COSTING for timberframed house

KAGY

As promised in another thread in the West region, here's a spreadsheet with my actual costings for a 200m2 timber framed house.
BTW don't consider the names in the sheets as recommendations, i had terrible trouble with my main contractor.

Zaph0d

Thanks, that's very useful.

I can't see foundations on your spreadsheet. How much were they and what area did they cover?

Builderwoman!

Hi Kagy

Fair play to you for keeping all these records and for posting them for the rest of us. Brilliant that you only went €7 approx over budget. Well Done! We are in the middle of self build. I think due to alterations/extra work (adding in a steam room, heat recovery system, getting slate instead of tiles for flooring, going with clay tiles instead of concrete ones) we are over budget already. We are trying to reign in on the costs from here on out.
Thanks again for this very helpful info.

Cushtie

excellent record keeping there. a great inspiration for the rest of us.

rooferPete

Hi,

A great idea and making use of the programmes some of us never open on our computers.

Very well done

.

beolight

Very useful info

can i ask what overall square footage of building is

what external rendering was used?

KAGY

In order they arrived:
foundations were part of the builders price, so I can't help you on that. But the builder actually put in foundations to take block built (he lied to me and said he was familiar with TF builds:mad: ). The timberframed people should send on foundation plans for the builder. In a timber framed house the external walls (actually the frame) takes the load so typically there is less need for foundations under partition walls.
With regards the budget; I think we went about 7k over, we simply couldn't go any further, my wife was setting up a business at the time and so as far as the bank was concerned she had no income! If you look down the sheet at decoration there's an awful lot of zeros. We currently are just doing up rooms when we can, we haven't touched the garden / jungle and the render is still unpainted.
The house is officially 187m2 which is just over 2000sq ft. and the external render is knap concrete plaster.

yop

Well done Kagy on the spreadsheet, very comprehensive!

On the foundations lads, we did a raft for 12k euro for a 2500 sq ft house.

On the sole plate issue to carry the TF, you can do it two ways (that I know!!).
First way is that you put in the final floors before you get the kit delivered. This means that the kit is left down on the floor and nailed to secure it. Probably the quickest way and I would have gone this way if doing it again.
Of course if you are having UFH installed and all plumbing work has to be done at this stage so it does need more forward planning.

Second and the way we did it was using a tanalised (treated) sole plate and soap bars.
You do the outline of all external walls with a 6" soap bar first then when dried you express nail on your 6" * 2" sole plate, this has be spot on level or with in +- 5mm and you can level it using a solid material (slate is suggested, not timber).
On the interal walls, in our case, we had 4 weight bearing walls, this again had to be level but in since your studding is 4" wide you use a 4" soap bar and sole plate.
I went the whole hog and put in soap bars for the rest of the walls, but used standard 4"*2" timbers, you really dont have to do the no weight bear walls but will still need something for the walls to rest on while waiting for the final floors to go in.

sk8board

Hey Kagy,

2 quick questions from your excellent excel file:

1. you paid 3500 for 'natural stone'. How much sq.m of your house front did that cover?

2. You have spend 9k+ on a kitchen. What standard of finish was that? MDF, softwood etc etc?

thanks a lot,

Fla

Hi Kagy,

Thanks for posting your records, it's a handy indicator for the rest of us.

Just wondering how you find the heat pump and underfloor heating.

I am considering installing this system in a house I am constructing.

Just one other query which option of heat collection did you use, the well or the pipeing layed just below the surface?

KAGY

3500 was for labour only; we got the stone from an old shed, lintels and cills and mortar supplied by main contractor. the extent can be seen in the photo (base = 4m apx)
Kitchen was chip board carcasses, chestnut doors, laminated worktop. Quite good quality, but we got it from a friend of the family same kitchen more or less was 13k elsewhere

sk8board wrote:

Hey Kagy,

2 quick questions from your excellent excel file:

1. you paid 3500 for 'natural stone'. How much sq.m of your house front did that cover?

3500 was for labour only; we got the stone from an old shed, lintels and cills and mortar supplied by main contractor. the extent can be seen in the

2. You have spend 9k+ on a kitchen. What standard of finish was that? MDF, softwood etc etc?

thanks a lot,

KAGY

Hey Fla, heat pump is working out quite cheap, 1100 for full esb bill last year (and that includes drying out). I would recommend a night time meter (double the standing charge, but half the per unit rate between 12 and 9am it's saving me about 40-50 a bill)
The house is warm all the time, but one problem is that it takes about 4-5 hours to heat up if you turn it off (it could be more in a brick built) currently I've it set to come on from 3am -9am, then 4-7pm which keeps the temperature around 18-22, but if it's a cold night and a warm day it could get higher and vice versa (fine control is not an option with underfloor heating)
The water temperature for showers is a bit low for some people liking (by the time it gets through the pipe work it's about 40deg) but it only takes the immersion about 10 min to bring it up to piping hot.
If you are going this way, make sure the insulation is fit perfectly in the walls,i.e. no gaps, to minimise heat up times
Wooden floors are not recommended with u/f heating, we have laminates in some of the rooms and don't find a problem.
Tiles also have to be well layed down, if there's air gaps under them this acts as insulation
our collector is 16x32m in area about 60cm down
hope that helps!

Fla wrote:

Hi Kagy,

Thanks for posting your records, it's a handy indicator for the rest of us.

Just wondering how you find the heat pump and underfloor heating.

I am considering installing this system in a house I am constructing.

Just one other query which option of heat collection did you use, the well or the pipeing layed just below the surface?

iplogger1

KAGY : The 1100 Euro cost on the electricity (including a boost period for drying out the house). Is that 1100 for heat pump exclusively or for all your domestic electricity needs over the year. I'm assuming the former but just checking since I'm pursuing an interest in the whole geothermal/UFH systems and trying to get a handle on real pump electricity requirements. We're building block (contract build as opposed to direct labor/self build). Are you in the house a full year now ?

~ipl

KAGY

iplogger1 wrote:

KAGY : The 1100 Euro cost on the electricity (including a boost period for drying out the house). Is that 1100 for heat pump exclusively or for all your domestic electricity needs over the year. Are you in the house a full year now ?
~ipl

That's all included (our hobs are gas, but it includes the oven). the (bi-monthly) bill was about 250-300 for the first two bills after we moved in in Jan, dropped down to about 140 or so over the summer months which was also the time we got the dual meter and is now back up to 220 or so.
Karl