50k for new Builds

Yes, but you will often get trades quoting higher because of the annoyance (and potential extra time) factor of owner builders who don’t understand scheduling of trades and expect the tradies to educate them about the process and need everything spelled out etc.

The rate quoted to an owner builder who doesn’t know the building process well will include costing to reflect this.

The standard builders margin is a charge for their time and knowledge and the cost of running their business.

Have you had the experience of being charged an excessive amount by a builder?

 

That’s fair enough.. I can see if one goes in completely blind with no understanding of the process then the costs for mistakes/misinformation from the owner can escalate..

i think it depends what their margin is (10-20% ?) and the difficulty of the item they’re managing. E.g. I’d like my house raised for say $25k with a house raiser.. the builder would have no involvement other than calling the raiser and booking them in.. I’d be charged $5k for this service..

I’ve organised a few kitchen and bathroom renovations.. for a bathroom I get quoted $15k I’d do for $7-8k.. for a kitchen the quote is $25k and I organise for $10k

 

Yes, kitchen and bathroom renos from specialist companies are notorious for being pricey. However, a few questions about your example:

1. Were you serious about the quotes or just tyre kicking?

2. Were the quotes based on an agreed schedule of works and inclusions - or just a chat about the potential cost?

3. Also was the degree of finish and inclusions exactly the same in your builder’s quotes as to what was organised by you for half price?

4. Did you hire trades for all of the work or did you end up doing some of it yourself?

 

I can be wrong but from my understanding, the builder needs to commence an onsite work within 3 months of the contract date. The first pmt draw is not relevant to this. You may pay the full cost in advance but without onsite construction you do not meet this criterion

 

Pretty much each kitchen/bathroom we’ve requested a quote on is after I’ve demo’d the existing, which brought a sense of urgency about the reno.. there’s nothing like no toilet in a unit/house to let the builder know you’re serious..

I don’t think any provided a full scope.. a few offered after giving a ballpark, but I said not to worry.

For the bathrooms, yes. All apples for apples.
For the kitchens no.. I ended up using ikea cabinetry.. all appliances/fixtures/fittings were medium/high end.
I can appreciate bespoke cabinetry comes at a cost, but if I was to reduce plumbing, electrics, appliances and bench top from both quotes, then the difference between diy cabinets and cabinetmaker was in the order of $3k vs $18k
(The 18k would include margin for managing all other trades).

In my kitchen/bathroom examples, yes there was a lot of diy..
But the point I was originally making was - just saving the builders margin is enough for me.. if our reno was the minimum limit for this renovation grant ($150k) then we get $25k, but builders margin is $35k.
Our actual budget is more like $325k, so we could take the grant and make it $350k - $70k builders margin (actually $77k since they add GST) = $263k.. or go owner build and keep it closer to $325k.

 

Exactly, the builder wasn’t going to pass on the “discount” anyway it’s straight profit, Owner builder can also complete more simple jobs like painting themselves, agree that it requires knowledge around trades timing/sequence