Our reorganisation of the downstairs of our house is limping on.

Getting builders to quote is hard, so we have started to go a little further
afield.

Professional looking and sounding estimator from next town over came and
looked at the house and the architect's plans.

Reasonably well broken down (but not detailed pricing) response came back.

"All for the sum of £86,920.00 plus VAT (£104,304.00)"

This for a 3 bedroom semi worth just over twice the suggested price for the
work.

Don't know if this is an honest estimate, a "**** off we don't want the
job", or someone having a strange sense of humour.

If they cut their price by 50% they might just get near our absolutely
maximum very painful ceiling.
Which we started off thinking was far too high.

At least most of the other prices seen so far are a little more realistic.

Looks like we might be heading for not paying the builders to assume the
risk, and being quite closely involved with all aspects of the build
including doing slightly more of the work than we initially planned.

Oh, and can't you build a complete new 3 bedroom house for around £100,00?
[O.K. that wouldn't include the 20% VAT charged on our work, so more like
£120k worth of work.]

Gurgle....gurgle...

Dave R

--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

On 28/03/2012 12:57, David WE Roberts wrote:
Our reorganisation of the downstairs of our house is limping on.

Getting builders to quote is hard, so we have started to go a little
further afield.

Professional looking and sounding estimator from next town over came and
looked at the house and the architect's plans.

Reasonably well broken down (but not detailed pricing) response came back.

"All for the sum of £86,920.00 plus VAT (£104,304.00)"

This for a 3 bedroom semi worth just over twice the suggested price for
the work.

Don't know if this is an honest estimate, a "**** off we don't want the
job", or someone having a strange sense of humour.

If they cut their price by 50% they might just get near our absolutely
maximum very painful ceiling.
Which we started off thinking was far too high.

At least most of the other prices seen so far are a little more realistic.

Looks like we might be heading for not paying the builders to assume the
risk, and being quite closely involved with all aspects of the build
including doing slightly more of the work than we initially planned.

Oh, and can't you build a complete new 3 bedroom house for around £100,00?
[O.K. that wouldn't include the 20% VAT charged on our work, so more
like £120k worth of work.]

Gurgle....gurgle...

Dave R


Sounds like they don't need/want the job but will do it if you pay silly
money. I've had quotes for things in the past that were at least double
the "going rate" and attributed it to the same thing.

--
David in Normandy.
To e-mail you must include the password FROG on the
subject line, or it will be automatically deleted
by a filter and not reach my inbox.

David WE Roberts wrote:
Our reorganisation of the downstairs of our house is limping on.

Getting builders to quote is hard, so we have started to go a little
further afield.

Professional looking and sounding estimator from next town over came and
looked at the house and the architect's plans.

Reasonably well broken down (but not detailed pricing) response came back.

"All for the sum of £86,920.00 plus VAT (£104,304.00)"

This for a 3 bedroom semi worth just over twice the suggested price for
the work.

Don't know if this is an honest estimate, a "**** off we don't want the
job", or someone having a strange sense of humour.

If they cut their price by 50% they might just get near our absolutely
maximum very painful ceiling.
Which we started off thinking was far too high.

At least most of the other prices seen so far are a little more realistic.

Looks like we might be heading for not paying the builders to assume the
risk, and being quite closely involved with all aspects of the build
including doing slightly more of the work than we initially planned.

Oh, and can't you build a complete new 3 bedroom house for around £100,00?
[O.K. that wouldn't include the 20% VAT charged on our work, so more
like £120k worth of work.]

Gurgle....gurgle...


It's unlikely to be less than £100 a square foot for a purpose designed
hand built house. including fittings.




Dave R



--
To people who know nothing, anything is possible.
To people who know too much, it is a sad fact
that they know how little is really possible -
and how hard it is to achieve it.

On Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:57:59 +0100, "David WE Roberts"
wrote:

Our reorganisation of the downstairs of our house is limping on.

What do you mean by reorganisation?



Getting builders to quote is hard, so we have started to go a little further
afield.

Professional looking and sounding estimator from next town over came and
looked at the house and the architect's plans.

Reasonably well broken down (but not detailed pricing) response came back.

