How long to build a house

mijmu

Hi

Does anyone know how long it takes to build a house from scratch using a contractor.

Rgds
M

Dub13

From what I hear best part of a 4/5 months ontill its 100%

Macy

Depends on the builder and the type of house.

Our timber frame house is fully sealed, plastered and has second fit electric now - started the 21st November. He's been that quick that it'll nearly be us delaying things by not being ready. All that's left really is the waste treatment, the plumbing and the floors from his point of view really (we've to organise the well). He said we may be able to paint at the weekend, but as it turned out it wasn't quite dry enough (so a weekend of piping and tree moving/planting around the site instead :cool: )

Farls

how long is piece of string?

yop

"Our timber frame house is fully sealed, plastered and has second fit electric now - started the 21st November. He's been that quick that it'll nearly be us delaying things by not being ready. All that's left really is the waste treatment, the plumbing and the floors from his point of view really (we've to organise the well). He said we may be able to paint at the weekend, but as it turned out it wasn't quite dry enough (so a weekend of piping and tree moving/planting around the site instead )"

Oh the joy of Timber Frame, have a mate who is on course to be in his within 12 weeks of laying the foundation, BUT that is because he did all his homework (as in quotes and labour, not geography and maths smart ass*S ) before he started, got his timescales spot on and had his roofer, block layer and plumber there at the same time.

To get a better timescale you would have to ask easy builder, then add another 2 months on to their estimate!!

Doper Than U

Macy and yop('s friend), what timber frame companies did you use?

12 weeks is mighty fast! How big is the house (if you don't mind me asking?)

yop

Dope - I have 2 mates who have built timber frame, I am starting a timber frame in about 4 weeks or so.

One lad went with Clarke Homes LTD (12 weeks) and the other went with RiverView (16 Weeks)
I am going with Clarke Homes as I have found the quality of the kit excellent and the cost was roughly 8k less than RiverView.

I also got lads to erect the kit for me for about 1200 less than the company wanted to charge me.

The lad who build in 12 weeks is a seven bedroom, I think it is 3000 sq ft.

Anything else give us a shout

Doper Than U

That sounds amazing! 3000 sq ft is what I'm thinking of (if I get planning, which I won't). I'd love to know costs of the kit, and overall costs, if you could pm me that would be great, but I understand if it's too personal a question..
Also, did you have your own architect supply the drawings, or did the company have their own one? I've been looking online at Timber frame houses, and Century and IJM etc are the only ones I've come across, do Clarkes have a website?

Thanks for your help..

yop

3000 sq ft house is what my mate is building, tbh I would not like to ask him for his costings.
pm me your email and I will send you on my costings when I get a chance.
2 issues to note
1. My mate works for Clarkes so that is why he would have got a cut
2. I got a discount off them also (bout 2k) for the same reason.

Century were near 15k more than Clarkes. There website tbh is not great but I can pm you the mobile number of the girl who is dealing with my account to get a quote off her, do you have CAD drawings handy???

On the drawings front I designed the house (sorry my wife and I designed the house ) and then I gave them a mate of mine to draw them up on CAD.
I used a program called FloorPlan to draw up rough drawings myself to see what they looked like.

Timber Frame companies I have come across are.
Well their email address with any details of responses got.

---

info@timber.ie - SENT ME OUT FORMS TO FILL AND AND SEND WITH 50 EURO QUOTATION COST
info@cygnum.ie - aoriordan@cygnum.ie - WILL NOT QUOTE IN MAYO

comforthomes@esatclear.ie
sales@ijm.ie
sales@tfhomes.co.uk
info@globalhomes.ie
salesdesk@century.ie
info@kellytimberframe.ie
mbctimber@eircom.net
info@premierhomestf.com
mail@a-truss.ie
info@ecohomes.ie
info@ktf.ie
timberengineering@itec.ie
enqs@timberframed.com
hillsborough@scotframe.co.uk
info@kilbroneyhomes.com
sales@riverviewframesystems.ie
sales@potton.co.uk
enquiries@fleminghomes.co.uk
info@skantec.co.uk

---

For clarkes I can give you the girls mobile or email, it is a personal email address so I will not put it up here.

