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A Step-by-Step Report on Building a House with EUROPANEL – Part 9

14.02.2020

Dear EUROPANEL supporters. At our meetings with prospective homebuilders, we are often asked questions about the EUROPANEL building system and the entire construction process, from obtaining a building permit to the completion of the project. We have prepared a report for you on a house currently under construction.

Financial and Time Analysis of the Construction

In today’s final installment of our report, we’ll look at how long the construction took and how much it cost. Before that, however, we need to describe how the construction was organized, because the method of construction affects the final cost of the project. For single-family homes, there are essentially two construction methods.

“Turnkey” construction or “self-build” construction. In turnkey construction, a contract for work is signed with a contractor for a completed house. The investor hands over the construction site to the contractor and takes over the finished project upon completion. The contractor therefore organizes and carries out the construction and secures the necessary subcontractors for the project’s completion. Do-it-yourself construction involves not only performing the physical labor yourself but, above all, organizing and managing the construction process. This is a demanding task that investors opting for do-it-yourself construction often fail to realize. The result is often a prolonged construction period and increased costs. We therefore recommend carefully considering which form of construction you choose.

The house featured in our report was built through self-construction. Material and labor costs reflect the turn of 2018/2019 and 2019. In both 2018 and 2019, prices for building materials and labor rose by up to 20% each year. According to our information, such a sharp price increase will not occur in 2020. Detailed records of costs and time were kept throughout the entire construction period. The result is the summary tables below.

The first table summarizes the costs for individual construction phases in CZK, including 15% VAT. The table also includes a conversion of costs per^{1 m²} of usable floor area and per^{1 m³} of enclosed volume.

The second table lists the total hours worked. The item“Plumbing and electrical installations, floor coverings, terrace, and outdoor staircase” was carried out by the investor’s own staff, as were the organization and management of the construction.

The data from both tables can provide answers to a number of questions for those interested in building a house from EUROPANEL.

So perhaps just the most important point: When building on your own with a labor contribution of 18.73%, you will build^{1 m² of} usable floor area for 28,555 CZK including VAT, with the specifications outlined in previous parts of this report (i.e., including built-in furniture, kitchen, appliances, and underfloor heating), and^{1 m²} of usable floor area requires 21.13 labor hours.

This concludes our report, but we are preparing a very interesting article for you. As part of a thesis at the Faculty of Civil Engineering at the Czech Technical University in Prague, a comparison was made of houses built from brick blocks, aerated concrete, concrete, and Europanels in terms of their environmental impact. The results are very interesting, even surprising. You’ll see for yourself.