Building costs. Jan 2023

For anyone for may be interested I've looked over my receipts and budget etc and this is my breakdown of the additional cost for the corner windows (to note I asked both the blocklayer and window installer if they changed their price - blocklayer said no and if anything I was using less blocks, the window installer said the larger windows upstairs did effect installation cost corner ones down stairs did not)

3 corner windows (prices rounded to nearest euro and incl VAT)

Steel €3100

Sills had to be custom made and were 13 euro more than the standard €78

Comparing similar size single windows roughly 300 extra €900

Therefore additional cost, for me anyway, per corner window €1360

I have inspected and certified quite a lot of both self build and contractor built houses over the years and never saw a requirement for the radon barrier to be certified other than my usual sign off for the entire build. In fact I can only recall one instance where a specialist was engaged and that was a self build. In saying all that I'm out of that game for the last 10 years so things may well have changed.

I had a look at those links. To be fair, some seriously small bedrooms.…2.3m wide a few of them. Not my cup of tea. I'd prefer reasonably sized, nicely proportioned rooms. I couldn't live in any of the houses you linked to. My wife's clothes alone would take up more than 1 bedroom.

It’s the steel that costs the money with a corner window not the windows which really only being bigger than a normal window that makes them a bit expensive.

With self build and a bit of thinking you can save money here too though. Most people just go to the likes of Keystone for corner window steel and they charge plenty. I was quoted around 5k (incl vat at 23% as they supply only).

instead I got it made by a local steel fabricator who made and fitted it for just over 2k (incl 13.5% vat). He got an engineer that he does work for to sign off on it which cost me around 700 euro so all in about 2.7k vs 5k.

As for house size there are a lot of factors at play, cutting a load of area will save more if you are going with a builder who just does it per sq m. Direct labor you might not save as much as you think cutting area. Where you are building also makes a big difference, here in the south east it’s far cheaper than Dublin for example.

Them houses you linked are very small though would be a bit mad going to the effort of self build for such a small house. I am building 265 sqm 4 bedroom and to be honest were I back at design stage having seen the house at close to finished I’d be adding more area not reducing it.

We have planning granted for a second floor extension on to a bungalow looking to go ahead in early 2026. We will be removing the roof and adding two bedrooms, small office and a bathroom for a total of 36sqm.

Current prices for this are spprox €100k

The current attic is just empty storage space at the moment.

We are now looking at adding a single storey extension to the kitchen back of the house of 16sqm.

Question is for the new extension should we go modular or block built?

I take it the 16sqm single storey will probably come in at about €50k or thereabouts.

Does the €50k sound about right?

Based in West Dublin.

Do you mean the daily cost or the cost to do the job? Either way electricians are the most expensive in my experience. Plasterers cost more than block layers but take less time so in my house the cost of the block laying and the cost of the plastering was almost identical (labour cost I mean) but the block laying took a lot longer. Carpentry I find isn’t cheap but they are super fast so ends up not being overly expensive for a job. Plumbing I can’t really say as I’ve a good friend plumbing and his rate for me is lower than in general.

In general the price of everything is going up, when I started building over 2 years ago I had people tell me I was mad and one or two with planning tell me they were holding off for prices to come down - I said they were mad and it will cost them way more in a few years and I was proven right on that.