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Choosing the Best Builder with Budget in Mind, with Michael

Choosing the best builder with budget in mind can often mean deciding between a custom builder and volume builder.

So, how do you choose?

Michael gives us the latest update on his new build in West Australia, and how he compared builder options to choose the best builder for his project.

Listen to the episode now.

Hello! This is Episode 347, and HOME Method member, Michael, is back to give us an update on his new build project in Western Australia.

Michael first came on the podcast in July 2024, in Episode 323 and Episode 324, and took us through the early phases of his project, including working with his designer and resolving the overall design, materials and details for his future home.

Michael and his wife are building a home that’s intended to be the place they retire to, as they transition away from their current daily lives of running a working sheep property. 

The new home is designed to comfortably accommodate the two of them with a focus on supporting their health and well-being, and making the most of the beautiful site, whilst providing a relaxing lifestyle. It’s also able to welcome their family for visits and accommodate them when required. 

In this episode, we talk about Michael’s process of comparing prices between a volume builder he was talking with, and their preferred custom builder. 

In an effort to ensure they were getting the best value for their investment, Michael really dove into the details of both options, and so he shares great insights about the differences he found, and why they made the builder choice they did.

When you’re trying to choose the best builder with budget in mind, it can be a common approach to weigh up volume builders vs custom builders, and something I see many tackle in their projects when building new. 

Some volume builders will build a custom design you bring to them. And you don’t have to look far to see super low costs for a new build when working with volume builders, and so, it can be considered a more affordable and attractive option to get bang for buck, than going with a custom builder.

However, unless you ensure you’re comparing apples with apples when weighing a volume builder up against a custom builder, you’ll never be able to fairly assess the prices you’re being told. 

Especially if you have specific goals for the inclusions or detailing of your home that sit outside the traditional building methodologies of volume builders. 

And to get to the bottom of what’s really included in your price, when choosing the best builder, can take time and flexibility in your approach.

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE NOW.

Michael shares how he was able to review builder communication, costs, detailing and inclusions effectively to make the right call for his project. 

We also talk about the research he did to make specific choices about wall and roof construction details. 

Because Michael didn’t use the PAC Process, his work with his designer and builder has travelled a particular way in pre-construction, so you’ll hear more about what that’s meant for timing, detailing and decisions – including signing a contract without finance in place (which I’d never recommend!)

And he also shares what they’ve focussed on to create a healthy home for themselves.

Before we jump in, here’s some timing for context on my conversation with Michael.

Michael joined HOME Method in April 2021. We recorded this conversation in mid-May 2024. Site works began on Michael’s project in January 2024, and it’s due for completion in 2025. 

Time can be an unknown quantity for many when diving into their projects, and each project will vary as well. 

You’ll hear Michael talk in this episode about how much time passed in the costing / builder selection / design revisions part of their project, which may be useful for managing your expectations in your own project.

Let’s jump into my conversation with Michael now.

This is the transcript of my conversation with Michael discussing how he chose the best builder for his new build, with budget in mind and a goal to create a healthy, sustainable home of great quality and performance.

Amelia Lee
Well, Michael, it’s fantastic to have you back on the podcast with your next update about your project. Now, you’re already under construction, so we’re going to be tracking back a little bit to, I suppose, help listeners understand about the process that you went through actually selecting your builder and then navigating getting ready for construction, to make sure that you were across the level of specification that you wanted, the elements that you wanted included, the budget that you were going to spend, and the quality that you’re going to achieve. 

And I know that you were super careful and investigative in terms of the level of research that you did into your builder selection. And being in Western Australia, there is a very large predominance of the volume builder industry there, more so than other states of Australia. I believe the stats are, in most states of Australia, volume builders make up about 25 to 27% of building stock. Whereas in Western Australia, I believe, it’s around more like 40%. 

