How to house extensions?

[WilSurf]

We are thinking of moving closer to CBD (Perth).
Adventages:
- closer to the pool for my oldest daughter (she will start in the synchro squad next year)
- closer to work (if you call that adventage)
- closer to school
- closer to church

disadventages:
- older houses
- more expensive
- moving

Any way, we had a look at a couple of houses over the last 2 weekends.
In our price range of $500k, there isn't much choice in Greenwood/Warwick aera.
Now we saw a house, 4 x 1 in Warwick and we call it the ugly duckling. It is the only one not done up.
It will suit us for now, after installing a proper kitchen.
We are thinking of extending to the rear in 2 years time and adding a master bedroom with ensuite, creating a larger kitchen/dining area and livingroom at the back with windows facing north for the winter sun.
Does anyone has experience with this kind of work?
How did it go?
What is possible/impossible to do in WA?
I have read that is not possible to have a guide cost per m2, but I haev also read that around $2,000/m2 is about average.

Anyone in the known?

[nab]

Anywhere from $1000-2000/m2 is what builders have told me, depending on style/quality/fittings etc. Can you do any of it yourself?

Just a thought, have you looked at Ballajura? 10mins east of Warwick, $500k will get you heaps. Next door is for sale,$499k, 968m2, 4x2 with heaps of living space, pool, church 2 houses down (!), etc etc. Great value for money, not necessarily the flashest suburb (The Lakes bit is nice but pricey) but we have had a great run, good neighbours.

[HEM19X]

Anywhere from $1000-2000/m2 is what builders have told me, depending on style/quality/fittings etc. Can you do any of it yourself?

Just a thought, have you looked at Ballajura? 10mins east of Warwick, $500k will get you heaps. Next door is for sale,$499k, 968m2, 4x2 with heaps of living space, pool, church 2 houses down (!), etc etc. Great value for money, not necessarily the flashest suburb (The Lakes bit is nice but pricey) but we have had a great run, good neighbours.

Mate,

If you are handy [or have a mate or 2 that are], you might want to buy a pre-fab kitchen & install it yourself - remember the Wife Law [Happy Wife, Happy Life] so this would need to happen quickly [not have crap everywhere for weeks on end].

Unless you are in the building game I wouldn't consider "Owner Building", the reason for this is that whenever you need a tradesman, they will only ever be working for you once. This means that you will be last on their list of prioities, leaving you in the lurch while they look after their other jobs.

I have no affiliation to the building game but have seen this 1st hand in my previous life as a lender, Owner Builders never save much, in fact it usually ends up costing them more AND the job drags on for months [even years sometimes].

[Nomad]

The other thing is that being an owner builder generally leaves a nasty stain on your title. This can put off potential buyers, in a big way, when it is time to sell. If you have a builder friend better to sue / rent their licence / employ them to oversee the renovations.......As Hemi mentions it will be faster, cleaner and less expensive in the long run.

When I built my last house I used this method and arranged most of the trades and fixtures and fittings myself to save coin. And saved heaps, probably around 70K.

Good luck with the project.......it can be hard work but very rewarding when you first get to sit back and knock down a beer and appreciate what you have created.

Cheers Nomad.

[fuji]

Yes i employed people to build my house. That way you have control and not some builder. They say the building game is hurting so there should be alot of reputable tradies looking for work.

[Hairs]

As someone that as worked in the Cottage industry for nearly 30 years, here is my 2 Bobs worth.
You need to be honest with yourself, Yes you can save money, If you don't have the Go in ya to work with a heap of different people, attitudes, egos,  under stress, maybe it's not for you.
Communication between your Tradies is the key, if these guys can talk to each other work around each other and there are no egos most jobs run smooth. Find Tradies that are happy to discus with you and the other Tradies what you want to achieve, when you want them on site and Listen to them and ask questions if your not sure.
Timing is another big issue that is the down fall of a lot of jobs budgets blowing out and Trades getting in each others way. Yes we all want the job to finish ASAP, but sometimes things happen, a supplier falls behind in the delivery, a Tradie gets held up on another job, all kinds of this can go wrong.
Weather is something you can't control, it just needs to be worked around.
The trick is to Not To Panic and find a way to make it work.
Good luck with it.
It is rewarding.

[WilSurf]

Hi nab, not to be rude but Ballajura, Balga are the suburbs we are avoiding.
It has to be close to the train as well. If I have to go to the CBD for work, it will be either the pushbike (15 kms) or train.

I am not thinking of being owner builder as I don't have these skills.
But a flatpack kitchen from Ikea is the idea. The adventage is that these kitchens will be around for a couple of years.
Meaning if we are going to extend it should be possible to get the same cabinets.

I am warming up for the idea, but still is a big step.
Going from a 6-year old house to an 70s/80s.

[Beachman]

I am in the middle of a major renovation and the problem is builders don’t want to talk/estimate with you unless you have plans, but those plans are going to cost $5 - $10 000 to be able to get a proper quote. So it’s a catch situation.

We were lucky as knew a builder as he used him on our last house Reno. So he was able to give us ideas before we even started the project. Trying to arrange tradesmen yourself is a nightmare as seeing you’re a once off client they don’t care if the muck you around. But a Builder normally uses the same guys over and over, so most tradesman are smarter enough not to muck the builder around.

