Unreasonable porch costs?

[Steve118]

Hey All,

I'm looking to add a porch to my detached house in the south-east. It's pretty standard stuff: 3m2, footing to be dug and laid, dwarf wall built & rendered, double glazing on all three sides, door, double hipped roof & guttering.

I've got three quotes now (and four tradesman who just didn't bother to show up but that's another story) and they are coming in at between 8-10k. Perhaps I'm being terribly naive here but this seems quite high for what is, in my opinion at least, a fairly routine bit of home improvement that shouldn't take more than 8 or 9 days to complete.

I like to do a lot of DIY and have done some fairly big projects along with my dad so I'm tempted to just tackle this myself (minus building the wall and rendering it, I'll get a brickie in for that) and save a fair chunk money but I'm reluctant to go the DIY route on something as prominently on view, it should look professional.

So my question for the experts is is 8-10k the going rate these days for a standard porch build and I'm just behind the times or are the quotes on the high side?

Cheers,
Steve

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Well it seems a bit high but if all the prices are coming in the same that would suggest they’re competitive prices. What are they basing their prices on? A chat over a cup of coffee or a sketch or something?

 

[Steve118]

Agreed. maybe that's just the going rate for the Essex now.

The quotes were based on a coffee and chat at the property. I'm fortunate in that a close neighbor has pretty much what we're looking for so design-wise its not a difficult conversation (the people that built theirs are one of the 4 who just never showed up despite having an appointment).

I was surprised, although maybe I shouldn't be, with the difference in the level of questioning. One of the builders asked very little and needed constant prompting another asked all the right questions and provided a really detailed breakdown of his quote which was excellent but he could only provide one example of his work which was a bit underwhelming. I don't mind paying more if I know I'm getting high quality work but I'm a bit of a perfectionist and tend to over-engineer my own DIY projects so it would niggle me if I spent 10k on a build that wasn't constructed and finished to a high standard.

 

[Gerrydelasel]

£10k sounds eye watering to me. How big is this porch?! A grand for windows, a grand for the door, the walls and roof a grand each... all including labour. I don't see how a poxy little porch could possibly cost more than £5k??

 

[geraldthehamster]

I built my own porch: 3m2, insulated concrete floor with stone slabs, timber frame, insulated and plasterboarded (then skimmed by a plaster, the only bit I didn't do), cedar cladding, two joiner-made windows, door from Howdens courtesy of a friendly builder's account, flat roof. It cost me about £1000.

Cheers
Richard

 

[^woody^]

£5k of that is because of the detached house, postcode, cars on the drive and clothes on your back.

 

[geraldthehamster]

Assuming your builder's material costs are similar to mine (your roof has more materials but they will be able to get them more cheaply), then about 9k of the quoted 10k is labour, which equates to well over a month's work by two people. It isn't going to take that long

 

[^woody^]

There is more than £1k worth of materials in a porch.

Is the skip cost labour or materials? Are the builders admin and on-costs labour or materials? Are the plant and hire costs labour or materials?

 

[geraldthehamster]

Fair point, I did have to buy a spade

 

[noseall]

I built my own porch: 3m2...... It cost me about £1000.

Cheers
Richard

Back in which century?

 

[noseall]

£4.5 - £5k is a realistic. figure. However, builders are busy now and many have not forgot 2008 and are either still recouping what they lost back then or are preparing for the next big slump.

 

[geraldthehamster]

Back in which century?

2011. Obviously without paying myself for my own labour.

Cheers
Richard

 

[r1flyguy]

Back in which century?

2011. Obviously without paying myself for my own labour.

Cheers
Richard

Don't worry about noseall!! He bitched at me about how I spend my money on my house too not knowing the full facts as usual.

 

[noseall]

2011. Obviously without paying myself for my own labour.

Cheers
Richard

A thousand pounds will buy you a composite door and frame fitted. Joy. Misleading people with unrealistic tales of "wot I did way back when" doesn't help much.

 

[noseall]

I like to do a lot of DIY and have done some fairly big projects along with my dad so I'm tempted to just tackle this myself (minus building the wall and rendering it, I'll get a brickie in for that) and save a fair chunk money but I'm reluctant to go the DIY route on something as prominently on view, it should look professional

Porches are one of the most common structures on a building that are overlooked in terms of design. Many end up looking like a horses arse and end up devaluing a property. A nicely built, proportioned porch with a correctly pitched and designed roof will complement a building.

Have you ever built a hipped roof? The one below cost about £5k.

Patio2

• noseall
• 17 Oct 2015