How many hours needed......roughly?!

[rockwood]

Hi all,

First post on the forum, although I've used the site many times previously (even taught myself to plaster using information on here!).

I'm a pretty competent DIYer; I used to work as a plumber many years ago and have over the years put my hands to many different tasks, most recently being the task of completely gutting and re-fitting our entire house over time.

My wife and I have just started a property business and are looking at purchasing a wreck to spruce up, whilst adding either a loft conversion or timber-framed extension prior to selling on. I will be taking on the vast majority of the work myself, but in order to generate a rough plan of attack, it would be great to know a realistic amount of time that each of these tasks may take; I would be hoping to work within permitted development rules, so should hopefully be a case of getting on in and getting started!

With that said, roughly how many total hours would be realistic to budget for a DIY loft conversion, fully finished, and how many hours would be realistic to budget for a basic DIY timber-framed extension fully finished. I know it is difficult to say exactly given that it will vary based on size, configuration, finish etc. but just looking for rough figures for the "average case", so to speak!

Any insights much appreciated!

 

[^woody^]

Why would you need to know the number of hours? I can't think of a reason why this would be even relevent.

Is this loft conversion going in something like the Taj Mahal, or a garage on the side of the house? Dormer, beams, staircase, underpinning?

Likewise for a timber frame extension. How big, clad with what, what are the foundations, how is the access, more importantly what is the height?

You may need to think a little differently, IMO.

 

[rockwood]

Thanks for the reply. Time is very important for me to estimate as this is needed to work out our holding costs (council tax, interest payments on any financing etc.) and I need to estimate holding costs so that I can understand potential profit, if any. Of course, if the figures don't stack then we don't buy and look for another deal. If I have a rough estimate of how much time would be realistic (lets say the worst case scenario as over-planning is better than under-planning), then I can work out a sensible plan. I don't have any of the information that you asked as we haven't bought yet, and all those things would be assessed case by case.

Just looking for a realistic estimate based on a "basic" configuration. I understand that it will be a vague answer as I can only be vague with regards to all the details!

 

[Notch7]

With that said, roughly how many total hours would be realistic to budget for a DIY loft conversion, fully finished, and how many hours would be realistic to budget for a basic DIY timber-framed extension fully finished. I know it is difficult to say exactly given that it will vary based on size, configuration, finish etc. but just looking for rough figures for the "average case", so to speak

I dont think builders think in hours.

They think time periods in terns of scheduling, so for example a single storey extension is maybe 8 weeks. But a buikder might just work out the labour time for the bits he does, say footings, walls, pitched roof. Then the other trades, like electrics, roofing etc he will just be interested in the lump sum cost from his subbie. He isnt interested in the hours worked as those trades can often work concurrently....... so the hours worked are overlapping at some stages.

 

[John D v2.0]

As a diyer you will know it takes a long time to think through issues and deal with new skills. Also think about what you would do in case of injury or ill health.

 

[^woody^]

work out our holding costs

Forgive me, but that sounds like it came right out of "Developer's Weekly" or some or other guide.

And I can tell you that it has little or even no bearing on reality for your situation.

In addition you are actually talking about working out hours for an unkown house and an unknown extension and conversion for which you have no idea of any specification, size constraints, nothing. If you are going to go down the route of planning, and residual costing, interest, expenses etc, then it can only be done with acurate data. And you don't have that, and you can't base financial costs on unknown or imprecise data.

There is no "basic" configuration, because what is a basic configuration and how big is this basic configuration, and what are the location specific constraints of this basic configuration? I would remove that phrase from your mind straight away.

You're looking at 12 weeks for single storey extension, and 10 for a loft with no major structural alterations. But that does not translate into hours, because it could go either way depending on the job, the site, events, anything. And no, doubling the workforce does not half the hours it will take, so again I would dismiss the notion of building in terms of hours from your mind.

 

[noseall]

I dont think builders think in hours.

Correct.

I look at a job in terms of days/weeks/months and how much those periods of time are going to cost the customer.

 

[stuart45]

When I tell someone a couple of weeks, it really means about 3 months.

 

[^woody^]

When I tell someone a couple of weeks, it really means about 3 months.

You are the dayworks meister.

 

[Munroast]

when you finally work out how long it will likely take - double it, and that will be closer.

 

[pilsbury]

when you finally work out how long it will likely take - double it, and that will be closer.

When I did my extension, I listed down all my tasks and time I thought it would take. Double what I thought was remarkably accurate.

 

[Leofric]

How long is a piece of string

 

[rockwood]

Thanks for the stack of answers on this guys.

I know it may seem silly my asking but I just wanted to see if there was a ballpark figure to run by........in reality I do know that the variable nature of the work makes this really hard to answer so thanks for attempting!

I think I just need to look at different ways of funding the projects so that I have to worry less about time taken and can just focus on the job at hand and doing it properly!

 

[cdbe]

When I did my extension, I listed down all my tasks and time I thought it would take. Double what I thought was remarkably accurate.

If you can give me your final figure I'll double it for my extension, then probably double it again for good measure as I'm the king of procrastination - that's why I'm posting on here when I should be outside laying bricks!

 

[mikeey84]

Standard project management technique is work out how long something should take, double it, then add at least 10%, and then you might have an rough idea of how long it will actually take!