So, I know that when you were investigating getting this new home built, you were weighing up whether to use a volume builder or whether to work with a more custom builder. Can you talk through how that thinking was working for you and, I suppose, start to talk about some of the research that you were doing, the early conversations that you were having in making that choice for who would actually build this home for you, and how you’re going to work with them?

Michael
Yeah, I guess going right back to the start, we had a budget, and then we went through the design phase, progressed in the first 12 months pretty much to the base of what we had. And then, we basically went to the quantities surveyor and had an estimate done on the build, and it blows away at the costing with the escalation in costs that I think everyone appreciates. It’s been a crazy three or four years. 

So then, we looked at it and our designer recommended a couple of volume builders. One was a larger state-based builder that builds a lot, or has quite a diversified business, a number of different building companies. And so we went to one of those. And then we went to another local volume builder, and we had our design quoted. We specified that it was to be the design, and we wanted to maintain the integrity of the design. And so we had that done, and it was significantly below our quantitative surveyor’s costing. And we then went to try and look at areas of cost saving with our preferred builder, but the difference is quite significant. So, both quotes came in from those builders, and they weren’t very far apart. They’re about $40,000 apart, so it was pretty close. And so then, we talked to the bespoke builder a bit more, and then we spent a while making some changes and looking at areas where we could reduce costs, which certainly you came up with some good ideas and they actually really aligned with the feedback that we were getting from our preferred builder on areas of roof pitch and wall height and openings over that, doors, different, different areas like that, structural type costings. So we did a bit of that, probably for six months. 

And then, we were expecting the shortages of supply and the COVID-related issues in the industry might slowly start to abate, labor shortages and that sort of thing. And then, we basically came back to one of the volume builders, and we kept talking to our preferred builder, and he was giving us feedback on design and different things in different areas. So with the local volume builder, we were trying to drill down to get accuracy of selections, and make sure all the inclusions were what we wanted. So there’s a fair bit of to and fro-ing, so they re-quoted. And then, I think we made a couple of changes. We looked at putting a round Earth fireplace in and there was a couple of changes that came into it. And then, we kept that conversation going.  

But then when it got to the point of getting close to signing a contract, we were making sure that we were ticking everything off within the contract. It seemed like every time we went back to see what they had quoted, there was always a few things that were missing or they didn’t quite align. And I think the difficulty with the standard of volume builder-type contract is they lay everything out up front, so you have to basically have all your inclusion and everything pretty well mapped out. Which, we went pretty thoroughly through all of that, but there was still a few little things to tick off. And then, of course, a lot of that after you sign your contract, then you go on and then you drill down into those things. And so we progressed that. 

And then, building a healthy home was important to us, and I’ve been looking into the new building codes and requirements for managing moisture and the vapour permeable membranes and that sort of thing in the wall structures. And I started having that conversation with the volume builder. And yeah, we were getting very close to probably signing a contract, if we could tick these other things off. And yeah, I think the conversations about meeting those requirements, because they basically use contractors. Then, will their contractors actually be able to give us that, that’s changing their systems? So, I think they just got to a point where they looked at this, and I think that moved away from some of their first home owner and to to more of custom builds and that sort of thing. And I think they’d had a couple of good sign ups, and we had some timelines that we wanted to meet, and then we got a phone call from them saying, “We probably can’t meet your timelines.” 

And we’d still been having a conversation with the other builder. And what was happening is as we were getting more of our inclusions brought into that, and it was re quoted three times, I think, over a period of probably ended up 12 months from the initial quote that it crept up a couple of $100,000. And I think we got to the point, I just rang the builder that we’d been talking to, and he’d kept pushing us back. It was going to be middle of last year, and then it’ll be maybe start in October. And we just rang him up and said, “Look, we just want to get on board and get this going.” So then, we just progressed that.  

