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3839 posts
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Posted 8 Dec 10 5:42 AM
Even with so called "conventional" materials NZ houses are very expensive. Building material suppliers and building companies put very big margins onto the standard products and even bigger on ad vanced products.
Generally many items are over priced such as
Framing timber at least 150%
Insulation at least 100%
Wiring 200%
Gib 100%
Double glazed units 100%
plus council fee's and such are extremly high as well. And the site work labour content is too high as well . There is a lot of progress to be made in the building industry but sadly it is an uphill battle
against price fixing, corruption, poor know and skills and resistance to change from the corporates down to the tradepeople on site.
They have made it very cosy for themselves and the big looser is again the end customer :-(((
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254 posts
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Posted 8 Dec 10 7:01 AM
New Zealand houses are also expensive because we continue to build individual one off houses on site with usually no thought to optimisation of material usage. There are no standard sizes or ranges of windows made locally for example.
Even the kit set and relocatable houses are pretty much built the same way and then transported.
In any manufacturing process you pay a significant premium for this. There is a massive opportunity for production line construction methods to reduce costs but Kiwi's want to do their own thing every time.
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3839 posts
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Posted 8 Dec 10 8:27 AM
Yes I agree, just before I moved from England. A company was about to build on a new area just on the edge of the town where I lived. They were putting 600 houses up. There probably would have been about 5 variants in the types of house and each variant probably would have 2 or 3 cladding styles. The vast majority of the construction though would have been common leading to huge cost savings as Dean has mentioned.
The same also applies to Kitchens, which here seem to be locally manufactured by a bespoke joinery company rather than being churned out by a factory. I have recently imported two top quality kitchens including Bosch appliances for each (Hob, Oven and extractor) from the UK for ~$17,000 whereas the best quote I got locally - without appliances was ~$26,000, for a fairly basic kitchen too.
There is also a huge mark-up rort going on as mentioned above.
Approx 100m2 Quickstep laminate flooring - local price quote ~$95m2 - imported from the UK at $43m2.
RegaVent heat recovery ventilation unit - (4 extract, 9 outlets) imported at $1800 - not available here - not looked at local prices based on prior comments on this site. Purchased all ducting and vents locally for about $1200.
Low pricing I expect to the fact that there are 60 million consumers in the UK rather than 4 million, and they are not build for any "special local conditions" - the misinformation we so often hear in order to justify high prices.
I suppose I'm fortunate having contacts back in the UK but wake up Kiwis - our being ripped off big time.
Pete
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14 posts
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Posted 8 Dec 10 8:32 AM
I'm not sure who is replying directly to me now or in debate with other posters? Makes it hard when people don't use user names too. Anyway poster 10.44pm and Case are your posts to me or others?
This is what we plan to do, 223m2 house (we have 3 young boys), 2.8insulation walls, between 4 to 5 in roof, insulated floor slab, hopefully UPVC windows, 24 kw fire with wetback vented to rooms plus solar tubes. Is this a bad way to build? I am about to request a quote from maxsystems and maybe a couple of other masonry forms, but my husband and I expect it will be more expensive but for curiosity sake will find out.
I would like to think althought what we plan to do may be not perfect in the eyes of some, but that we are doing better than most standard spec houses??
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191 posts
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Posted 8 Dec 10 8:42 AM
2build
did you see my reply to your hebel thread?
If I don't log in so I the appear as Anonymous I usually sign with Pete at the bottom of the post
Pete
:))
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3839 posts
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Posted 8 Dec 10 8:48 AM
Yes, we tend to pay a premium for mediocre products. But what I don't understand is that not more people get into this money spinning game. If you can buy they can sell the same floor for $43 in the UK and they sell it here for $95, there should still be a healthy profit at say$65.
What happens if your imported appliances need servicing, Pete? Do you ship them back to the UK or make use of the local infrastructure? Would you have bought them knowing that they couldn't be serviced here? 30 years ago you would have had a problem.
I don't know the answers to why these products are much more expensive here. Is it really just a rip-off?
I would have been happy enough to purchase standard window sizes. But this sort of thing is only possible if the demand is there. Is it a case of build it and they will come? Who will go first and take the risk?
I guess Rachel Hunter put it best, when she said: "It won't happen over night, but it will happen". She's a smart girl, that Rachel Hunter.
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3839 posts
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Posted 8 Dec 10 9:10 AM
Pete,
I will do the same . I am bringing a container with
all Miele appliances, uPVC windows, kitchen, wall mounted toilets, HWC, interior doors (ready to fix with all hardware, rubber seal, and painted)
timber flooring, central heating (radiators)
clay roof tiles, lightweight concrete blocks (all sorted with the engineer) baltic pine beams for the exposed roof construction, light fittings and more..
All top quality stuff for less money I would pay here for lesser quality ,
transport, custom duty and fees included.
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14 posts
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Posted 8 Dec 10 9:15 AM
I agree it is really expensive to build and to be fair my husband and I were probably quite naive in how much it actually does cost, it wasn't until we started to really delve into it all that we realised the substantial costs involved. It does make it hard to achieve all the wants, such as masonry, upvc and so on.
My husband actually contacted a company in the UK about whether the would export upvc windows to NZ as the prices were a lot cheaper, thought I would be a bit nervous about this incase of damage, delays and whatever else might crop up when importing.
Pete; we got a quote from Warm Windows which came in more than thermalframe and Homerit but less than eurowindows. I need to contact them though and check some different options for some rooms to see if there could price variances.
