We had a little delay due to the contractor waiting for the structural steel before he can start framing. It is the season (no not Christmas), its the panic season where everyone is trying to build before winter hits so all suppliers are extremely busy. The contract said that our order is in and next week we will be framing.
ALSO
We had a little setback in regards to the city services. The client did his due diligence and contacted (gas, hydro and water) before construction began and was told that because the services are already in place (because of the old house before us) there would be no to minimal cost for the install of the new lines. When the contractor went to the city to get the permits for water/sewer he was told that a new lines had to be installed regardless of the site and condition of the existing lines. The other thing to make note of is the digging / install has to be done by licenced city workers at a cost of 10k (this varies with each project). This is a huge costs considering the house is only 15' away from the main water lines (tax grab?). The city is passing the buck on to the owners in anyway they can so I would check and double check on all costs for, city development charges, city fees and costs to install the basic services (water, hydro, gas, sewer) as this costs can vary and in some cases could cause huge budget problems. With this project are are still OK as we did allow for an emergency / contingency allowance (everyone should allow for a 10% allowance on top of their project budget for unexpected costs).
We’re Hiring! Sr.Architectural Technologist
2 years ago
Budget is crucial in the process of this project. The headroom given for construction has now been eaten up by Toronto water utilities - as mentioned earlier $10K+. It is up to me as the owner to do as much research as possible to find ways in which to reduce costs.
ReplyDeleteBudget for stairs and railings was tight at $5K. My first estimate came in at $9K to $12K depending on materials.
I have searched diligently and found a good metalsmith who can get the job done under budget by a few hundred dollars. But as I now don't have any head room I must still hunt for ways to lessen my expenses.
While I looked forward to a wood burning stove for the ambience as well as saving on heating I have decided to eliminate this feature. I only had a $3K budget put aside for stove plus installation. The least expensive modernist wood stove I could find including installation came to $4.5K. This would increase my already overloaded budget. So I opted for a bio fuel fireplace. True, it doesn't crackle or provide a lot of heat - but it still allows me to have the fire ambience I hoped for and was much less expensive. Yes, they can cost more than $5K - but also as little as a few hundred. Also this should help save on any work that would have had to be done for piping thru the ceiling as this apparatus is ventless.