"All for the sum of £86,920.00 plus VAT (£104,304.00)"

This for a 3 bedroom semi worth just over twice the suggested price for the
work.

Don't know if this is an honest estimate, a "**** off we don't want the
job", or someone having a strange sense of humour.

If they cut their price by 50% they might just get near our absolutely
maximum very painful ceiling.
Which we started off thinking was far too high.

At least most of the other prices seen so far are a little more realistic.

Looks like we might be heading for not paying the builders to assume the
risk, and being quite closely involved with all aspects of the build
including doing slightly more of the work than we initially planned.

Oh, and can't you build a complete new 3 bedroom house for around £100,00?
[O.K. that wouldn't include the 20% VAT charged on our work, so more like
£120k worth of work.]

Gurgle....gurgle...

Dave R
--
http://www.voucherfreebies.co.uk

One of the problems is where are they buying their materials and if this
were their only job, it would be more expensive than if they were doing lots
as raw material costs would presumably be less. I often wonder how much
buildings would cost if you bought the gear from B/Q etc.. Probably a few
million... grin.
its like building a car from spares.
Brian

--
From the Bed of Brian Gaff.
The email is valid as
Blind user.
"David WE Roberts" wrote in message
...
Our reorganisation of the downstairs of our house is limping on.

Getting builders to quote is hard, so we have started to go a little
further afield.

Professional looking and sounding estimator from next town over came and
looked at the house and the architect's plans.

Reasonably well broken down (but not detailed pricing) response came back.

"All for the sum of £86,920.00 plus VAT (£104,304.00)"

This for a 3 bedroom semi worth just over twice the suggested price for
the work.

Don't know if this is an honest estimate, a "**** off we don't want the
job", or someone having a strange sense of humour.

If they cut their price by 50% they might just get near our absolutely
maximum very painful ceiling.
Which we started off thinking was far too high.

At least most of the other prices seen so far are a little more realistic.

Looks like we might be heading for not paying the builders to assume the
risk, and being quite closely involved with all aspects of the build
including doing slightly more of the work than we initially planned.

Oh, and can't you build a complete new 3 bedroom house for around £100,00?
[O.K. that wouldn't include the 20% VAT charged on our work, so more like
£120k worth of work.]

Gurgle....gurgle...

Dave R

--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

On 28/03/2012 11:57, David WE Roberts wrote:
Our reorganisation of the downstairs of our house is limping on.

Getting builders to quote is hard, so we have started to go a little
further afield.

Professional looking and sounding estimator from next town over came and
looked at the house and the architect's plans.

Reasonably well broken down (but not detailed pricing) response came back.

"All for the sum of £86,920.00 plus VAT (£104,304.00)"

This for a 3 bedroom semi worth just over twice the suggested price for
the work.

Don't know if this is an honest estimate, a "**** off we don't want the
job", or someone having a strange sense of humour.

It depends a lot on what you mean by reorganising downstairs.

If they cut their price by 50% they might just get near our absolutely
maximum very painful ceiling.
Which we started off thinking was far too high.

At least most of the other prices seen so far are a little more realistic.

When times are hard, many builders will give quotes that do little more
than cover materials and labour, possibly not even that, just to keep
the business going.

I sell to the building trade and my sales are usually a fairly good
indicator of how busy builders are. Sales are on the increase right now,
with some of the more popular items selling more since this Christmas
than in the whole previous year. I wouldn't wait too long before tying
down one of the builders to a price.

Colin Bignell

David WE Roberts wrote:
Our reorganisation of the downstairs of our house is limping on.

Getting builders to quote is hard, so we have started to go a little
further afield.

Professional looking and sounding estimator from next town over came
and looked at the house and the architect's plans.

Reasonably well broken down (but not detailed pricing) response came
back.
"All for the sum of £86,920.00 plus VAT (£104,304.00)"

This for a 3 bedroom semi worth just over twice the suggested price
for the work.

Don't know if this is an honest estimate, a "**** off we don't want
the job", or someone having a strange sense of humour.

If they cut their price by 50% they might just get near our absolutely
maximum very painful ceiling.
Which we started off thinking was far too high.

