Brick vs Weatherboard

Evening all.
We will shortly be building a new house. Well, actually the building company will be doing that, we will be paying! Anyway, the builder is a fairly large project home builder. The house is a fairly standard 4 bed, 2 bathroom job. We have modified the insides quite a bit, adding french doors, making rooms bigger, raising ceilings etc. We have also changed to a zinc roof instead of the standard tiles (will be on 8 acres, need the tin roof for rain collection). This last change added another $4000 to the price. The company informs me that they can do the tiles cheaper because of their buying power for the standard options. Does that seem a reasonable price difference? The standard external cladding is brick (basic range I'm sure). I am thinking we would prefer weatherboard (such as Hardiplank "old style cladding". Is there a huge price difference between bricks and weatherboard per lineal metre? I am quite sure the builder will add on some substantial dollars if I ask for this change. Would like to be aware of the vailidity of such a price hike!
Thanks for any info you can give.
-mrsxtro.

Large builders buy bricks for unbeleivably low prices.
They buy in bulk, and get the bricks for about half what you or I can buy them.

If you change to weather board expect to be hit hard by the builder.
Most builders make heaps more profit from variations.

Al :)

Sound to me like you have just hit the price increase when altering the standard spec homes.
They are nice and cheap if you want it off the plan, with the standard fittings and fixtures but as soon as you want something different its $$$$'s time.

The change from tile to zinc =
Profit margin from standard tile + additional profit margin from zinc + cost of zinc sheeting + the bugger me you have made a change cost + drafting costs + building permit variation cost = the difference you need to pay.

Brick to weatherboard = as above plus painter + paint + .....

Colorbond roofs are more expensive, fullstop. Example, recent house with colorbond roof - cheapest quote $21,000 with fascia and gutter. Concrete colour through roof tiles with sarking (flat tiles which are quite expensive for a concrete tile) only cost $14,300. Fascia and gutter cost $2,200. Steel has also skyrocketed in price in the last couple of years.

The weatherboard should be less expensive even at builders prices. The labour difference will be huge. I know I can nail off a board quicker than the best bricky can lay the same amount of bricks. Also no sand, cement, bycol, wall ties etc.

Work it out yourself. Approx 52 bricks per square metre @ about $400/1000 for commons, about $500 for cheapest face brick. Brickies from about $700/thousand. About 1 tonne of sand/ 1000 bricks @ $33-35 for brickies sand. Cement bags 20kg - about $6. A brick costs about $1.50 to lay.

Now weatherboard, which I dont like to use, is cheaper to buy, fit and paint than bricks. Now maintenance is another thing. Painting every 7-10 years, no thanks, not with a brush on weatherboard anyway.

Builders do make good money on variations. I've seen people just ask the builder to fit the standard items and remove them later. Can work out cheaper this way. A bit like buying $80 engine oil from Toyota (ever notice that).