Any rough ideas for building costs?

joey48442 said:

SVreX said:

Square footage pricing for construction really amazes me. It’s a system completely designed to take advantage of the consumer. 

We wouldn’t find it acceptable in almost any other business. “How much does it cost per wheel to build a custom car?”  

I get your point, but slightly disagree... only because it’s the main thing for a house after of course you make sure it’s safe and sound, whether or not it’s big enough for your needs. It’s more like how many dollars per horsepower will this mod cost?  Like a thousand dollar exhaust that adds 10 hp, or a 4,000 dollar turbo that adds 100 hp. 

It may not be the best way to judge value, but I’m certain if I came on here asking about “how much does an addition cost?” You guys would have asked right away “how big of an addition?”

thanks for your advice, SV, I almost added “paging SVreX to the front desk” to my thread title

I think the automotive equivalent is "how much? I only paid $x for the whole car!". As if it's somehow less expensive to build parts for a $1000 car than for a $35,000 car.

Hal said:

Cost on contract (no change orders yet) :  $21,725.00  

 

But we need this in $/SF, LOL. Seriously, though, that is interesting. I'm glad I'm doing all my own construction. We are aiming for $40-45/SF for materials only. 960 SF.

Re: moving a staircase.  I have thought about doing that as well and would probably need to if I wanted to make the second floor of my house a livable space as I'm near certain the current staircase doesn't meet code for rise/run and width.  Underneath are the stairs to the basement.

In my case, "moving" it basically means knocking down the entire house (save maybe two or three walls) and starting over as the entire layout of the house would need to change.  Which I honestly wish were a viable option.  I have a mental image of a nice little Arts & Crafts design with modern features... that would probably end up costing 2x what the property can bear.

As far as remodel/addition costs, I can only offer some ~7 year old figures for central NJ (not a cheap area).  My ex- wanted a second floor addition over the back of her house which was separate living/dining/kitchen rooms and a poorly sloped roof above (that leaked badly).  New foundation along one wall. New two story wall about 30' long. Added to an existing wall. 24' engineered beams spanning between for an open first floor plan (living/dining/kitchen).  New roof tied into the existing and replacement of the existing house roof.  All interior walls, MEP work and finishing by homeowner (mostly me for MEP and a coworker's father for much of the finish carpentry).  The cost for the weathertight structure was about $40K.  This was about half of the other estimates she got.  She probably has another $40K into the renovation and as far as I know the second floor still isn't completed other than she did get the heat working.  The first floor looks amazing, although there are a few spots where you can tell it was done by an amateur (things I did wrong). 

Its completely dependant on location, California will be different than Missouri. I do construction and have built many houses and have built for myself in budgets that would astonish. Heres some advice:

Get a few bids. Under no circumstance take the lowest bid. It will cost you more.

200 or 400 sq ft is too small of an addition to put on, you want more space than you think. Bigger isnt gonna be appreciatably more.

There are things you can do to make it cheap by doing them yourself, painting for example. There are things you want to have done like concrete though.

In a lot of situations the cheapest alternative for a foundation and floor is a mono slab. You can even acid etch it and have it as a finished floor. It also stays about 50 degrees always so its nice and cool plus very very durable.

Theres more but it was 100 degrees today and im beat, ill chime in more as i return back to life

llysgennad said:

Hal said:

Cost on contract (no change orders yet) :  $21,725.00  

 

But we need this in $/SF, LOL. Seriously, though, that is interesting. I'm glad I'm doing all my own construction. We are aiming for $40-45/SF for materials only. 960 SF.

Doing your own is a really serious commitment but if you have the right temperament and actually finish jobs  you can make a serious dent in the costs.  Buy good tools and when finished you can sell them for about 1/2 of what you paid for them.  It’s cheaper than renting tools. 

llysgennad said:

Hal said:

Cost on contract (no change orders yet) :  $21,725.00  

 

But we need this in $/SF, LOL. Seriously, though, that is interesting. I'm glad I'm doing all my own construction. We are aiming for $40-45/SF for materials only. 960 SF.

Any contractor who bids a bathroom remodel based on SF is not one I want to deal with.  Based on the pricing of all the stuff we chose for this job DIY would only save us ~$7K.  Plus it would take me a month or more to do the job vs. 2 weeks for the contractor.