At least most of the other prices seen so far are a little more
realistic.
Looks like we might be heading for not paying the builders to assume
the risk, and being quite closely involved with all aspects of the
build including doing slightly more of the work than we initially
planned.
Oh, and can't you build a complete new 3 bedroom house for around
£100,00? [O.K. that wouldn't include the 20% VAT charged on our work,
so more like £120k worth of work.]

What can you possibly be doing to half of a 3 bed semi that is expected to
cost £50K?
For that, I would:

Remove and replace all woodwork including the staircase if required
Ditto windows with DG
New kitchen fitted
Floor tiled
100% replaster on all walls including chemical DPC
New downstairs toilet/bathroom
Dig up concrete floors, insulate and re-concrete with UFH
Move any walls and add proper steel beams accordingly
Adjust and / or replace any plumbing as required

woodwork/joinery 3k
DG = 3k
kitchen = 8k
plastering = 1k
dpc, tiles and concrete = 2k
bathroom, suite and tiles = 1.5k
walls and beams = 5k
plumbing/wiring = 1k

comes to about 26 grand and I've over estimated to be on the safe side, add
about 12k for labour and you're still nowhere near 50 grand.

You must be having a pool built in the cellar as well as all of the above?

"mogga" wrote in message
news
On Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:57:59 +0100, "David WE Roberts"
wrote:

Our reorganisation of the downstairs of our house is limping on.

What do you mean by reorganisation?


snip
We have rear (south) facing kitchen and dining room.

So - take down current kitchen extension (was outside toilet and coal store
before being extended into).
Remove wall and chimney from between kitchen and dining room.
Build out 3 metres all the way across the back, fit bifold doors across
(4.7m).
[This will give a single living/dining/cooking space across the back of the
house.]
Veranda across the back (basically a glass roof bit to provide some weather
protection for the bifold doors).
Build new wetroom in centre of house.

Upstairs.

Remove remains of chimney breast (already partly removed).
Combine toilet and bathroom.
Extend bedroom into area where the chimney breast was (previously bathroom).
Build fibreglass balcony over rear extension.
French doors from bedroom to balcony.

New combi boiler and radiators.

So non-trivial and likely to cost well over £40k (from other quotes) but not
£100k worth.

--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

"Phil L" wrote in message
...
David WE Roberts wrote:
Our reorganisation of the downstairs of our house is limping on.

Getting builders to quote is hard, so we have started to go a little
further afield.

Professional looking and sounding estimator from next town over came
and looked at the house and the architect's plans.

Reasonably well broken down (but not detailed pricing) response came
back.
"All for the sum of £86,920.00 plus VAT (£104,304.00)"

This for a 3 bedroom semi worth just over twice the suggested price
for the work.

Don't know if this is an honest estimate, a "**** off we don't want
the job", or someone having a strange sense of humour.

If they cut their price by 50% they might just get near our absolutely
maximum very painful ceiling.
Which we started off thinking was far too high.

At least most of the other prices seen so far are a little more
realistic.
Looks like we might be heading for not paying the builders to assume
the risk, and being quite closely involved with all aspects of the
build including doing slightly more of the work than we initially
planned.
Oh, and can't you build a complete new 3 bedroom house for around
£100,00? [O.K. that wouldn't include the 20% VAT charged on our work,
so more like £120k worth of work.]

What can you possibly be doing to half of a 3 bed semi that is expected to
cost £50K?
For that, I would:

Remove and replace all woodwork including the staircase if required
Ditto windows with DG
New kitchen fitted
Floor tiled
100% replaster on all walls including chemical DPC
New downstairs toilet/bathroom
Dig up concrete floors, insulate and re-concrete with UFH
Move any walls and add proper steel beams accordingly
Adjust and / or replace any plumbing as required

woodwork/joinery 3k
DG = 3k
kitchen = 8k
plastering = 1k
dpc, tiles and concrete = 2k
bathroom, suite and tiles = 1.5k
walls and beams = 5k
plumbing/wiring = 1k

comes to about 26 grand and I've over estimated to be on the safe side,
add about 12k for labour and you're still nowhere near 50 grand.

You must be having a pool built in the cellar as well as all of the above?


Replied above to Mogga.
Your rough pricing is reassuring - we are seeing about £38k plus plumbing
and electrics.
That said, are you looking for work? ;-)

--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")