How much does a mostly self-built house cost?

Most of the time, helpers are like this too: they are happy to join in at the beginning, but later hardly have any time or desire. And the other type is that they say they want to help, but in the end never have time. A certain part can be done well on your own, but most likely not an entire house. Unless you have a high level of endurance. And usually, doing it yourself also takes much longer than expected, and the materials also need to be purchased.

So from my circle of friends I can report that it can work and does not take 2 years. But they were lucky to have a retired bricklayer who spent every free minute at the construction site. Not done by themselves here were: windows, plaster, [Verblechung/ Dachrinne], screed and the roof truss trussing. The rest was carried out on their own. The house has 200m2 living space + 6x9m garage. Nearly 20,000 euros were "saved" on the shell construction.

You can save a lot by doing it yourself, but you can get confused very quickly – like many others, I naturally underestimated this. We are currently doing interior plastering in EL, but for that I have now briefly contracted drywall including insulation (the classic among EL) because everything is happening in parallel. But if you consider how many thousands of euros you save on the plaster... I'm happy to stand for hours at the mixer. But the time and mental strain quickly become very high – especially craftsmen shouldn't underestimate this, because they already do enough physical work during the day and then again on weekends? Currently, I am physically working between 8-12 hours a day on weekends – and then mental work again during the week. And in between, still another 2-4 hours in the evening plus short-notice vacation days... Soon finally screed, then a bit of a breather...

You can save a lot by doing it yourself, but you can get confused very quickly – like many others, I of course also underestimated this.

Finally someone who speaks openly about it ...! Rhineland greetings

You have a goal in sight and fortunately, it is finite - but anyone who thinks you just dance through it is deceiving themselves.

Especially those who don't do it professionally underestimate that the most...

Hello,

My husband is a carpenter and wants to do everything himself.

Construction managers often have this training; so your question about the costs surprises me. If not your husband, who else should be able to estimate it well?!

That means timber frame walls and roof are no problem at all, electrical work neither, a friend will do that. We can also do plastering, painting and laying floors ourselves. We would only need external help for heating and sanitation, the basement, possibly windows/doors/stairs. I find it difficult to estimate the costs.

Your husband has a job that is very much in demand these days; which means he has a tight work schedule. Then still after work, every weekend – every free minute anyway – to build a single-family house mostly in self-construction. Are you sure you really want to impose that on your family – especially on your husband?

What will it cost us, or what do we save by doing all the work ourselves? (Does anyone, for example, know what is usually estimated for the individual trades)? The house will be max. 10x10 m, 1.5 stories.

The electrician is the poorest guy on the site, I always say; that trade is somewhere around EUR 6-7 thousand. Sanitation rather EUR 20-30 thousand, depending on desired equipment; windows can mean anything between EUR 15 and 30 thousand, interior stairs concrete or wood?, interior doors perhaps EUR 4 thousand. These are now rough basic installation values for NRW; in BW it is likely to be a bit more expensive.

Does it make much difference cost-wise if we build e.g. only 9x10 or 9x9 m?

That depends ....

And what does a basement cost?

From EUR 45 thousand for a usable basement.

Rhenish greetings