how Much do tradespeople Cost?
QI will be project managing my build to save on costs and plan to hire in trades to carry out jobs I won’t be able to handle on a DIY basis. How much can I expect to pay roofers, brickies, carpenters, etc? Will this depend on location, and are there trades that could perhaps carry out multiple tasks who are more valuable to have on site?
ADAVID SNELL SAYS:
It’s a daunting thing for many people who haven’t previously been involved in a building project to undertake project management. But the fact remains that many do so and most make a pretty good fist of it. The secret is preparation and adherence to the old maxim ‘prior preparation prevents poor performance’.
You ask how much you’re going to have to pay for the various trades and whether location makes a difference. Presumably you have also thought about how much the materials and ancillaries are going to cost. And the plain fact is that nobody can tell you those things with absolute accuracy. But they can give you a pretty good indication. So, before you do anything else, send your plans to Estimators limited (estimators-online.com) and, for a relatively modest fee, they will send you back 20 to 30 pages of the probable costs, broken down trade by trade. It’ll be fairly accurate but, more importantly it’ll give you a template to plan with and a tool to negotiate with all of the trades and suppliers.
Nobody can tell you exactly what it’s going to cost, because so much comes down to your personal choices. You also ask about combining trades and if you use a small local builder that’s far more likely to happen. But you’d still need to know what each element should or shouldn’t cost. Finally get a mentor; somebody who’s either done it before or has the knowledge, who you can ring up occasionally to check on things you’re not sure of.