FAQs
What’s your square metre rate?
The square metre (M2) rate of the houses we build varied widely depending on whether the house is on the hill, or on the flats, how big the home is, and what the budget is. Square metre rates are mostly used when comparing standard residential homes that have similar footprints. The M2 rate of an energy efficient house may seem artificially high due to designing out unused space. For example, consider a standard residential home with a large hallway, and four bedrooms - the M2 cost of that large hallway and empty bedrooms will be much lower than the M2 cost of the kitchen so the average M2 cost for the home will drop because of extra space. In energy efficient houses, hallways and spare bedrooms are considered expensive extras, unused space that costs more to heat. Most of the homes we build are carefully designed to minimise that unused space. This brings the average M2 cost up – but that does not mean the house is more expensive overall! It’s all about knowing what your budget is and working with the designer to choose what you want, and what you need. Do you really need that extra bedroom that gets used for two weeks per year? If you design out the unused space, you can afford to up-spec your energy efficiency.
How much extra does it cost to build an energy efficient home?
The costs for energy efficiency vary a lot depending on the products and size of house but for the homes we have built it’s been between 3% and 20% extra. We generally advise that it is achievable on any budget – we’ve worked with people who have a $300k budget. It’s all about knowing where to spend your money.
What is the “thermal envelope”?
The thermal envelope is the layer of insulation that surrounds the house including the insulated slab, thicker insulation in the walls and ceiling, airtightness, recessed and high performance windows.
What is the most important thing to invest in with an energy-efficient home?
We always recommend investing in good design. An energy-efficient house starts with good design. An efficient thermal envelope needs to be drawn into the plans. Then, invest in the thermal envelope as it is much harder to renovate these at a later stage. We always say, you can always add a stone benchtop in 5 years, but you can’t easily insulate under your foundation!
What is the resale value of energy efficient homes?
In other areas of the world, there is a lot of data about the value of energy efficient features on a home’s resale value. In NZ, there are very few energy-efficient homes that come up for sale so we have very little data to go on, but from what we can tell, these homes are highly valued for resale, usually making around 10-20% more that a building-code minimum house.
Do you have any house plans that I can choose from?
We do have some simple plans that are suitable for residential subdivisions, but we recommend chatting with us first, or looking through the Superhome Design Guide to get an idea of what to look for when deciding what you want and need. Site orientation to the sun is hugely important for passive solar gain in the living areas of the house. Good design will help keep you warm in winter, and cool in summer. We can help you assess your budget to help ensure good design.
Do you tender for work?
Tendering is a process where a builder competes against other builders with a fixed price offer to build. It’s a system that is set up so that the lowest price is most likely selected wins, but unfortunately it’s very hard to compare prices between builders. A low bottom line might mean that certain items were “tagged out”, only to be charged later with a higher variation rate. It costs a builder around $4k in time and resources to develop an estimate price. If we price a job and don’t get it, we would need to pass that cost on to another client to stay in business and that just doesn’t feel right to us, so our process is to be transparent in our prices. We will show you everything. We won’t set a low margin and then hide the rest of the profit elsewhere.
What is your pricing process?
Pricing usually costs around $4k and this can be added to the cost of your build. You will need to sign a letter of intent prior to the pricing commencing to acknowledge that you are agreeing to pay for the pricing services. If you wish to pay for a qualified quantity surveyor to do the pricing, we will still need to dedicate some time to review the pricing for accuracy and this cost can be added to your build, usually as an hourly rate. Again, a letter of intent is required before we commence work on this.