tegwin
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 posted on 23/5/07 at 09:18 PM |
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Grand designs...
Ok, so just watched grand designs....great house and quite a clever design and construction...
But what the hell....nearly 3 times the origional price and the little old lady didnt want to blame anyone...
There is no way on this earth that house was worth £600,000
It pisses me off that building firms can pick on the elderly amongst us and get away with it!!!
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martyn_16v
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| posted on 23/5/07 at 09:22 PM |
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Is it me or did she seem to spend most of the program off her head on painkillers?
We did wonder why the window fitters faces were all blurred out, then a couple of minutes later it turns out they did a right cowboy job, no wonder
they didn't want to be identified. Unbelievable
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JoelP
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| posted on 23/5/07 at 09:29 PM |
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i only caught the end and assumed it was her fault - did she get shafted? Or did she change spec etc.
If she had got a comprehensive quote in writing then she should've been ok.
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martyn_16v
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| posted on 23/5/07 at 09:30 PM |
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Pretty much every window and the conservatory leaked due to poor fitting, and it sounded like the company went awol after...
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tegwin
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| posted on 23/5/07 at 09:41 PM |
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Surley if she was quoted 200,000 thats pretty much what she should have paid...
It sounds like she had to pay to have the window errors rectified, along with pay the extra costs due to the builders being total useless homless
fools
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smart51
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| posted on 23/5/07 at 09:45 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by tegwin
Surley if she was quoted 200,000 thats pretty much what she should have paid...
Architect's estimates and final build costs rarely match up on that programme. I'd love to have my own house built but I'd be quite
wary after watching too many grand designs.
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martyn_16v
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| posted on 23/5/07 at 09:46 PM |
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I couldn't believe how difficult they made putting the staircase in. What sort of 'tard completely assembles it and then tries to lower it
in on the wonk knowing that a) it's only a few mm smaller than the hole and b) the hole is smaller than it should have been 
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ChrisGamlin
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| posted on 23/5/07 at 09:55 PM |
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They seem to be repeating this series again at prime time for some reason , I think I originally saw this one about 18 months ago!
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hillbillyracer
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| posted on 23/5/07 at 09:57 PM |
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I missed this one but I think it's a great programme. I would like to see someone building an alternative design on a real budget such as
£80,000 or less, it's mainly some rich bloke's dream house.
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tegwin
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| posted on 23/5/07 at 10:07 PM |
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They all differ...some weeks its a rich mans castle and others its a hole...
My old man was thinking about going on grand designs with his self designed eco home using pretty much every single energy saving device available on
the plannet....
We even managed to get it so in theory the heating and most of the lighting would cost nothing to run....However the initial outlay isnt going to be
nice
He was thinking of a mixture of photovoltaic cells and a water turbine to power an exhaust air heat pump and solar pannels for the heating as well as
charge batteries to power the lighting circuit... Crazy fool!
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Memphis Twin
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| posted on 23/5/07 at 10:20 PM |
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I designed my own house (about 16yrs ago), and had it built by a well regarded local builder. The final cost was nearly double his initial estimate
(!) , and because we were not on a fixed price scheme we had no option but to crawl to the Building Society and borrow more cash.
Builder's estimates bear no resemblence to the final price...I'm sure they under-estimate as a matter of course.
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hillbillyracer
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| posted on 23/5/07 at 10:21 PM |
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I'm all for it being eco-freindly but for people in my position (30 & still live at home on the family farm) who cant really afford to buy
anything local it'd be very interesting to see what can be done on a real budget. To be honest though the cost of a site to build on is where
the real cost would be.
Was the one tonight the one where the old woman gets a house built in the garden of her original house, made from concrete filled polystyrene blocks
& had rounded walls? The staircase thing sounds like it.
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caber
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| posted on 23/5/07 at 10:40 PM |
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I am afraid Builders, Architects and Quantity surveyors never get build costs even remotely correct! They tend to use pricing books that you can buy
yourself. These are based on historical data and generally cover the simplest and cheapest forms of construction so as soon as you try and do
anything different they don't have a clue!
Caber
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kitcar007kev
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| posted on 24/5/07 at 06:27 AM |
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 Oi i am a Quantity Surveyor
Most people make the mistake of using a PQS who may not be directly linked to the housebuilding environment they will know in theory about building
houses but not have any real experiance (they wont know brick from s**t ). what you would need is a qs ( prefrably one from a house building
background ) to act as project manager on a fixed price contract.
I deal with housing sites with around 90 units on and would hate to think i was overbudget by even 5-10%
Thank god for contingencies and PC sums 
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trikerneil
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| posted on 24/5/07 at 06:47 AM |
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ACE Cafe - Just say No.
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britishtrident
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| posted on 24/5/07 at 07:22 AM |
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Having seen it first time round istr the real problem with the building was they were using a new construction technique on a complex building and
trying to rush it.
As a result the dimensons were way off spec.
[I] What use our work, Bennet, if we cannot care for those we love? .
― From BBC TV/Amazon's Ripper Street.
