kit homes

Thornie · 04-01-2005, 10:56 PM

hey everyone just wondering if anyone has ever built a kit home before and whats the advantages and disadvantages of doing me and the missus are looking into buying a kit home depending if its acctully worth doing

tickford2001 · 04-01-2005, 11:04 PM

gday rattus,

are you practically minded, and an above average handy man? thats the first thing you need to answer, because if not, then you will be almost guaranteed to get into trouble! despite what some of the companys tell you

i am a structural engineer, and part of my last job included doing inspections on a couple of kit homes, and the people were having a hell of a lot of trouble. These guys didnt have very many skills, but had been assured they would be fine...

but if youre pretty handy, and practical then you should do fine, and its quite a cheap way to do it.

if you havent looked at loans etc yet, be aware that banks make life a lot harder for owner builders to get money...

cheers
dave

p.s. i would be happy to give you some pointers / help along the way should you decide to take it on

all the best!

Kryton · 04-01-2005, 11:09 PM

what sort of prices are kit homes compared to being built the traditional way? (without land of course)

Bucknaked · 04-01-2005, 11:12 PM

Bushute from the other forums built his kit home. Took him yonks. But he's good at that sort of thing, so i think it was pretty easy for him

XPcoupe · 04-01-2005, 11:19 PM

I helped build two at Philips island and I enjoyed it but it took over 2 years of weekends to get 1 done and that was with about 5 blokes. I loved doing but hated not having a weekend free for that time and then we did a second.

Currently building my own deck out the back. can't wait for the opening.

tickford2001 · 04-01-2005, 11:21 PM

it depends what you want...the cheapest i have seen is $11,000 - not what you would call a house, maybe something that a single person or a couple would live in though.

then they go up from there, right right up! i actually looked through a 4 bedroom house with ensuite etc (with all the schiznit) that was just over $50k today which seemed like reasonable value

Thornie · 05-01-2005, 01:13 AM

thanks tickford my missus dad built his last house and said he would be happy to help me. good thing i have lots of friends and rellies that are, plumbers, sparkys, brickies and chippys also have a mate who is a land serveyor.
and ive done some bricklaying myself the kit we are looking at is 66,000 and it's one of the farily large ones.

No definates about it yet just enquiring around thanks for the help the guys so far

Olympus · 05-01-2005, 01:30 AM

Me and my fiancee have fallen in love with this kithome design.
It is a very versatile design, have a good look around on the site.

Click here !

tickford2001 · 05-01-2005, 01:48 AM

well sounds like you have the support network and background there so id give it a shot - only got $66000 to lose! hehehe nah seriously, id say go for it, save yourselves some money, and it also gives you that extra pride in the joint

Angry Beaver · 05-01-2005, 05:55 PM

waste of time for me, although i would like one, i cannot see casper actually building a house especially when he doesnt have the get up and go to clean the yard.

EA2BA · 05-01-2005, 06:00 PM

Helping the father in law build a house at the moment, measuring everything in every direction to make sure its square, and it all goes pretty smoothly, lots of hard work though, in the next few weeks the roof trusses fo on, at 11m long, and there are 12 of them to get done in 1 day while we have the crane will be an effort and a half, so will let you know how it goes.

Nail guns are fun to use

tickford2001 · 05-01-2005, 07:36 PM

hell yeh they are fun to use!

making up the wall frames is pretty good fun when it comes to using nail guns

SWOOP · 05-01-2005, 08:33 PM

I work in prefab housing atm (trusses, wall frames, floors) its like lego ,you give the plans its designed and built in a factory and you are supplied instructions how to put it up .if you can read a tape, level and use a ladder and a level and have a foundaton to rest it all on its possible!

You only need engineer to approve the foundatons, frame is to the requirements ,having plumbers and leckys as mates helps heaps (as you need license's for this part) the rest can be done by a modest hard worker in a resonable time and cost compare to the H+L packages out there.
I cant wait to build my own house one day!

Cobra · 05-01-2005, 10:23 PM

I dont know much about kit homes. Is there any websites with more info? When you get the kit, do they just dump you with all the stuff? There'd be massive amounts of stuff. I also wouldn't be confortable buying a home that a qualified building firm did not make. But then again I don't know much about these kit homes....

Thunder Kiss · 05-01-2005, 10:29 PM

Hmmm? Don't know about this one. A kit home sounds good on paper but there is a huge difference between the quality of workmanship when a "handy man" does something compared to when a qualified and experenced tradesman does it.
I guess you get what you pay for.

Sox · 05-01-2005, 11:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thunder Kiss

Hmmm? Don't know about this one. A kit home sounds good on paper but there is a huge difference between the quality of workmanship when a "handy man" does something compared to when a qualified and experenced tradesman does it.
I guess you get what you pay for.

Not so, almost all houses today are built very poorly indeed, and it's not necessarily the contractors fault, it's because they are built to a price.