And my wife and I are so pleased that we went with the custom builder because the quality and the conversation about everything, it’s a very open conversation. And so that’s actually, I think, going to bring us a much better quality build. And, yeah, I mean, lines on a page, and then just being able to watch it evolve, and then walk through a home when the frames are up, and just get a feel for it. And that’s the thing, I think, that’s really helped us. The designs hasn’t changed, and I think it’s a very good design. We’re very pleased with the design. It’s just a few of those little finer points. We might have dropped a sill down here and there, or we narrowed a couple of windows up and couple of bedrooms, just a few little minor things like that.

Amelia Lee
Fantastic. I remember there was a lot of to-ing and fro-ing over that time, and you weighing up, could you get the outcome that you wanted with the volume builder and Western Australia? Before we jumped on, we were chatting about the fact that it’s not adopted any of the changes to the National Construction Code 2022. It’s saying that it won’t bring them in until 2025, at which point we’ll have a new National Construction Code series of updates that will start rolling out as well. 

So, you mentioned wanting to create a healthy home, wanting to manage moisture. I know that you had a couple of conversations with me in the Facebook group about how do I have a respectful conversation with the builder about this? I’ve done this research, and I’ve discovered this. How do I have a respectful conversation with them about this, to see if we can incorporate it? How did you find, in terms of the contrast between the two builders, that custom builder versus the volume builder, in terms of their receptivity, I suppose, to those conversations about the specifications that you were wanting, the things that you were wanting to include, and the research that you had done, was that very different between those two different types of builders as well?

Michael
There were two really completely different conversations. Certainly with the volume builder, the building manager, so he normally managed their larger project and managed the overall side of the building. He was happy to take our build on and to be the site manager and that sort of thing. So we were able to have some direct conversation with him. And he had built a similar tight home. He’d moved down to Albany and been with that business for about five years. And I think he just become a part owner in the business. So he was pretty vested and all of that. So I think the conversation was good. But where we had some road blocks in that conversation was when it came to some of these areas that maybe they felt that they might have resistance from their contractors to fulfill those obligations of building to NCC 2022 standards, which still only in Western Australia won’t be until May next year, I think. 

Whereas our other builder, we certainly didn’t follow your blueprint. We signed a contract before we had finance in place. I mean, we just had a frank conversation. We used our rural bankers, which were very slow, but we knew that we would get finance. And we wanted to progress so we could get started  late last year. And, we just said to him, “Look, we don’t have finance done yet, and we want him to get the building application in and that sort of thing.” And he said, “Look, it’s no good to me if you haven’t got finance, we’ll just tear the contract up.” So, we just took it at his word. And the conversation, I mean, we probably should have had those conversations with him there and then. And we started having those conversations through the build, because it is a very highly respected builder. And as far as your initial question, that’s why I asked it, because who’s me, a farmer, to tell a builder who’s spent his life with the skills and the management. And it’s very complex, there’s so many decisions being made in the background that we’re not aware of. 

He uses James Hardie products. And he’s always very careful that he does it to build a specification, so there’s warranty and no issues like that. So I just thought, “Right, when it comes to the wall specifications, I just have to go to the James Hardie site.” And there’s two options there, are that direct fix, or the cavity fix. So I just knew then that that was a system that would satisfy those NCC 2022, and he could get his warranty and work with the supplier. And, yeah, the email went out in the evening, and I think we arrived on site the next morning, and he didn’t look like a happy camper. But by lunchtime, he said, “Look, that’s fine.” 

And I think he’d had a conversation with one of his trades on site that, I think, he’d had for three months. He used to work for local German builder, he understood a lot of that sort of stuff. And he said, “Look, done.” And then there was a phone call to the Hardie rep and that’s fine. We can progress that. And there’s been a few little issues with some of the vertical cladding. I think we’re using oblique and there’s a specific batten that wasn’t very heavy duty that James Hardie had at the time. I’m trying to think, castellated battens, they’re called. So the builder wasn’t happy with that, and James Hardie have actually now released a heavier duty batten so it’s a matter of, sometimes there’s a few issues, and you find solutions as you go forward.

