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Q&As
DIY savings
am planning to renovate our house, including upgrading the bathroom and kitchen, and I have been given a quotation of £38,000 to have this work done by a builder. I am fairly handy at DIY and wonder how much I could save if I did the work myself.
Answers
The normal breakdown of a contractor’s quotation for work of this sort would be 45 per cent for labour, 40 per cent for materials and 15 per cent for overheads and profit. So in theory you could save both the labour and the overheads and profit costs – in other words, about 60 per cent or £22,800. However, a builder can probably do the work much faster than you can, so you would have to put up with the inconvenience of building work for much longer if you take the DIY route.