Time is definitely the negative for the DIY route.  It's hard to make visible progress when you're limited to a few hours after work and on weekends. And then when it's a nice weekend and you'd like to be outside doing something fun and instead you're running ductwork or vent piping in a 100 deg roof space. Not to mention the regular chores required for simply "living" - food, laundry, etc. BTDT. 

My ex's parents built a weekend/vacation house in the Poconos. They started in 1969 shortly after buying the property (and before my ex and her brother were born).  They finally started using the house in 1992. For some reason I still had to remind my ex about this when she would complain about why her house renovation was taking so long.  Especially when I was working alone while she sat on the couch asleep with the TV on... 

For “should we do this right now?” purposes, I think $150/square foot is a good guess.

That’s what we were quoted...err...guestimated by a good, but reasonably priced contractor in rural north georgia.

Michigan is unionized. GA is not. 

There could be a big price difference. 

Ian F said:

Time is definitely the negative for the DIY route.  It's hard to make visible progress when you're limited to a few hours after work and on weekends. And then when it's a nice weekend and you'd like to be outside doing something fun and instead you're running ductwork or vent piping in a 100 deg roof space. Not to mention the regular chores required for simply "living" - food, laundry, etc. BTDT. 

My ex's parents built a weekend/vacation house in the Poconos. They started in 1969 shortly after buying the property (and before my ex and her brother were born).  They finally started using the house in 1992. For some reason I still had to remind my ex about this when she would complain about why her house renovation was taking so long.  Especially when I was working alone while she sat on the couch asleep with the TV on... 

I completely agree with you regarding time. A professional will build the average new home in 2500-3000 man hours  from start to handing over the keys to a finished house.  

So far I have 31,000 man hours in my home.  Nope,  I didn’t misplace a zero.  A normal person will work 2080 a year at a full time job.  That’s 15 years of a full time job.  I estimate that I have another 2-3000 manhours before the job  is completely finished. 

Plus I had access to free use of the latest equipment. Cranes, telehandlers, man lifts, forklifts, skid steers.  etc. equipment kept on site when needed or only 20 minutes away on call.  

I know what I’m doing and reasonably efficient.  Nothing I ever did needed to be redone or Changed.   I worked a full time job during that period starting in 1998 and would come home and work until 10:00 or 11:00pm.    Weekends were started as soon as the noise ordinance lifted and finished the same. 10:00 or 11:00 

    I really enjoyed the work. It was extremely therapeutic. For decades before my job was all mental. The ability to convince hard headed businessmen to spend more money on equipment than they’d ever spent on anything. Is a mental challenge to say the least.  That plus so much time away from home by myself.  

It did put a complete halt to my car hobby and racing.  That Im now just beginning to refocus attention on 

In reply to frenchyd :

What blasphemy is this? Selling tools? No, I already have nearly everything I need. Not my first rodeo. Rented the JD backhoe and the 14" concrete saw, but I buy what I need. Best so far? the little Gecko lap siding clamps!

Ian F said:

Time is definitely the negative for the DIY route.  It's hard to make visible progress when you're limited to a few hours after work and on weekends. And then when it's a nice weekend and you'd like to be outside doing something fun and instead you're running ductwork or vent piping in a 100 deg roof space. Not to mention the regular chores required for simply "living" - food, laundry, etc. BTDT. 

This is absolutely true. I have two elementary-age kids, who play sports year-round. My architect wife works at least 50 hours/week most of the time. We are living in the house as we add on, but it is not interrupting our day to day living. Good and bad, I guess. If it was, it would get done faster! We are about 70% done with Phase1, excavating for Phase2. Should see major progress in the next 6-10 months. But yeah, finding time is the key.

Back to the cost, we are about $17K so far (phase1). But 2/3 of that was concrete due to the 8x8x8 storm shelter. I should do a build thread on the house, it's gonna be pretty cool.

llysgennad said:

In reply to frenchyd :

What blasphemy is this? Selling tools? No, I already have nearly everything I need. Not my first rodeo. Rented the JD backhoe and the 14" concrete saw, but I buy what I need. Best so far? the little Gecko lap siding clamps!

I only sold my timber framing tools.  Extremely expensive and once done with the double timber frame no longer of use.