Amelia Lee
Can I ask you where your designer was in this? Had your designer finished up once they’d done the plans, and then a lot of this was being navigated directly with the builder and you? What role did your designer play in terms of that team structure as you were navigating these contractual negotiations, and then into the build?

Michael
We pretty much did that ourselves. I think there was a couple of things we just went back to the designer. I think when James Hardie Stria used to be available, I think, in a 255 and a 300 or something like that, and the 255 wasn’t available. So we wanted to keep that slimmer profile. So the Oblique seemed to be that. So we ran that past, “What do you think’s the best thing here?” And, I think on our gutter design, a couple of things that hadn’t really properly been ticked off. So we went to him about that. And then, apart from that, not a lot. 

I think there’s an interesting dynamic between the builder and the designer. They both respect each other, but the designer actually was a laborer for the builder in his early days, so I think that changes the dynamics a little bit. Yeah, but I think they both respect each other. We tried to get the builder into the room with the designer, and that didn’t happen. It would have been 10 times I probably met with the builder to get feedback on the design. But I think a lot of that on site, a few little complicating issues. We haven’t had any major ones, but there’s been a few little ones around gutter alignment and a few different things, and just a few solutions that the builders come up with something that’s more practical. And that’s where a few of those conversations in the design phase is probably helpful to make a free flowing build process.

Amelia Lee
Something that I’ve noticed about you, Michael, in working with you as we’ve navigated, both inside HOME Method and then in the consults that we’ve had along the way as well, is that you always dive in boots and all to understand the nuts and bolts of things. And you’ve never been fearful of just picking up the phone and asking a company a question, or reaching out to somebody who you think could offer some helpful information about something that you’re trying to wrap your head around. Have you always been like that? Because navigating a construction project can be nerve wracking for some. Is that skills that you have in other areas of your life that you’ve applied to this? Or have you found that love of research, that love of understanding things in terms of how that’s worked through in this experience?

Michael
I suppose, right at the start, when we actually started the process, I wasn’t engaged. My wife said, “Oh, look, you should get on Pinterest.” And I thought, “Well, the house, the finishes and all that sort of thing will be your job.” And then, I thought, ‘Okay, I’ll jump on and have a look.” And then, that’s where I discovered Undercover Architect. I think it was a Colorbond or whatever ad or something like that. I just looked into that. 

And so then after listening to your podcasts, and then thinking, “Oh, there’s a lot behind this.” And just wanting to understand the building and what we’re getting and why. So, yeah, I just really got engaged in that. And, I suppose, I always enjoy understanding what I’m doing and a wealth of knowledge. But yeah, I really enjoyed the process. And we want to end up with a house that’s going to last us out and hopefully last 50 plus years. So we want it well built, and we wanted a healthy home. And it’s designed on solar passive principles. So we want it to work so that we can keep our energy costs down. And, yeah, so that was pretty important. So it’s probably meant that I’ve picked up the phone. 

And one thing I probably found later on and then I realised was Sustainable builders Alliance. I thought, “Jeez, there’s a lot of knowledge here.” And really enjoyed a lot of their webinars and podcasts. And Brian Guinan, he’s local to WA, and he’s the voice behind the podcast. And so, I think, we got to a point where it was I didn’t understand how do you manage moisture in the roof? It seemed like no one was really addressing that. They’re addressing walls, but there wasn’t much information. And gradually, that all came together, and Brian being Passive House, and I think he does WUFI analysis, and he’s a ProClima rep, so I started asking him, “Should we do a WUFI analysis? And do we have ventilated cavities in the roof and vapour permeable membranes”? And then he said, “Well, there’s nothing in these drawings that tell me how I can do it. You need to have ventilation.Where’s all this drawn in?” 

So then I looked further into those areas, and then I ended up going to Proctor Group. I think they were one of the early ones that brought some New Zealand systems in. So there’s been a lot of a learning curve in a lot of those areas. A lot of, I think, New Zealand principles have been brought into Australia with the change in the construction codes. So I’ve just found that really interesting.

