Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Renovation Costings - Breakdown and Rebuild

Renovation Costings are another scary nightmare described by people " I pay ah, so much wor. Contractor fak kau me and run away wor"

Thats because he took your 30% Deposit and blew it on Cristal at Marini's.


Oh yeah, am gonna have a ball now. Show me the money Biyatch

In our case, we hear people mentioning about how ballooned things are by the time they are done with the house. Some say 50% more, some even more.

Thats because lowyatt contractors never quote you fully the full works and by the time you need to know what really is required to complete the job, your budget is blown.

If you really know your materials like me, when I got quoted for windows from Mr. Eric, I asked if the windows were tempered and the contractor said "No".

So when you start hearing more "No"s from the specifications you want in the contractors quote, thats where finishes begin to get shitty, your budget blows for quality and things start fucking up


In our case, the contingencies are very very low. We have to be very prudent in this case. We are not as fortunate as lowyatt folks who drive Myvi's, claim they are poor but have 500k in the bank.

To build essentially a Double Storey Semi Detached with the size of a a Terrace Link House, this is what things will cost.

A more detailed breakdown is available below to show I didnt pluck figures from my arese. Yes there may be some things missing, but some. The very foundation of things are there to work with.

Keep in mind, that not all things here will be given to a contractor to build from A - Z with shitty finishes. In some cases like the roof, my company will be building the roof as we do steel work.

The roof was quoted to us for RM 38,000 while using the old timber trusses and rafters of the current house. To which I said fuck off.

Greedy lowyatt fuckers. At RM 38,000 you could have a new roof with sourced materials such as C Channels at 1.6mm in thickness.


Point 6.0 "New Monier Roof" What Mr. Eric is "New" ? Its basically reusing my old roof tiles and using timber structure at RM 38,700.0 The Audacity to call it "New" . Turns out that this guy was going to outsource the job to build the roof. Cause he doesnt know how to build a roof and know what the guidelines are as well I guess in MBPJ for Roofs. Clearly another Lowyatt chap who probably deals with another Lowyatt chap who knows the truth of what Roof regulations are. - "PM me on the side"  fuckers. 

I also factored in that you could even have the roof insulated with rock wool at RM 2,000 with rockwool that has a thickness of 100 mm / 4inches.

If I was going to Build a Roof with a budget of 38,700 I would have spent

2000 on Rockwool
7,000 on 2 " x 3" C Channels for trusses (1.6mm thickness)
1000 for 4" Gutters
2000 on Flashing
8000 on Heat Shield
3000 on G.I Sheet plate of 1.2mm thickness
5000 on Labor and installation (5 staff constructing the structure in 10 days / RM 500 a day / RM 100 a worker for 8 hours work)

Thats 28,000. Thats 10,700 saved and thats just me being Generous with my figures above. Thats a roof that would give me easily 3 - 5 degress more of coolness.



How Mr. Eric would cheat will be this way

3,000 on timber
1000 on flashing
750 on 3" Gutters
3000 on labour ( 5 staff constructing the structure in 10 days / RM 300 a day / RM 60 a worker for 8 hours)

Thats RM 7,750 and with NO Rockwool, NO C Channels, NO G.I Sheet

And his earnings ?


RM 30,950.00


So you know where he's going with his other Roof Building friend, right ?



Champagne on Ice, Am on top of the world bebeh



So if you dont know your materials, you will get conned.

What is going to be re-used though are our roof tiles from the existing building as they are Monier tiles made in the early 90's. There was no such thing then as "Grade A/B/C". Just 1 Grade and that was "Good Quality" back in the day that was built to last

We are fortunate enough to be working with materials everyday such as Plywood, Chipboard, MDF, Aluminium and Steel in different sizes, profiles and thicknesses.

We have as well Electricians who we deal with, and flooring people as well who can power float, grind and polish floors, tile workers who are old fashioned skilled Chinese men still in the trade. These are the True chicken rice eating chaps.

From C Channels for your roof, to GI Plates and expanded metal sheets as well as plywood in different grades and thicknesses. These things are a daily event to me. But it really isnt that hard

So how we have divided costing within a simple budget works this way :-


DEMOLITION, LABOUR, RAW MATERIALS - BARE BUILDING BASICS





In Mr. Eric's case, leaving out the Sewage, and Raw Materials, his labor was RM 350,000. Since when do raw materials cost over 150,000 ? 


Based on my figures, the Labor includes building the Home with

Dismantling the Home
Clearing the rubble
Construction
Wet Works
Form Work
Plastering
Skimming
Bricklaying,...... Everything at a generous RM 218,000.00

*** I have left Tiling and Power Floating the floors aside, because this to me requires some special attention, which I have included in the Furniture and Fittings ***


At 429,850. for 4,055 square feet this is what it will cost for the bare basic structure of the Home to be built. This INCLUDES the

Architects
Engineers
Surveyors
Soil Investigator
MBPJ Approvals
Contractors

429,850 - This is the job of what Building the Basics will do for you.  

