204.3 $/sq ft), but with plastic windows. The wooden windows alone are supposed to cost around 20,000 € extra; if you leave that out, you end up at roughly the same 2,200 €/m². You probably won’t find anything much cheaper.
As others have already mentioned, you don’t actually need a fireplace for heating. On the contrary, once you turn it on, you’ll immediately be opening the windows because it gets too hot otherwise.
Heating costs are negligible anyway. Regardless of the heating technology or the energy efficiency standard (KfW standard), you won’t spend more than 50-70 € per month on heating.
Omitting the waterproof concrete basement (“white bathtub”) is probably difficult. It requires drainage at the house wall, and disposing of the drainage water into the sewer system is often no longer allowed. So you often can’t avoid the “white bathtub”!
Personally, I would never build anything else. We had so much water in the basement of my parents’ house that I never want to experience that again!
Building a smaller house won’t save you much either. The “fixed costs” like heating system, sanitary installations, bathrooms, front door, stairs, etc. basically stay the same. In other words, if you save a few square meters in the kids’ rooms, it won’t make the stairs any cheaper.
You could skip the hardwood floors and install them yourself. You can also save a lot on interior doors. Things like a mechanical ventilation system can be installed by yourself. Possibly skip the fireplace and add a stainless steel chimney on the exterior wall later on. For bathroom tiles, you can stick to tiles costing 25 €/m² (2.32 $/sq ft) or go for ones at 80 €/m² (7.43 $/sq ft).
Best regards,
Andreas
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