Amelia Lee
What did you end up doing with your roof construction in terms of having it airtight or having it ventilated? What did you end up landing on?

Michael
Ah, we ended up not going with the ventilated roof cavity. I got some quotes and some different things. The one thing the builder said is, “Look, we’ll have to go back. We’ll have to have all of this rated. Basically, it’ll slow down the building process. We might have to stop for a while, while he gets his head around this.” Because it was coming in, I think pad down starting framing. Yeah, probably about pad down stage, I think. And I could see it’s been very dry in Western Australia, and I just thought, “We need to get the frames up the roof on.” And I didn’t want to get into the winter and find we’ve got issues with a lot of weather and just trying to get dry days. And I just thought it was more important just to get the roof on, get the house closed in, and, yeah, just try to make sure all the wall frames were dry. That was actually possibly more important than going down that vapour permeable path. But I think there is ways that we can still manage the system that’s been put in place. I mean, they put a lot of extra battens in. We’ve got a 30 degree pitch on the roof. So, I think a lot of moisture is going up in the gutters. 

Well, my advice to anyone would be talk about that early on in your design. If you’re in Western Australia, obviously, because it’s not required through the NCC until next year. But yeah, just have those conversations early with your builder and, yeah, it’s a lot about the builder that you select that’s open, understands those things. A good friend of mine whose daughter’s building a home and selected a young builder who they’re both aligned. They’ve got a designer in the city. They want to build a low impact, smaller home, and it’s just a matter of getting people aligned on what you’re doing. And yeah, you can get a great outcome.

Amelia Lee
You mentioned that you wanted to build a healthy home, so what’s that looked like for you in terms of the specification and how that’s manifesting itself in the built product?

Michael
Yeah, that’s such an interesting and difficult space. We haven’t done anything super special, but I think managing mould and moisture is number one. We can’t see what happens within the wall. So, having a good system for wall management, I think, there’s going to be a lot of progression in those sorts of areas. There’s things like magnetic fields and Wi Fi and a few things like that that I think we’ll do some hard wiring in so we don’t have to be reliant on. So, a lot of those sorts of things. We’re going to have a timber floor. We’re going to try to keep VOC slow. There’s a few things. I mean, I spent a bit of time wanting to progress woolen insulation. I think that’s possibly got a good future. But we were either going to use Rockwool or like a NAF glass wall as insulation. I think that will manage that well. We’ve still just got plaster board. 

There’s certainly products that I would have loved to have tried, like Durra Panel, those sorts of products. There’s a number of products I think we did a fair bit of research – magnesium oxide board. I think we’re probably going to see some better products, more durable products, more fire-friendly products. Yeah, there’ll be new systems that will come in place that will probably change building a little bit.

Amelia Lee
You’re insulating your walls, and you’re insulating your ceiling, is that your thermal envelope in terms of where the insulated barrier is?

Michael
Yeah, that’s right. So we’ll just have, I think, it’s an R6 in the ceiling and an R2.7 in the walls. And it’s a pretty standard structure. We’ve got Gyprock. I mean, we’ve had conversations – Do we go just a standard 10 mil, or do we have a more acoustic type Gyprock? So, yeah, it’s fairly standard in those areas.

Amelia Lee
Have you put a vapour permeable membrane into the walls?

Michael
Yes, it’s the James Hardie class four vapour permeable

Amelia Lee
Yep.

Michael
So yeah, that seems very durable. I think initially the builder said durability was important. So, I think those sorts of things that you do want the wall wrap needs to be there for the long term so it can do its job. I think most of them, it’s about six months, I think, UV protection. But yeah, effectively, you want that on, and you want your cladding on, and you want to get it locked up as soon as possible.

Amelia Lee
Awesome. Can we talk about the energy efficiency process? Because I know that you worked with Sid to get that rating done. When you first started working with Sid and you got that feedback, were there obvious changes that you see that you could make to improve the energy efficiency of the home before you started construction? Or were you pretty happy with the star rating and the compliance when it first came out?