[/I]
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DaveFJ
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| posted on 24/5/07 at 09:42 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by hillbillyracer
I missed this one but I think it's a great programme. I would like to see someone building an alternative design on a real budget such as
£80,000 or less, it's mainly some rich bloke's dream house.
there was one a while back about a bloke who lived in the new forest as a warden kind of blokey. he lived in a caravan and was given special
permission to build a house out of local materials (literally the trees around him) as long as the building was destroyed after his death!
House was fantastic - seeing him wondering through the woods looking for a suitable branch exactly the right shape for ther particular beam or
whatever he was making at the time... and naturally it was all eco friendly with hay bales in the walls for insulation etc.....
There was another one that came in early and under budget - but the blokes family were all builders and did loads of the work....
general rule of thumb seems to be no matter what the estimate always double it!
There was also a build where they imported a 'pefab' house from germany. The 'kit' was amazing quality (cost about half a
million!) but it just fitted perfectly! They even sent over german workers to construct it and they put our boys to shame! their work ethic is
amazing. they turn up on time smartly dressed in their clean dungarees and work all day. they even hoovered out their van before leaving the site!
[Edited on 24/5/07 by DaveFJ]
Dave
"In Support of Help the Heroes" - Always
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chriscalcite
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| posted on 24/5/07 at 09:44 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by hillbillyracer
I'm all for it being eco-freindly but for people in my position (30 & still live at home on the family farm) who cant really afford to buy
anything local it'd be very interesting to see what can be done on a real budget.
There was one Grand Designs, maybe 2 or so years ago, with was a young couple who had very little money and quite modest plans (small 3-bed detached
IIRC) who came in on budget, on time and on spec. The fact that both the bloke and his father-in-law were professional builders might have helped I
can't remeber if the land wasn't in the family already though.
Chris
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DaveFJ
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| posted on 24/5/07 at 09:47 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by chriscalcite
quote:
Originally posted by hillbillyracer
I'm all for it being eco-freindly but for people in my position (30 & still live at home on the family farm) who cant really afford to buy
anything local it'd be very interesting to see what can be done on a real budget.
There was one Grand Designs, maybe 2 or so years ago, with was a young couple who had very little money and quite modest plans (small 3-bed detached
IIRC) who came in on budget, on time and on spec. The fact that both the bloke and his father-in-law were professional builders might have helped I
can't remeber if the land wasn't in the family already though.
Chris
If thats the one with the amazing Porch way then thats the one I mean.... lovely house
Dave
"In Support of Help the Heroes" - Always
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chriscalcite
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| posted on 24/5/07 at 10:29 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by DaveFJ
If thats the one with the amazing Porch way then thats the one I mean.... lovely house
Yes! I remember that porch now - the house was in a village, designed to fit in with the older architechture and the porch was quite expensive
compared to the rest of the build. The house ended up worth hugely more than it cost, which wasn't hard as it must have been the cheapest
conventional-style house they have featured. I remeber thinking 'there's one *I* could do'.
Chris
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kitcar007kev
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| posted on 24/5/07 at 10:46 AM |
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Build you own house for £250000
[Edited on 24/5/07 by kitcar007kev]
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alfasudsprint
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| posted on 24/5/07 at 11:44 AM |
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Prefabbing is much easier than all on site with wet trades, and in any case the prefab would need all groundworks done.
QS's and pricing books? hehehe. we use them for hourly rates usually, and only occaisionally. I would love to see a layman use one to price a
complete project. How many different items do you think there are to construct, say, the external walls? 1 or 2? It would be pages!
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DaveFJ
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| posted on 24/5/07 at 12:00 PM |
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the prefab house was a HufHaus link
and was pretty special....
<rant>
they say they can have a house 'built' and ready to move into in less than a week - all they need is the correct foundations laid. IIRC
when they turned up to do the house in the UK the local builders had laid the foundations but they weren't accurate enough for the germans....
they insist on the whole house being millimeter perfect - whereas anyone who has looked at a recently built house in the UK will see that your lucky
if the walls are even straight!
Sad to say but the standard of craftsmanship in most areas of UK society has plummeted. We don't have 'Craftsmen' anymore - just
builders/carpenters etc and the 'good enough' ethic seems to prevail. Where are all the skilled engineers these days? why, when you go to
a garage, do you have that feeling of dread as some barely literate monkey starts looking under the bonnet?
Until I met a few guys on here and saw some of their craftsmanship I had completely given up on this country! But these guys aren't doing it
for a living (mostly)... thats left to the monkeys
</rant>
[Edited on 24/5/07 by DaveFJ]
Dave
"In Support of Help the Heroes" - Always
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britishtrident
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| posted on 24/5/07 at 05:03 PM |
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The germans have the ethos that a man/woman who does useful things is to be respected this goes all the way from the the guy that repairs bikes to the
head of engineering at Porsche. Here we saw actually doing things as something to be looked down on as a result the country is run by idiots who just
happened to have gone to the same expensive schools and wangle thier way into universities on connections not abillity.
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DIY Si
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| posted on 24/5/07 at 05:38 PM |
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So how much, excluding the cost of land, do you reckon you could build a medium sized 3 bed house for? Nowt fancy, just a house and a double garage,
for example.
Let your plans be dark and as impenetratable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.
Sun Tzu, The Art of War
My new blog: http://spritecave.blogspot.co.uk/
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