I'd have far more faith in a kit home which I put together, than the POS that many companies produce today.

Rick.

tickford2001 · 05-01-2005, 11:50 PM

beat me to it rick!

some of the work that is completed by builders these days is indeed very poorly done, particularly on spec homes where they are pushing to meet tight budgets.

where as an owner builder is usually more inclined to take the time to get it right from the start, rather than taking on the attitude that 'she'll be right with a bit of plaster and a lick of paint, no one will ever know'

even if you go around and look at display homes...check the skirting joins, and the cornice, line up anything vertical and see if the whole lot is plumb...there are so many things to be picked up if you go looking

dave

Thunder Kiss · 06-01-2005, 12:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sox

Not so, almost all houses today are built very poorly indeed, and it's not necessarily the contractors fault, it's because they are built to a price.

I'd have far more faith in a kit home which I put together, than the POS that many companies produce today.

Rick.

I see your point Sox, especially with regards to volume building companies but I still stand behind mine; you get what you pay for. There are still plenty of low volume builders out there that do exceptional work (if you're willing to pay for it), however most people shop on price, not quality.

tickford2001 · 06-01-2005, 12:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thunder Kiss

There are still plenty of low volume builders out there that do exceptional work (if you're willing to pay for it), however most people shop on price, not quality.

id agree with that!

there are some really top builders out there, and yes their work is exceptional...they charge more, and dont do as many jobs, but the stuff the do is nothing short of perfect usually

EA2BA · 06-01-2005, 09:31 AM

the rules used to be 50mm MAX out of square for the entire house, now the rules allow for 50mm MAX per ROOM, so you can see why many houses built are crap, so doing it yourself and getting it right is well worth the effort.

BlueRaven · 06-01-2005, 10:02 AM

Having no real knowledge of the matter, I can add that I would much prefer the 'feeling' of having built something myself...

Tote · 06-01-2005, 02:13 PM

Having been down this road and pulled the pin here's a few thoughts:

How well are you able to project manage the job and how much time can you dedicate to it?
Are you able to get the required tradies to turn up when you need them to ? This can be difficult if they are not mates.
You will need to commit six man months to constructing and managing the project, do you have the time?
You need to convince the bank you are serious to get finance and you may need a larger deposit than you would need with a builder supplied home
Most kits seem to be pretty good quality and well designed, the company we were dealing with was very good - www.newengland.com.au
We had plans to get a builder to build a kit home on our land, the total cost of construction wound up being aprox 450K of which 120K was the kit which included floor and roof but no masonry. We went through 4 builders before we decided it was too hard, some of this may have been due to the difficulty of getting builders in the Canberra region though.
Hope this helps,
Regards,
Tote

Thornie · 06-01-2005, 02:22 PM

thanks again guys the company were are looking at getting it from is steelsmart homes obviously they make steel framed homes http://www.steelsmart.com.au

EA2BA · 06-01-2005, 02:26 PM

Steel frames aparently creak alot with changes in temperatures from what I have heard.

**Falcon Coupe** · 06-01-2005, 02:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tickford2001

id agree with that!

there are some really top builders out there, and yes their work is exceptional...they charge more, and dont do as many jobs, but the stuff the do is nothing short of perfect usually

That sounds like the builder i work for, not cheap, not too expensive, but we take pride in our work.
http://www.hotondo.com.au/ourbuilder...ambuilders.htm

kiwishau · 06-01-2005, 03:38 PM

RaTTuS
Actually went and saw Nusteel a couple of days ago looking to do the very same thing. Apparenetly they will put the frame up for us for nix once the slab is laid on the proviso that other potential customers will be allowed to watch. They reckon it will only take a day for 2 men. I have my doubts though on a two storey place in that time but am intending to look into it further.
I haven't gone into pricing as yet but they indicate it is between a project home and an architect designed one. What did yours say ?

**Stav** · 06-01-2005, 06:39 PM

Rattus I built a home from Beechwood homes and they were excellent. We changed many things with their design and they did do it. We have been in the house for about 5 years and it has been good.

However if you can get reliable trades to do it with you then that is great.

Thornie · 07-01-2005, 06:31 PM

thanks guys i rekon we will have a bit of a lot around as well nusteel sounds allright and ive worked on a nusteel house b4

EA2BA · 12-01-2005, 10:20 AM

Well yesterday saw 38 degree hit and some roof trusses go on, and then the wind blew in so we stopped, the roof trusses are damn hard and alot of work, and you have to mad to stand up there and secure them to each other (that was my job for the day), the roof is 30degree pitch, 11m span and about 3.3m high in the middle, thats a LONG way up to the top.

Well Sunday will hope to see no wind, less heat and hopefully half the roof up or more if things go well.

tickford2001 · 12-01-2005, 10:36 AM

sounds like youre having fun then mate! ;)

where abouts is this all happening? which suburb?

i hope you guys had a crane lift them up and didnt have to pass them up by hand - that sucks!