Possible savings in self-performed structural work

For orientation, I can give you my costs for Ytong 17.5 cm / 11.5 cm and ring beam for 100 sqm living area on the ground floor and unfinished upper floor:

Total price: €16,500
Material price: €7,200

Since it is done as own work, €9,300 labor costs are saved minus the friends' catering. I get the material through the masonry company because they have better purchasing conditions.

Duration: two weekends, possibly three weekends.

For the facing brickwork, I have 2/3 labor costs and 1/3 material.

Were the interior walls included with your colleague's shell construction? Often, the non-load-bearing walls are gladly done as a DIY drywall construction after the roof is in place.

200 sqm living space plus basement and masonry double garage pays 100k material and 30k labor costs.

We paid 170k and it didn’t help, but our house is only 160 sqm plus basement and garage.

Do you really save about 50k if you help out yourself?

Same bricks? Or are you comparing apples to oranges? And how much would he have paid your house builder for his hut?

Or how much would it have cost him if his shell builder had done all the work?

Well then he must have told me nonsense or the prices were net prices, or earthworks or something weren’t included....I don’t believe I would pay all in 130k when 3 people help during their annual vacation (see invoice above).....

Why all-in? I thought 100k material and 30k labor costs for the shell construction.

What’s bothering you? You can’t really compare anyway; or would you have had 3 people available for 5 weeks?

We both have brick construction, possibly different bricks (36 vs 42), so not entirely comparable, but I assume that my shell builder’s larger house would have cost about 190k. However, that includes the earth excavation.

Based on these numbers, I am simply wondering how much money you save if you invest as much time as he does.

Let's assume 190k that he would have paid to my shell builder and he paid 130 for materials and labor, plus earth excavation assumed at 10k, then he would have saved my assumed 50k.

And my question was whether that is realistic.

So again, my question independent of the example: I am building the same house twice out of brick with 180sqm, once I help and once I don’t. Can I really save 50k?

P.S: wow the prices above for Ytong.....

I once again have a completely different opinion than most here. We (my girlfriend and I, at times the future father-in-law and my brother-in-law) helped as much as possible with the shell construction. I invested 6-8 hours daily in this (my job only takes 8 hours a day, but the day has 24 hours....).

How much exactly we saved I cannot say, because it was not up for debate to have the shell construction done without [EL].

The most important thing for me: The "shell construction time" was a lot of fun. You could really see what you had accomplished and how your own long-planned house slowly took shape.

We handed over bricks, cut bricks to size, mixed adhesive, mixed concrete, braided rebar cages (structural engineering...) and laid steel meshes and twisted the wire on, assembled and disassembled scaffolding, etc.

All tasks that anyone can manage under guidance. I definitely don’t want to miss this time, it will stay with me forever. And honestly: There are so many tasks in there for which I wouldn’t want to pay anyone €40/hour.

For the roof, we erected the truss ourselves and sunk countless screws and nails (material value screws and nails alone over €1,000). We applied the underlay membrane ourselves, nailed on the first battens.
At the foundation slab at the very beginning, we prepared the strip foundations ourselves, installed insulation, rebar, helped with formwork, painted the waterproofing.

Of course, it took longer because of that (shell construction time until roofing about 2.5 months). But I definitely estimate the savings at over €50,000.

But comparing your work with that of acquaintances doesn’t make sense. Excavation is also completely different.

Ok, but everyone has to decide for themselves if they could manage that (-: I definitely couldn’t do it, working almost 6-8 hours of unusual physical labor every day for nearly 3 months alongside work and other household chores... So hats off to you....