A rough guide to basic building costs from a renovation expert

Unless you are a renovation expert, you are unlikely to have the costs of renovating or extending your home at your fingertips. Without some idea of these costs however, budgeting for your renovations can be difficult and if you underestimate these costs, your renovations are unlikely to be completed on time or to your satisfaction.

If you ask any renovation expert they will tell you that your budget needs to be composed of four sub-budgets: excavation and foundations, building materials, labour costs, and finishing costs.

Excavation and foundations: The best way to minimise these costs is to have a nice level block, because if you have a rocky or sloping block of land, these costs can skyrocket. How often have you seen a developer build on the side of a hill? That’s because they want to reduce their excavation costs down to an absolute minimum and they know that flat and level blocks ticks all the boxes. So if you have a sloping block, you will need to put more money aside for the initial building works.

Building materials: These costs depend on numerous factors and can be quite difficult to estimate. The best way to approach these costs however, is to understand that a full brick home will cost a lot more than a timber framed home, and cut your cloth accordingly. As a renovation expert, we can give you a close estimate of these costs, making it much easier to plan your budget.

Labour costs: The smaller and simpler the renovations or extensions, the lower the costs of labour. More extensive and complicated designs will cost you more in labour, as will a double story extension, compared to a single story addition.

Finishing costs: Whilst many of the above costs are out of your hands, the finishing costs are totally within your domain! If you want high end fixtures and fittings, you will need to have a much bigger budget than if you were to opt for more standard options.

The best way to estimate all of these costs is to contact us at JEB Built and we can visit your property and give you a realistic estimate based on your specifications. As a rough guide however, and based on the cost per metre, if you budget for at least $1700/ square metre for standard fittings and at least $3400 for higher quality fittings and fixtures, you won’t be far off the mark.

Call your local renovation expert about office fit out costs at JEB Built on 0431 065 019 or send us an email to request a free quote.