Is Timber Frame Construction cheaper than Double Brick Construction

This is a popular query with our potential renovation and home extension clients.
 
If you are thinking of building using timer frame construction in Perth than more than likely this may be one of your concerns or queries…

In short, the answer is sometimes.
 
A History Lesson First………..

In Perth double brick for the past thirty to forty years has been the preferred method of construction due the durability of bricks and a big marketing campaign that was spread across mass media in the 70's about termites and timber frame.
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Most of the existing homes in Perth Metro that were built in the 70's and onward were constructed from double brick.  Due to the worry from the homeowners of termites or their houses burned down in a fire or the potential of cars being driven into them!
 
The best option to avoid any of the above from taking place was to build a double brick home from sturdy and trusty bricks! 

And as history had it….

The answer to the question – “Is timber frame construction cheaper to build with than double brick construction” was and used to be 95% of the time, a resounding YES!
“Yes timber frame construction is cheaper to build your home renovations and extension from”….
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However………….. as time has gone on……

In Today’s times

Today, in Pert Western Australia, we still have three big and competitive brick making companies that have all just recently suffered from the inevitable mining crash over the past 4 -6 years.  As have we all in Perth!
 
Due to this downturn in the Western Australian economy and to keep up with competition the brick making companies have dropped the price of their bricks by 50%. Further to this, the price of brick laying has also dropped in order to keep all the bricklayers in a job (and some not).
 
So, combine these two attributes and you are left with a lower cost of producing and laying bricks, which inevitably brings down the cost to build a double brick home.

On the other side of the construction method coin you have - timber frame construction. However, in Perth, this method of construction can be sometimes frowned upon and considered a weaker and termite attracting way of building… (Which I try to put to rest in a few other blogs)
 
As for the price of timber, it has gone up in the past 4-6 years and the cost of carpentry labour has stayed the same and increased in some instances.

So again, if you put two and two together you can see why the answer to the questions no longer always YES !

The answer to the questions is sometimes.
 
The sometimes will depend on the design of the renovation and extension.

If it is quite an intricate design or a design with high ceilings, then a timber frame home extension will in most cases be cheaper. This, due to timber being a very flexible material to work with.
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 Therefore, making an intricate job much easier, bricks on the other hand are difficult to cut into shape and harder to build up high with due to engineering requirements and the need for scaffold for the brick layers.

I believe in eastern states this is not the case and timber frame construction is still the cheapest and preferred method of building homes, renovations and home extensions.
 
When you are considering renovations or an extension to your home, the construction method you choose should not just be based on cost alone.  There are a lot of differences between double brick and timber frame construction that you should be mindful of.
 
 If you are still unsure feel free to check out my most popular blog where I delve into the comparisons more.
 
If you are considering building or renovating using timber frame construction, feel free to contact us here at Distinct Renovations we specialist in timber frame construction.  We are happy to answer your questions and help you with all your renovation and home building queries.