How to cost your build

Find out how much it will cost to build your house in Ireland today, with details of construction and non build costs plus what to watch out for and how to save.

It’s possible to build a modest home on a modest budget. But few want only that, even if they start with that intention. Most of the time, the budget explodes because of design choices. Every bit more you spend on one element of a project will add up. In most cases, it is the sum of these types of differences that cause budgets to overrun.

As self-builders build their dream, they seek to only do it once and their decision making can on occasion be more from the heart than the head. Seeking to achieve the best quality often comes at the sacrifice of budget control.

Here we will focus on how projects are actually costed to help you estimate your build costs with a better level of accuracy than is the norm today.

And so I will outline how material selection, shape, and slope of the site, as well as the specification will all affect the bottom line.

If you look at the way our grandparents built, in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s in Ireland, most dwellings were designed around simple rectangular shapes. Properties were generally built as a single level bungalow structure or standard two storey property.

These were, and continue to be, the most economical to build. A simple square or rectangle on plan, with few or no recesses or box outs, external walls without internal angles (Ls or Ts), few