I was looking at my own quote and if you take out the "friends" discount we are looking at about 38k for a 2100sq ft house.
So for a 3000sq ft house you would be lookin (if you divide 38k / 2100 * 3000) about 54k

Things to note are with kits.

Some TF companies supply as standard 600mm centres of studs, joists and rafters, 400mm is recommened as they are stronger, some charge you to do this.
Felt - standard is bitumen, you should upgrade to protec or the extra strong felt
Insulation - standard is fibreglass - upgrade to rockwool, better insulation and sound
Door - standard is hardwood, have to paint them, not a very nice door - upgrade to engineered pine.
Stairs - standard is MDF risers and threads - need to carpet but do not have to - upgrade to solid wood risers and threads.

I upgraded all mine above.

Also to erect the kit, I got a private company to erect the kit, for cash, will save 1100 Euro.

Doper Than U

Yop, I've just copied and pasted that, thanks so much. There's alot of information there. I don't have plans yet, I want to talk to my planning officer first, because I'm in a sensitice area for planning. Basically I want to find out if I'm wasting my time, and should sell the land (which would break my heart tbh). I'd rather do this before I employ and architect and incur fees for nothing basically.
I want to do as much research as possible before I get the plans done obviously.
I found the number for Clarkes in the Self Build magazine I bought (which has an article on Geothermal Heating with contact addresses, if you want I could scan it in and email it to you)

I'll be going for Sheepswool insulation, and will indeed upgrade to the solid wood for both doors and stairs. Will also upgrade the felt.

I can't believe Century were 15 k over Clarkes!! Any particular reason for this, or just corporate greediness?

I'll pm you with my email address, but honestly, if you would rather not reveal cost I totally understand.

Many thanks again for your help.

lomb

so what would a 2100 sqft house cost? is the 150 euro/sq ft quoted by the riaa accurate?. would it really cost 300k?

ednwireland

18 months for a 1000sqft extension (3 months of that because of an electrician who would spend and hour and drive to another site) mind you it was onto an old house and fraught with problems (inluding crap plans by an architect who got all his levels wrong - good job we had a clued up builder.

davidoco

Traditional build using contractor 6 months.

yop

"(which has an article on Geothermal Heating with contact addresses, if you want I could scan it in and email it to you)"

I would appreciate that alright thanks


"I can't believe Century were 15 k over Clarkes!! Any particular reason for this, or just corporate greediness?"
In one, it seems that Century prefer the big fish. I initally sent my plans to them, got a call, can we meet up to sort things out, I was going well I am still going out to TF companies and want to get in other quotes, "Well we will not be beaten on price" , so then we left it at that,
I got the other quotes in , went back to them to tell them well ye were beaten by x y and z, they said "oh alright, then u should go with them"!!!
Very very impersonal. Riverview and Clarkes were both extremly helpful and prompt.


"so what would a 2100 sqft house cost? is the 150 euro/sq ft quoted by the riaa accurate?. would it really cost 300k?"
Well if you want to look at it that way yes, if you are going down the route of a builder.
What some people do is they get a builder to get the house to wall plate stage or even to foundation stage and then go an organise the direct labour themselves after that to cut some of the costs.


"Traditional build using contractor 6 months."

Is that how long it took you David?? Good timescales, know of a number of one off houses that have taken 12 months with builders

Mark0

2 yrs 10 mths......Direct labour......still building.......we are very very slow........doing alot of the ourselves in the evenings and at weekends. Didn't much done this winter!

davidoco

Start 1st May – good time to start because of the weather

The house was 1500sq feet with no complicated bay windows, dormers etc.

