There are prices and prices

[David WE Roberts]

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 "piss 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

[David in Normandy]

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.

[The Natural Philosopher]

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

[Brian Gaff]

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

[Nightjar]

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

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

[Phil L]

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?

[David WE Roberts]

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? ;-)