How to stay within budget on a custom build?

Quantity surveyors are usually needed for large builds such as town houses and apartments. They can give you a report for a small build and take your money, but when executing the plan you may find their report wasnt worth the paper it was written on.

Rather than getting carried away with internal inclusions, why don't you first find out your big costs such as site preparation, slab, framing, brick etc and become creative with it? for example there may be a couple of different ways you can do a particular drop-edge beam or your slab may get away with waffle-pod rather than traditional, etc....

Once you have figured out your big costs, then see how much you will have left for internal inclusions and whether it will be enough.

Any experienced builder should be able to build on a slope. There is no such thing as a slope builder per say.

If I were you I would do a prelim, rather than a full blown, design take it to a few experienced builders and ask their opinion on it (while you also meet them on a couple of sites they are building to view their work), once you have their input then take that input back to the architect and engineer and ask them if it is doable or not. Through this back and forth, and with the use of common sense you will eventually iron out the details and finalize your design.

 

Thx @Tenex, appreciate the advice, its actually quite reassuring as I did do all this last year, back and fourth with designers and builders and agents until i settled on a design suited. I had a feeling QS was over the top. I'm getting the same feeling about paying $800 for legal advice on a standard Master Builders Contract too.

Perhaps I should have explained, I have done rigorous DD at every step of this project, a full tender package has gone out to two separate builders, they have come back at over $100k difference. The medium size builder has offered up a quote and Draft Contract, I'm in the throes now of assessing how I can slant this contract back in my favor.

A few items seem pretty obvious;

Daily liquidated damages they have put at the standard $50, I will respond with $110
Interest rate I will counter from their 15% back to 10%

Because this is a 1 into 2 lot subdivision (battleaxe setup with 5m wide access on a ~25% slope) and I'm building on the front lot only first up, and I'm required to concrete the rear lot driveway (as per DA) I am leaning towards getting the rear site cut at the same time. This way I can avoid destroying the new driveway a year or two later if i decide to build up the back.

Earthworks are a major costs, the builder has assessed 9k approx for each house, however they haven't provided any excavation rates, so I have asked for these.

I've avoided any crooks so far, subdivision has come in on budget, I get a good feeling from this builder, they have done a lot of work on quoting. Their quote have come back at great but not unbelievable rates. But I know I'll miss something on the contract as I have never done this before, I have 2 fee proposals coming in on Monday from solicitors which apparently specialize in this sort of thing. I have my doubts though, I would probably be better served having an experienced developer look at it

 

Hi @Turbo_C Has everything been going well?