Re: Costs and sources in Melbourne

Posted by Paul B

In Reply to: Costs and sources in Melbourne posted by Andrew

Andrew,
I live in Adelaide and have just partly finished building a Masterly Tail using second hand materials.

In Adelaide, the MT would have cost me AUD$2,500 to buy the materials new.

I have built it for AUD$800. I could have saved more money by mixing the concrete from sand / gravel / cement instead of buying the premixed bags. The
concrete, cement, lime and reinforcing steel are the only things I have paid retail for. The firebricks came from a Kiln that was pulled down 25 years ago and stored in the demolisher's back yard (AUD$0.70 v AUD$4.00), the bricks for the outside from EBAY (700 for AUD$40 vs. AUD$1.00 each), the wood for form work and arch templates was collected from scrap at no cost.

I have still to construct the roof and chimney and I will have to buy some more bricks to complete this section.

Feel free to contact me if you need to discuss.