Evaluation of construction project with maximum own efforts

My architect created a construction cost breakdown according to DIN 276 for me at that time. I needed it for negotiations with the bank. The breakdown lists the costs of site development and various trades for the project, broken down into material and labor costs. In the end, I arrived at the mentioned material costs, which corresponded to about 50% of the total construction sum. Single-family house, bungalow with a gable roof and 2 garages, 156 m² living space.

In the end, you get the house cheaply. And building it yourself is also a lot of fun.

I always wonder where people find the time for that. I have to work 40 hours or more, otherwise I couldn’t build a house at all.

I always wonder where people find the time for that. I have to work 40 hours or more, otherwise I couldn't build a house at all.

The goal is to push yourself to the limit (physically) and ultimately save money by doing it yourself. Finding the middle ground is difficult. Some scenarios: 1. You have enough cash, then you get everything done by others 2. You enjoy it and build as much as possible yourself (with help) 3. Tight budget and have it built in a scaled-down version 4. Very tight budget and try to contribute yourself or don’t build at all. 5.... 6.., etc. Everything is VERY individual.

WE for ourselves prefer to have two used cars parked outside, but a (big) house with 80sqm garage and a large proportion of electrical work, others have a nicely kept lawn on 50sqm but (sorry) a tiny bungalow.

What I want to get at is that the topic of building a house is such an individual matter, with thousands of side conditions.

I always wonder where people find the time for that. I have to work 40 hours or more, otherwise I couldn't build a house.

But it is also extremely individual how one deals with the rest of the time. With 40 hours of work per week, there are still 128 hours left. Some come home at 5 p.m. and then spend 5 hours on the couch before going to bed because they are exhausted. Others use the time until 10 p.m. to build. That is simply completely individual.

Maybe a good approach would be to first find an architect and plan and design the house. Then you can break down the trades, attach prices, and discuss with the dear relatives how much money or material costs they can and want to take on.

That is theoretically the best recommendation. Proper tendering, the relatives bid along. In practice, however, the "Iron Man self-builders" are mostly also convinced self-planners, whose strike list already has the architect at position zero. You can say a thousand times that the naive calculation of "saving" the architect doesn't work out, because their filter bubble is full of success stories :)

But it is also extremely individual how you deal with the rest of the time. With 40 hours of work per week, there are still 128 left. Some come home at 5 p.m. and then spend 5 hours on the couch before going to bed because they are exhausted. Others still use the time until 10 p.m. to build.

And (probably not so here, but unfortunately regularly the case) there are also the couch potatoes from 5 p.m. with the hypothetical hopeful calculation that if they temporarily switched to the “Raboti” faction, they would work just as hard with full battery until the end as they otherwise relax. By the way, your example is already flawed where it’s actually more like 45 hours plus another nine hours of commuting time, and both are only average figures. People may be different, but all types of people share the reality of not being identical to their New Year resolution self-image. Just last week, a gym owner (Bodybuilding Bernd) said in an early evening crime drama: his studio lives from the people who sign up but after the first month are only paying non-users. With self-building it’s a bit different, of course individually varied, but basically something like this: in the first month you manage 89% of the planned performance, in the second after catching up on the unfinished tasks still 55%, and so the curve would continue “Fibonacci backwards”; which is why in the third month Jochen still has to pitch in, in the fourth additionally Stefan and theoretically so on. In the fifth month you are then glad for every construction delay, and after the break you give up and call in the professional for more money than you would have had to pay them without pressure ;-)

For us, it went like this for the first two years until we moved in: 3 p.m. quitting time, at the latest 4 p.m. on the construction site until about 7 p.m. Fridays the same game but starting at 1 p.m. Saturday then also depending on the weather 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. Depending on the trade, something quiet was still done on Sundays, e.g. ceiling insulation, marking cables, plastering work, tiles ... And all kinds of things that were still pending in material planning. Definitely two tough years, but it was also fun and you get an extremely good feeling when a trade is completed. It is certainly something completely different if you have an office job and can physically exert yourself after work, than if you have already worked hard physically all day. Since it fits so well ... The first thing I quit back then was the gym membership. There was absolutely no time to train three times a week at first :)