Cost planning for a single-family house including land, additional costs, architect

Hello,

Of course, we are somewhat uncertain whether a lack of experience regarding costs and also construction execution/supervision is a disadvantage. But it certainly won't be 48k.

There are plenty of templates for that, which he surely used from his previous employer. So he has no excuse for filling out the cost estimate incompletely.

Best regards from the Rhineland

I am building for another 100k more and have concluded a flat-rate contract with my architect for 35k. This includes all service phases and other costs.

Is that legal? According to the internet, the fee must not be below the HOAI minimum rate, which, according to your construction costs calculator, would be higher?

Plaintiff - Judge .. etc..

Hello forum,

quick update: Unfortunately, I don’t have more detailed data than described below. In other words, painter costs, plumbing, electricity, etc. are probably included in the items, but not broken down. We will request that later.

Again about the house. As you can see in the attachment, we want a lot of glass at the back – both in the attic and on the ground floor. My wife asked if one of the panes in the ground floor living room could also be ceiling-high (2.60 m) – so our architect probably planned for aluminum. That will probably be an item we will remove because of the costs.

For the exterior, facing bricks are fine with us; we didn’t really like plaster. Otherwise, we would have liked parquet floors in the living rooms. Glass panes to the back and parquet were thus our wishes.

Foundation: 24,500
125m²: BKI 2014 page 395: 234 EUR

Exterior surfaces wood facade: 16,500
55m²: BKI 2014 page 347: 357 EUR

Exterior surfaces clinker: [B]44,352[/B]
132m²: BKI 2014 page 347: 400 EUR

Exterior surfaces windows and doors: [B]42,000[/B]
90m²: BKI 2014
Plastic 400 EUR/m² = 14,480
Aluminum: 750 EUR/m² = 19,575
Front door aluminum: 850 EUR/m² = 7,140

Interior walls: [B][B]23,520[/B][/B]
140m²: BKI 2014 page 395: 200 EUR

Ceilings: [B][B][B]24,465[/B][/B][/B]
105m²: BKI 2014 page 395: 277 EUR

Roofs: [B][B]51,240[/B][/B]
210m²: BKI 2014 page 395: 290 EUR

Info about the costs:
The cost estimate includes:
- Facade of the main house with clinker solid bricks
- Facade of the rear part of the house in wood
- four dormers
- balcony
- terrace (we don’t need that yet)
- proportion of driveway
- heat pump (not discussed yet)
- underfloor heating
- ventilation system with heat recovery
- large window elements (garden side room height aluminum folding elements)
- measures to achieve Kfw40 standard (low-energy house)

Not included in the cost estimate:
- development costs (electricity/telecommunications/sewer/gas lines and earthworks from the street to the house)
- fitted kitchen
- various household appliances
- furniture
- any kind of lighting
- high-quality sanitary equipment (fixtures and fittings)
- high-quality electrical switch program
- security technology (alarm system, etc.)
- turning circle and adjacent outdoor facilities
- wood stove (fireplace insert)

As I said, the costs (on page 1 of the thread) overwhelmed us. We know special wishes are expensive. We didn’t think our wishes were that special, but we are not experts either. Outdoor facilities 40k include, among other things, terrace and balcony, but at least the terrace and many other outdoor things, we will do later. Energy is still completely open for us, as we have not decided anything yet – except that we want a fireplace (forest plot).

I would also like to have empty conduits in the walls and the quantity of sockets was not discussed either – we are only afraid that A) we remove a lot now and in the end it won’t be as expensive as calculated and B) that we cannot afford the house like this.

Best regards

That is very difficult to assess.

After we had bundled all our wishes together, we also initially went into a bit of a shock paralysis.

However, I am glad that we did not have anything changed.

It was unproblematic for us, though. I had a cost limit for the house construction, deducted €75,000 from it, and then had the architect plan with the resulting amount... Of course, we expected to go over it or still have some extras. Thus, we only slightly exceeded our planning limit by a few thousand euros.

I also talked to others who built for much less, about our size too. But I never went to the architect and said, "make it cost less."

By now, except for the flooring and carpenter, we have awarded all contracts, and I am so glad we did not have it planned cheaper.

We were able to implement absolutely all our special wishes without any compromises. Even the fireplace (the chimney was always planned) which depended on the cost development, we still managed to include (for almost €13,000). Craftsperson surcharges for special colors, RC3 windows throughout the entire house (instead of, as initially planned, only in accessible areas), and high-quality bathroom fixtures were no problem.

Only the contracts for flooring and doors are still outstanding. Then we have everything. The current status even allows for €5,000 in room for maneuver. We did not even have to glance at our emergency fund.

I am very glad to have done it this way rather than making compromises beforehand that might have had to be revised later because the estimate was too low.

We were also lucky with our architect and have an excellent relationship with him. And he knows his clientele very well and has a good sense for costs.

Better to have an overestimation and—should the unlikely case occur that money remains—give it back to the bank right after completion, than to exist through a construction phase full of compromises or have to finance additional costs later. Building with an architect is generally already a narrow path when it comes to cost certainty.

To get to the point
Never plan at the limit and rather look forward to the extras for which the money still suffices.

The mix makes the difference then.

And in the best case, have the costs broken down a bit more precisely.