Michael
There was certainly a lot of back and forth with energy ratings. I think we were under six initially, and yeah, we put slab edge insulation, fans and roofs, I think increased U values. We always started with double glazing. And one thing we had the conversation early on was, do we have a polished concrete slab? We like the idea of having timber because it was a bit softer underfoot, and, obviously, we’re not going to get any younger. I mean, that would have improved our energy efficiency. 

So, there’s a few interesting things. We bought rammed earth into it. That was one thing. I did a lot of research and went and talked to rammed Earth builder not too far away, and we got it quoted, and we had systems, but the builder that we selected didn’t really want to go down the rammed earth path. He said, “I’ve got issues with flashings and different things.” And so we said, “All right, well, that’s fine. We’ll go double brick.” So we just got mostly one feature wall on the entrance, and then we’ve got a brick fireplace, the feature. At one stage, we had rammed earth in. We’ve got another second living area, and it was south facing, and it actually made a significant difference to our energy rating. So, we went back to a stud wall frame of insulation there. And we changed back to brick, because rammed earth, you can insulate rammed earth, but it’s not done very often, but it’s one solid unit. So that actually was a negative. And I was sorting south facing, it’s not going to get any sun. 

So there’s little things like that that actually made a change. We didn’t quite get to seven stars, but we were just short of it. I think, if we went to thermally broken doors and windows, we would have gone over seven. It was a significant increased cost, and we’re at climate zone six, but we don’t have frost, we don’t have extreme temperatures. So I think we can manage that. It’s more those dark, gloomy winter days where you’re not getting the sun. 

So we’ve ended up with a nice brick fireplace, which will give us a good thermal mass too, the way it’ll function.

Amelia Lee
Well, you’ve got such beautiful views from your site and privacy as well, so that lended itself to you having a fair amount of glazing, which I can imagine if you started reducing some of that to look at the ratios of the glazing, that possibly also could have assisted. But then, you’re not going to be making the most necessarily of the site, are you? So, figuring out how you get to live in your home so that you can manage those different temperatures.

One point I’d really love to share about Michael and his approach, which is something I think that’s fairly consistent with the other HOME Method members who’ve been telling their stories on the podcast:

The approach is one of curiosity and investigation. There’s an appetite to understand, be involved, collaborate, communicate, and dig into the details. 

I do love seeing how HOME Method empowers our members to do this, with the opportunity to come back to the community and share their findings or ask questions to check on their research and decisions. 

Because I think when you feel you can understand what’s going on, you can feel more confident, especially when you’re being the project manager on your project – which is ostensibly the role Michael has played, as his designer has not carried through to construction, and Michael has been coordinating the finalisation of details and decisions.

Join me for Part 2, where we continue the conversation, as I kick off by asking Michael how he believes this home will perform compared to where they are now. 

We talk about the gaps that Michael has needed to bridge between the documentation and the construction on site, with some changes based on on-site design decisions, material changes and detailing consequences.

We also talk about the roles that both he and his wife have taken on in this project, especially as Michael initially had assumed he wouldn’t be too involved.

And Michael also shares how the construction process has gone, how frequently he’s been on site given it’s 120km away from where they live, and how the interior is feeling now it’s at a point you can perceive volume and space. 

RESOURCES: 

Check out Michael’s previous episodes on the podcast here:

Sustainable Builders Yak podcast on Spotify >>> https://open.spotify.com/show/6Ab8lzXkoAKC5qXMG3qHHl?si=1ac076ba0ef64c9a 

Listen to the PAC Process episodes on the podcast here:

Access the support and guidance you need (like Michael did) to be confident and empowered when renovating and building your family home inside my flagship online program, HOME METHOD >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/courses/the-home-method/

Learn more about how to interview and select the right builder with the Choose Your Builder mini-course >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/courses/choose-your-builder 

Access my free online workshop “Your Project Plan” >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/projectplan

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