Opinions on estimate

[r136dg]

Appreciate any opinions on this bid. So far we got 2 (only this one has any detail), both run at B1,500,000. I found out later they ask & the wife's been telling them we have that much to work with, big mistake.This doesn't include any coutertops, cabinets, sink, ect in the kitchen, just the finished shell of the room. That would have to be negotiated before construction to avoid doing it after tile & paint.

The house is 156 square meters in Lamphun. 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, kitchen, living room & garage. I would prefer a floating monolithic slab about 20cm above grade with 30x30cm thick, min sd30 rebar reinforced perimeter with same where there's interior walls. The rest of the floor 10cm reinforced with wire mesh. SD30 rebar tied in & coming out of slab for each column. Reasons for my preference is I don't want all the steps up into the house/out to garage. There's no water issues (highest lot in the area), and there was a house removed from the lot 7 years ago. I'm sure there's concrete still in the ground from it's footings. I believe if any contractor wants to dig down a meter for each column pad they'll be running into some of this. 

Anyways, I did the math & materials for structural concrete cost seem pretty high @ B2,000 per cubic meter(not sure about labor costs). Also the material costs for walls (red brick) seems very high, again I'm not sure about labor. Maybe I could tell the contractor I will supply materials???

Any thoughts on this project would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance!

[wayned]

I would get another bid from somebody that doesn't know your spending limit.  It looks like what he did was calculate the percentage cost per line item from a past build and then backed into the line item cost applying those percentages to the final number 1,500,000 baht. I built my house myself 18 years ago so I can't say anything about current costs

[Kwasaki]

11 minutes ago, r136dg said:

156 square meters in Lamphun. 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, kitchen, living room & garage. I would prefer a floating monolithic slab

 

Don't know about Lamphun area but 1.5 mil sounds cheap to me for the above size house.

 

Why the slab does the area require it ?

[Strange]

14 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

 

Don't know about Lamphun area but 1.5 mil sounds cheap to me for the above size house.

 

Why the slab does the area require it ?

 

From what I read that was pretty much unfinished though. Like, basic tiled & painted structure 

 

The finishes are a killer 

[wayned]

As far as finishes you need to decide whether you what "functional and comfortable" or "elaborate" !  I chose functional and comfortable rather than elaborate, as I was raising Golden Retrievers and it is/was a "functional" dog house and my mutts allow me to live there with them!.

 

I did buy a traditional hardwood dining room set complete with expandable table, settee and china cabinet.  The China cabinet  is full of dusty junk collected over the years, and both are used for storage of other junk that I have never used.  The table maybe has been used for a traditional western dinner 15 times in the last 18 years.  I should have bought a pool table instead!  I went with drop ceiling as it is easy to insulate and provides easy access to the attic for repairs and additions.

[Strange]

12 minutes ago, wayned said:

As far as finishes you need to decide whether you what "functional and comfortable" or "elaborate" !  I chose functional and comfortable rather than elaborate, as I was raising Golden Retrievers and it is/was a "functional" dog house and my mutts allow me to live there with them!.

 

I agree, but I also think you can have functional, comfortable, and elaborate using local cement/tile combos for the kitchen & stuff with a little thought and design on the part of the homeowner. There are online design/sketch-up programs that are real easy for dimensions and let the local guys 'go to town' with cement and blocks and tile. Add in some granite and stuff and its real nice and strong as a battle tank. Buy your fridge, oven, microwave, etc and you still have built-in appliances with local stuff. 

 

18 minutes ago, wayned said:

I went with drop ceiling as it is easy to insulate and provides easy access to the attic for repairs and additions.

 

You mean the suspended gyprock ceiling? Or suspended tile ceiling? I use suspended gyprock and put in the insulation as they were doing the ceiling. Welded in some extra c-channel in the attic for walking around later when its done with an oversized access panel in the 'utility' room. 

[KittenKong]

Any quote with no unit prices has to be a rip-off.

[Kwasaki]

2 hours ago, Strange said:

 

From what I read that was pretty much unfinished though. Like, basic tiled & painted structure 

The finishes are a killer 

 

What more is there to the quote other than complete structure with roof, tiled floors, ceilings, doors, windows & electrics that is all l would want .