This is how much you can put aside to build a new home with approximately a 4,000 sq. ft built up.

Our first Contractor Mr. Alex was proposing for a 1.5 Storey for RM 500,000, by adding half a storey more on top of our existing structure.

Does this look stupid to people like me ? Yes. Because it insults my intelligence.


Now lets look at your fittings and furnishings. From your Air conditioning units to your beds.



FURNISHING AND FINISHES 



A grand total, of RM 509,633.50. Keep in mind, I will have the roof rebuilt myself,  the gate as well to our Home and even the Staircase Railings as well. This means  you could put aside another 10% and say that it will cost you perhaps around the 570,000 region. 


So with almost everything thought out, this is what the figures come. At greedy contractor rates, we would have been raped off our bank balance.

If it was left to the contractors to come up with a simple 3 page plan such as ours, I think the world would be a better place. I could really use the song Heal The World by Michael Jackson right now.

Stupid people would spend for our built up 750,000 with contractors. And you wonder where the inflation came from.

We had given ourselves an additional 10% contingency just in case. So this would bump us up to the 550,000 range.

Keep in mind that some of the prices I have used are not to have lavishes to certain fittings but modest ones. We dont need to have Grohe fittings in every single bathroom. We dont need Italian tiles. A little lavish will be alright, not everything. A little flash is okay.

Just like once in a while, you too gotta try eating steaks that your contractors eat because they have no taste for chicken rice.



 CONTRACTORS LABOUR COST

This is where you will know how greedy contractors are. They seem broke but they are rich. one even showed up in a C Class Mercedes, 2016 model of course.

What contractors REAAAALLLY drive

Plus they would not be there all the time serving you. What a contractor should cost is RM 15,000.00 a month at MAX. Even this seems greedy because the contractor will never be at site everyday as there are always other projects being taken on.

The staff earn RM 2,500.00 a month per staff. With 6 staff. So thats another 15,000 a month.

So if its 7 months for construction that makes it to 30,000 a month X 7 = RM 210,000 total for 7 moths of Construction. But to my figures I have calculated for RM 218,000

At Mr. Eric's rate of 350,000, it would mean that Mr. Eric's pocket would be more than what MO1 earns a month. Thats why Myvi driving lowyatt folks do have RM 500,000 in their bank accounts.

RM 218,000, more than enough. Any later than 7 months work would mean lesser earnings for the boss.



ELECTRICIAN

Most will quote you and say things like Looping, Wiring, Plug Point, Points, all that does not matter as long as you have good wires. Im using Mega Cables the whole way. What are you using ?

If you are using something inferior, then maybe it will be cheaper but your wires for your lights heat fast. Mega cable gives a smooth flow of current, and also doesnt heat up. In Mr. Erics quote, there was no mention of Mega Cable because he was going to give us inferior stuff.

He had quoted us for points as well, 42 of them, but forgot that we were not that stupid where we could loop things and get things cheaper.

Armour cable is also standard for your Gate, but what thickness is being used ? Ask your electrician / contractor.

Find yourself a good Electrician. We have ours

RM 30,000





FURNITURE AND FITTINGS

Our furniture and fittings once again was left partially to things we could build ourselves.

Of course, beds and mattresses, couches etc didnt have to be bought from Cheras Glamorous Kedai Perabot furniture stores, neither expensive ones.

To get an idea, just look at IKEA online and this will give you some indication.

Once again, nothing had to be expensive in our case, just modest and humble. Not cheap charlie cheap, but neither were we going to sleep on what loyatt contractors sleep on like a 25,000 bed.

Where contractors REAAALLLY lay their heads down at night. We didnt have to go for an expensive bed

Fittings such as your lights, I was going to invest in them, brightest low wattage would work for me. I wouldnt mind spending 20% more, to get 50% back as an investment. These are cheaper things.

Neither was I going to be stingy on Kitchen equipment. Decent equipment was going to be used. Not too expensive, but neither a fridge with an Ice Maker or a Dishwasher,....which doesnt sound too bad too.

We too from living outside, had the opportunity to purchase a Microwave oven, Kettle, some pots and pans, and even an Air Fryer. So these things didnt have to be added to my costings.

Am sure you too would find some things you already own.


~fin~


1 comment:

  1. Very informative and impressive post you have written, this is quite interesting and i have went through it completely, an upgraded information is shared, keep sharing such valuable information. Home Designs Sydney

    ReplyDelete

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