Is there a special way to get builders to turn up to a job?

I think work is too good at the moment, and your job will only happen if there is nothing else to do.

I tried to get some earthworks done a few months ago, got two quotes, agreed on one even though they were pretty much the same. Then the guy tells me the day before "my truck just broke down"... right. It seems it must have never got going again as that's the last I heard from him. Either that or the guy just had jobs that were longer and paying better.

Are you opening up a timber or brick wall?

Market forces at play

Disruption of the normal state, you get this.

Be prepared to pay way more for jobs also. Materials, freight, fuel and shortage of labor is a recipe for huge blowouts in construction costs and timelines.

I did mine a few years ago. I did have a mate help (actually I was the help) but he's not a builder either. We did it in less than a day, but we had to board up the hole for a few weeks because the window wasn't ready and I had that professionally fitted.
It's a wooden framed house, but the concept would be the same. I'd do a bit of research if I was you and go for it. If you've got a mate that's clued up or ever done an owners build, sweet talk them into lending a hand..

Select to expand quote

myusernam said..
Do it yourself u will save megabucks. We can help! Start a thread and post pictures and we can chime in :)

Make sure you subscribe to this thread in case it gets moved to an owner builders version of Heavy Weather

I'm building the below at the minute... which has been a mission and a half just trying to get the timber.Been waiting on the cladding for 6 weeks. I should hopefully have the frame done by Sunday evening. Then next w/e roof... I'm going to give bitumen a go over marine ply. Cladding w/e after. Then interior lining > bench > stove > trim. So ~six weeks tied up with it.
3-4 weeks to get the windows made so might need to fit it in.


Openings:

Select to expand quote

FlySurfer said..
I'm building the below at the minute... which has been a mission and a half just trying to get the timber.Been waiting on the cladding for 6 weeks. I should hopefully have the frame done by Sunday evening. Then next w/e roof... I'm going to give bitumen a go over marine ply. Cladding w/e after. Then interior lining > bench > stove > trim. So ~six weeks tied up with it.
3-4 weeks to get the windows made so might need to fit it in.


Openings:

Is that the power meter board at ground level. If so, the wall may contain a heap of electrical wires. Be careful.

Bore pump f'ed up again this morning, so that's going to push the sauna/shed frame out to next week.

Select to expand quote

Crusoe said..
Is that the power meter board at ground level. If so, the wall may contain a heap of electrical wires. Be careful.

Gas line; runs level to the box.

Select to expand quote

Carantoc said..
Maybe try to get it square on the wall as well ?

There's nothing square in my house, so I am not about to start now...

I bought some reo a few weekends ago for a small concretring job, garden shed for my daughter.
$90 something a sheet, the supplier said price had tripled in just over 12 months...

Offer to pay the full amount in cash.

We got 'lucky' with the floods in SEQ. Needed some tiling done in the bathroom. Struggled to even get quotes. Once the rain hit, so did the tilers that apparently all had outdoor jobs that were postponed. Getting the tiler back to finish a couple of small tasks has been a little challenging. $2K for 2 days work. When i say 'needed some tiling done' - he tiled the whole bathroom, or at least all the tiling we wanted done in the bathroom
Also had a circuit go down on the circuit/power board. Sparky is coming tomorrow after 3 weeks. And that's because he's a mate of a mate.
Laughed (silently) at the ex-wife. My daughter had a washer fail in her shower at the ex's place. Rather than turn the mains supply off and wait for a plumber (would have taken me longer to find the mains and turn it off than to replace the washer), she called out an emergency plumber at 10.30 at night. According to my daughter, it was a $500 job.
I need to swap my PhD for a trade ticket.

Sauna looks great. Out of interest how much did it end up costing?

You can get builders DIY kits for $10K but you still need to build frame, cladding insulation.

Select to expand quote

myscreenname said..
Sauna looks great. Out of interest how much did it end up costing?

You can get builders DIY kits for $10K but you still need to build frame, cladding insulation.

It wasn't cheap, but I've had f&f send me numerous links to barrel and kit saunas from $2k >$16k. Interior is 100% natural Western Red Cedar, whereas most of the kits are Aspen and the cheapos pine.Decent kit that's about the same size = www.ukkosaunas.com.au/2-x-1-4m-cedar-log-sauna/ but you still need to add a weather proof roof $2k, delivery, sparky. When I enquired about 2yrs ago it was $22k delivered and another $3.5k in my case to do the wiring.
+
$950 glass door.
$150 solar lights.
$50 bitumen roof.
I already had the stove, but that was $700 + $500 for the flue kit.
So all up say ~$9.5k bcos I also f'ed some $h1t up and wasted money on stuff I didn't need.

Select to expand quote

FormulaNova said..
Is the roof-top grass 'camo' so that it won't be immediately obvious from aerial views?

Damn right skippy... more for my eyes though... after I finished with the bitumen it wasn't something I wanted to ever see again.

Select to expand quote

FlySurfer said..
Still can't find a builder for the windows... so I guess I'll have to do them.
I finished the sauna though; it took a bit longer than the 6 weeks I estimated... you know the deal.

Is that framing untreated pine ?

Above ground H3 should be fine.

Select to expand quote

myscreenname said..
I reckon that's pretty good, well done! I'm getting an indoor one built 2m x 1.5m. Kit is $10K, includes heater, door, led downlights, benches and internal ceder panels. I'm expecting framing, insulation, window, electrical connections, cladding and internal build to cost me another $15K.

25k seems like a lot, however there's a lot of work that goes in to it. The only sauna builder I know in WA is Patric from Custom Built Saunas in Welshpool, and I reckon he would have quoted me >$20k for my build, but would have only done it electric and he's quite protective of his Cedar bcos there's no more coming in the Aus. I put in ~300hrs designing, redesigning, ordering, building, cutting, routing...

Mine gives me the best sauna I have experienced... not sure about the cold plunge pool, that's just nasty even at 15c water temp.

I was initially quite concerned when testing and it wouldn't go above 70c, which is the reason it doesn't have any ventilation except around the door.
Previously in fitness centres the set temp was 80c and I would try and get the temp to 100c, by cooling the thermostat, so 70c was very disappointing, but the strange thing was that 70c was crazy hot and I couldn't stay in for longer than 5 mins, we're talking heart pounding, facial veins popping up, minor burns.

I then measured the relative humidity @ 65% so 70c = Heat Index 305c!!!
Whereas gym electric it's usually 80c, but RH of usually <10% = 80-90c heat index.
www.calculator.net/heat-index-calculator.html
I had no idea about a Heat Index until I tried to figure out the deal with the low temp.
The more humidity the more power you need to heat the air.

They sell electric heaters with water tanks... Tylo & Helo call them Bio Water Technique... which allows you to raise the RH to 40%.
Looking at last nights session, I started 15c @ 75% RH, max RH was 90% 15 mins after lighting, peak temp was 66c @ 80% (332c heat index) 45mins after lighting and then both temp and RH started declining to end at 52c @ 57% (121c HI which was enough to make you sweat but not much more) 100mins after lighting.

The pot belly has 10kW output and for my m3 I need 6-9kW, so I run it with just 2-3 small logs burning which gives me 55-60c @ 50-80% RH... yeah, I can't control humidity down unless I ran the stove with the door open. I start the fire in 15secs with a blow torch and so far all the wood has been free.
60c @ 65% (203c HI) is about perfect for me, but it's hard to maintain that exact figure, but I guess a little variability adds to the experience. The Mrs lies on the ground at this temp/RH and there's also a lot less temp stratification with higher RH.