1 week to dig and pour foundations (done in two days)
1 month to do footings, for plumber to lay pipes and floor to be poured.
1 month for blockwork
1 month for roof (probably done in two weeks)
1 day for chasing for electric work
1 month for plastering
2 weeks for final plumbing – it probably only took him 4 days (kitchen 1 day)
1 week for final electrics
1 week for drainage and sewage (done in three days)

During the above time there was nobody on site during August and plenty of days after that when it seemed there was never anybody on site. It’s surprising when you do see guys on site how quickly things get done.

lomb

davidoco wrote:

Start 1st May – good time to start because of the weather

The house was 1500sq feet with no complicated bay windows, dormers etc.

1 week to dig and pour foundations (done in two days)
1 month to do footings, for plumber to lay pipes and floor to be poured.
1 month for blockwork
1 month for roof (probably done in two weeks)
1 day for chasing for electric work
1 month for plastering
2 weeks for final plumbing – it probably only took him 4 days (kitchen 1 day)
1 week for final electrics
1 week for drainage and sewage (done in three days)

During the above time there was nobody on site during August and plenty of days after that when it seemed there was never anybody on site. It’s surprising when you do see guys on site how quickly things get done.

SO what did/will it cost for 1500sqft?

davidoco

Sunny South East

80 sq ft for contractor (120,000 in 2003) no homebond/contracts just cheques, I don't think we even shook hands on the deal - stage payments meant no work no pay which was good enough for me. Remember I was just handed a shell with no kitchen, painting, paths, tiles etc. This was reasonable value at a time when they had their pick of sites and as I said above the house was a straightforward 1000 sq ft floor and 500 sq ft upstairs.

Spent about 30,000 since then on wells, pumps, fencing, lawns, trees, paths, floors, kitchen, tiles, painting exterior, curtains, blinds, decking, driveway phew

So I spent 150,000 which is 100 sq feet finished, add in the cost of the site and you have about the selling price for houses in my area.

You have to put a lot of work in yourself to make housebuilding really pay in equity terms. Guys I know that have added extra value to their homes by doing a lot of the work themselves have really put in the work in terms of hours spent working on it. Of course there will be exceptions to this with some people really making it work but they usually have an exceptional design or else the good fortune to have a really good site.

Macy

Think the key is the site, if you get it as gift/inheritance, you're basically in a no lose situation. Once you get planning you're already making on the land.

yop

That is true, anyone who gets a "free" site is extremely lucky.

Just a note of interest on the Timber Frame setup that I have only realised over the last few days.
When ordering the TF you need 10% of the total cost of the TF. You then get sent drawings, when you have reviewed the drawings and are happy with them you have to pay another 25% to get the TF put into build.

The issue here with ours is that you are talking about a 4-6 week lead time. SO we are finding that the bank will not give us any "deposit" money for the TF until we have the foundation put in, then we have to bump up the cost of the foundations to get some money together to pay for the 25% for the TF, this then delays you, not unless you have the 10% initial deposit and the 25% extra to pay them

Just a heads up, sorry for hijacking thread!

YAPP

YOP,

you should ask your tf company to re-address the situation.

I'm sure if you told them that you'd give them another 10% at this stage (instead of 25%) that they would just add the other 15% to the final account! Worth a shot, cost nothing to ask... I hear they're a good co.

rooferPete

Hi Yop,

35% up front sounds a bit on the heavy side to me, I can understand they could deliver timber frames and have people say it's not like the one I ordered because they want late changes.

The company who supplies the frame can either take it back or get a judgement on the property so it's not that easy for anyone who has signed off or supplied the plans not to pay.

I think Yapp could be right, explain your position and there should be no reason for such a high deposit.

It's worth talking to them I would be surprised if everyone can pull 35% out of their back pocket.

kadman

It seems to be standard practice to take a high initial payment I'm afraid.
It was with the company I worked for any way.

10% deposit the day the initial order was given, 25% on completion and approval of timberframe plans. In some instances a lorry would not be unloaded on the site unless the balance was paid.

It really depended on what the customer was forced into parting with. Paying all the balance before completion, obviously was a recipe for disaster.
In my experience 35% charge before delivery was the norm.

kadman

yop

Ya I did that alright in the end YAPP, I paid them about 10% deposit then another 15% on the signed drawings, they were dead sound. I have found them dead on so far alright.