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14 posts
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Posted 8 Dec 10 9:16 AM
Is there an edit button on this forum, I keep making a few typos but not sure how to go back and correct them?
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14 posts
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Posted 8 Dec 10 9:19 AM
Just to add, we are building in the country so on top of out build cost we also need to run about 120m of power and phone to our site, lay a metal driveway about 120m and implement water tanks and waste system so those things have chewed into budget a bit too ;-( hence why we could go all out with a full on masonry house etc.. or am I going to be told we don't need water tanks etc ;-) haha
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14 posts
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Posted 8 Dec 10 9:21 AM
oops meant to be 'why we can't go all out and do the full works, masonry etc. Well as far as I know anyway will see how the quotes come back in..
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3839 posts
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Posted 8 Dec 10 11:19 AM
Everything is a compromise as you're already finding.
Build the house 60m closer - there's a saving.
Where you build has more to do with economics that almost anything both in the build and in the maintenance of the property AND in fuel costs now and into the future.
If Eco is really important there's nothing quite like convenience for cost reductions.
If you're on a big piece of land you will most likely get more frosts and consume more fuel than most people too including the ride on mower.
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3839 posts
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Posted 8 Dec 10 11:33 AM
2build
Something beside the topic
Search underground power cables on trademe for potential cost savings. If you buy from the electrician it might be a rip off unless he is a friend or relative. And the trenching you can easily do yourself as well.
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14 posts
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Posted 8 Dec 10 12:41 PM
We can't change place of build, where we have bought land there is a rule that you can't build less than 250m from another house. As it was we had to apply for resource consent to build less than that (200m from furtherest neighbour) otherwise there would have been no build site. One of the neighbours didn't give consent so had to go through hearing etc, only just got the outcome in the last month which favoured us.
My husband has a work acquaintance who is going to do a deal on the electicity for us and yes at this stage we plan to dig trench ourselves. :-) plus painting and fence building round the house which we need as there is a culvert that runs into a pond on land, not safe for our youngest.
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3839 posts
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Posted 8 Dec 10 5:55 PM
Hello 2build, Suggest you formulated your 'posts' in 'Word' , edit, save, and paste acopy into your 'post' to avoid typos and embassisment (see what happens when you shortcut?)
RRex)
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27 posts
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Posted 8 Dec 10 6:45 PM
You forgot plumbers. I only discovered after $30000 work from my plumber that he was putting a 300% markup on the cost of materials. More the fool me. I wont have him on any building site now. Finito.
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3839 posts
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Posted 8 Dec 10 6:57 PM
You should be getting various quotes before anyone does anything just to compare prices to see whether they are in a reasonable range.
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27 posts
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Posted 8 Dec 10 6:57 PM
Strange, I thought New Zealand had winters too, and cold weather and variable humidity temperature, and different climate zones as well.
One builds to keep the house at a contsant desired temerature summer and winter, sun , rain, or frost, with the least amout of energy required. I thought this was an eco site. Must thave been mistaken.
BTW. Europeans dont buy Saabs either.
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27 posts
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Posted 8 Dec 10 7:18 PM
You are quite correct. I was too trusting, having worked for many years with the same companies and individuals , and then changing my country at a time of personal turmoil . I forgot some basic principles. There’s always a sucker out there. Unfortunately I was the flavour of the month.
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65 posts
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Posted 8 Dec 10 7:34 PM
hey 2 build,sorry my post was a bit of a rant.it wasnt amed at you! i just didnt like being called a windew hugger lol.im putting in a 180m cable and it is very dear.make sure you get a quote for aluminium cable too,as it is half the price of copper.
it just needs to be a huge 100mm cable to run the power that far,but much cheaper.Homerit have a large range of standard window sizes they bring over made up,which can save a lot too if you can adjust your sizes to suit.thats what ive done which saved a lot.the range is on their site.
what area of nz are you building?
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14 posts
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Posted 8 Dec 10 8:05 PM
Hitek, very good friends of ours run their own plumbing business so they will look after us I'm sure.
anon, we have been getting lots of quotes too, plus researching reviews of companies online as well.
Case, We've been told to use 3 phase power so to avoid dips at busy times and apparantly is better for country use. Will check out the aluminium cable. We've received a quote from Homerit, just emailed them back today with a couple questions. I think we've just about had quotes from all the UPVC companies in the north island ;-)
We're building in Pohangina, are you familiar with that area. Where r u guys building?
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191 posts
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Posted 8 Dec 10 9:21 PM
2build,
regarding main electric cable - as an example I paid $13.50+gst per metre for 50mm 3 core aluminium+ neutral screen. I bought 70 metres of it.
I also bought 18 metres of bare earth wire buried in the same trench for $3.07+gst/m
I dug the trench and placed the cable and backfilled it myself.
Connection to the network and to meter board cost $350 inclusive. An electrical safety check cost $73.
Hope that info helps a little.
Pete
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65 posts
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Posted 8 Dec 10 9:49 PM
pohangina is that the base of the ruahines?nice deer hunting round there ;) i got a copper cable,
180m copper three phase.cable alone was 6000 with a good discount(i hope) then recently my uncle got a much longer run of aluminium cable brought and layed for less than my copper cable alone.
im pretty annoyed actually.we are building in rural upper hutt.
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9 posts
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Posted 21 Jan 11 10:27 AM
Hi
Check out www.superwindow.info
These are a high quality uPVC product with Energy Star rating (the only window in NZ with this). |
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9 posts
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Posted 11 Jun 11 10:05 PM
Opposite for me, those PVC windows do not look great.
My view is fine, 3m wide.
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