I guess he could get kitchen set up installed by the builder as well if they chose it and had it delivered.

Although 14years on our house is about the same area l think it's good price going on 12m x 13m size bungalow from what l've seen built in my area for that sort of money.

 

 

[Strange]

13 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

What more is there to the quote other than complete structure with roof, tiled floors, ceilings, doors, windows & electrics that is all l would want .

I guess he could get kitchen set up installed by the builder as well if they chose it and had it delivered.

Although 14years on our house is about the same area l think it's good price going on 12m x 13m size bungalow from what l've seen built in my area for that sort of money

 

I dunno man not trying to be combative. 

 

Plenty of clarification needed as well. Plastic Doors? Aluminum window frames with thin glass? What kind of tile? On and on and on. Plenty of wiggle room in there on behalf of the contractor and of course they will not give anything past the cheap stuff. 

 

Its a price quote on one, single piece of printer paper for 1.5 million baht, unfinished. 

 

I have been a part of several builds here and had 2 built for resale but I have never used a 'contractor' so I dunno. 

 

But it appears to be a quote of 9,600 baht per talang-met unfinished. Seems a bit much to me for so much thats unknown. Could easily end up well over 2+ million baht and drive that per meter price over 12k. 

[blackcab]

I am always extremely suspicious of quotes involving perfectly round numbers.

[petermik]

Build only costs should be around 2,800 baht-3,500 baht per sq.metre.

Down in Trang last year I had a 120sq.mtre house built the lowest quote was for 320,000 baht I settled on the highest quote by a builder whose work was well recommended and paid him 370.000 baht.......2 beds 2 baths single story detached house Q Con walls CPac monier roof tiles good quality build came in at a total cost of 1.3 million.

[AJBangkok]

At 9,600 per square meter you'll get a basic builder finish. Nothing fancy. My wife build a couple of townhouses in Phrae her cost was 8,000 per sqm for the basic builder finish and after she'd made some changes and upgrades of the materials it came in at just over 9000 per sqm. She bought a full kitchen from ikea and had it shipped up and that was another 110k including appliances.

[Kwasaki]

2 hours ago, Strange said:

 

I dunno man not trying to be combative. 

 

Plenty of clarification needed as well. Plastic Doors? Aluminum window frames with thin glass? What kind of tile? On and on and on. Plenty of wiggle room in there on behalf of the contractor and of course they will not give anything past the cheap stuff. 

 

Its a price quote on one, single piece of printer paper for 1.5 million baht, unfinished. 

 

I have been a part of several builds here and had 2 built for resale but I have never used a 'contractor' so I dunno. 

 

But it appears to be a quote of 9,600 baht per talang-met unfinished. Seems a bit much to me for so much thats unknown. Could easily end up well over 2+ million baht and drive that per meter price over 12k. 

 

Yeah apologies get your point  so much stuff about theses days l seem to forget there was very little available and not a lot of choice when we built our.

Forget how much fitting & furnishing inside just a big hole in the wallet. 

[r136dg]

Thanks for the feedback!

I wish I could speak Thai more fluently & had a lot of contacts here. I'd sub it out in pieces. I'm sure by the time kitchen's tuned up, landscaping, perimeter wall, gate, ect; it will be close to 2.5 million.

 I think I'll get 1 more bid, have a look at this contractors work & roll with it.

Kwasaki, biggest reason for preference on slab build is because of the prior house that was removed 7 years back. I know there's a lot of footings/concrete in the ground yet. I'll have about 18 columns going in and I'm a little scepticle what they'll do when hitting that old concrete.

[juehoe]

 
I dunno man not trying to be combative. 
 
Plenty of clarification needed as well. Plastic Doors? Aluminum window frames with thin glass? What kind of tile? On and on and on. Plenty of wiggle room in there on behalf of the contractor and of course they will not give anything past the cheap stuff. 

Exactly!

Don't accept a quote without specifications as brand, type and even source.

If possible, buy the material by yourself.