The good builders also don’t advertise and they get all there work by word of mouth, so ask around. We had to wait 8 months for our builder to finish jobs before he could start on our place and after our place he has another 12 months of work already lined up.

[WilSurf]

Thanks Beachman.
A friend of us is a registered builder so that will hopefully help us a bit.

I think I have to take a decision and go for it.
Get a offer in, prepare our house to sell, sell it and if offer accepted move in.
Do the kitchen as soon as possible and save for the build later.

[Sharshebelle1]

Hi nab, not to be rude but Ballajura, Balga are the suburbs we are avoiding.
It has to be close to the train as well. If I have to go to the CBD for work, it will be either the pushbike (15 kms) or train.

I am not thinking of being owner builder as I don't have these skills.
But a flatpack kitchen from Ikea is the idea. The adventage is that these kitchens will be around for a couple of years.
Meaning if we are going to extend it should be possible to get the same cabinets.

I am warming up for the idea, but still is a big step.
Going from a 6-year old house to an 70s/80s.

Hi,
we just renovated our house by extending,  and also doing up the kitchen, bathroom, laundry and major landscaping. My house looks great, but to be honest,  we probably could have knocked down and rebuilt for the amount its cost us,  that said,  the layout and usability of the house was pretty good to start with and personally, just my opinion,  I like the feel of older houses over project ones.
If you are going to build your own flat pack kitchen,  and we did, saving aroung 20K on the price quoted by Harvey Norman,  look for companies that supply laminex flatpack kitchens over the ikea or Bunnings ones,  the quality is much better. It wasn't difficult and once you put all the cabinets together its pretty quick.

Good luck

[Bird]

We extended upwards, not outwards... and it wasnt much more coin - if you go with the right company...
Not the ones that advertise on tele/radio... The Extension Factory were $150,000 more than we paid!! Honest!

[fishfinder]

you will get a nice less than 15 yr old 4x2 no more work to be done in guildford between 400 - 500k 12-15km from cbd - near the train line and perfect area for going away as all major highways close by to travel north south and east only a few set of trafic lights and out in the rural area

[WilSurf]

But it is 22.5 km to school, over 30 minutes.
No-go for us. But thanks.

[Crisp Image]

We extended our house a few years ago. We did the owner builder thing.
I had trades pull out om me but I also found others to do the job easily.
When I said owner builder I did the building (I am not a builder) I dug foundations by hand, removed bricks and cleaned them for reuse, Built frames, hung plaster moved the kitchen bench and a lot of other things.
A mate who is a builder helped me for 1.5 days when we were doing the trusses.
I did get a quote for a builder to do the job to fix out (ie no paint floor coverings etc) and he quoted $43k + a bit
I did the whole job for about $35k. That was $1.5k for plans, $5k for trusses, $5k for roofing, $7k floor coverings, $2k air conditioning. and the rest for concrete, framing, Plumber, sparky, plasterer to stop up, concreter to lay the concrete only and a bricky cause it would have taken me weeks to do what he did in a day.
I took a few years to prepare working for my mate on building sites for nothing,just learning things on my days off.
If you have the skills and tools and time to do what you want to do then have a crack but make sure you do it properly.
Enjoy the ride
Regards
Crisp Image

[prodigyrf]

$2k/m2 is reasonable provided it's standard build but don't forget with renos you run smack bang into the latest BCA and its inexorable requirements for Green Energy/water saving/safety/accessibility not to mention full user pays for services rather than spreading the cost among existing residents. The BCA is now 2 substantial Volumes with specific State Appendices all referencing a plethora of Australian Standards and the various Regulatory Authorities jump at the opportunity to bring your 'new' home up to pace with their kinda thinking.

Just a tip with Ikea kitchens. They have lightweight masonite backs with only side bracket attachment which rarely line up with stud spacings. Not a problem with solid brick but if it's brick veneer use Bunnings or similar with solid 16mm backs able to be fixed anywhere.

[WilSurf]

Went to a member of our 4wd club as he is a registered builder.
He gave some valuble tips:
- don't go to a builder for the drawings/plans as he will have the copyright. When you decide to go to someone else, you can't use those plans.
- live in the house for a while and see what works.

Than he told me that his wife is a real estate agent and she did a search on the property.
It is on the market since 29/03/2012 for the same asking price.

[prodigyrf]

"..don't go to a builder for the drawings/plans as he will have the copyright."
Got news for you. Anyone who draws the plans owns the Copyright.

[Beachman]

With the extensions on our previous house I found a guy from the local paper to draw the plans and he was cheap (Think about $3000 off memory) While the plans were good enough to pass council/certifier, they were very very basic and made the builders life a little more complicated. (which then flowed onto myself)

With our current house we rang the building certifier and asked them for recommendations for a draftsperson. While this job is bigger, his plans set us back $10 000 and they are extremely detailed and making life so much eaiser as re remeasured the whole house for movement and handled a council relaxation, plus gave some really good advise.

While the design does belong to the draftsman (Not like they are any good to anyone else anyway because they are renovations plans for a 45 year old house) they are mine to give to as many builders as I want to arrange quotes, then for the builder to use to complete the job.

I agree with your builder saying live in the house and work out what you want, but the other side is do you want to be in the house in the renovations are being done?? If not it means having to move out again which is more work.

[WilSurf]

As a famous Dutch coach said: every pro has its con.