We continuously hear from architects and designers that it’s the overspending by the homeowner in their fixtures and fittings i.e. kitchens and bathroom benchtops, taps, cupboards and finishes etc, that causes the biggest headache when designing plans for a renovation or new home build. If you are wondering what can lower the cost of a home renovation, this article tells you how fixtures and fittings are the first place to start.
Within the building industry, fixtures and fittings are referred to as prime cost allowances.In a construction contract, prime cost allowances regularly blow the final price out of the ballpark.
Why?
Because customers find the fittings and fixtures they ‘want’ compared to what their budget can actually ‘afford’.
Without clear budget allocation against every single prime cost item, it’s not surprising that the budget blows out.
For a designer or architect to successfully design plans that deliver both the layout and prime cost allowances the customer wants, becomes near impossible.
And the ball game of going back and forth to find a compromise begins. There is no win-win here, just a customer and designer compromising on quality due to budget.
Most design projects start by including ‘standard’ prime allowance costs (standard fixtures and fittings).
Let’s say, for example, that a project with these ‘standard’ prime cost allowances has a budget of $300,000.
These standard finishes are generally not what the homeowner was hoping for, so they decide to upgrade to the next level finishes. This is likely to increase the budget by $80,000!
How many homeowners have an extra $80,000 to allocate to higher quality fixtures and fittings? Our guess, very few!
Not having an accurate building budget in place before designing a renovation or build, leads to disappointment and frustration.
Customers generally don’t understand why prices escalated so much and question where their budget is going.
Under the old business model, there was no way of avoiding the disappointment of not getting the result you wanted due to insufficient budget.
This is where the power of the Shopping List program within C2CPRO becomes so important.
The prime cost allowance budgets for a renovation or home building project are taken from the Budget Report under the C2CPRO ‘Discovery’ module. This is then automatically integrated into the Shopping List program.
To find out more about the Discovery module, along with the other steps of the C2CPRO PROject Flow, see How C2CPRO Works.
This gives the homeowner and the designer an accurate budget for the prime cost allowance inclusions; eliminating disappointment.
While the homeowner is shopping for fixtures and fittings during the design phase, everyone can be confident that the choices made will avoid any cost blowout, and those choices are able to be incorporated efficiently into the final design.
“What I loved about the C2CPRO Shopping List Program was that I knew exactly how much I could spend on fixtures and fittings, so was able to shop around for the best deal and get the exact finishes I wanted”.
Leona, Sunshine Coast QLD
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Another way you will lower the cost of your home renovation is by dealing directly with your choice of suppliers.
By shopping directly with your supplier of choice, you avoid paying builders margins on top of your chosen fixtures and fittings.
Take advantage of promo prices, special offers and more, C2CPRO customers are saving a minimum of 20% because of the Shopping List Program!
Check out the short video below showing the Shopping List Program in action.
The Shopping List Program also enables customers to maintain control of budgets and quality of finishes, from the concept idea through to the actual delivery of fixtures and finishes on the project.