My husband is a plumber. For HALF of your plumbing quote he'd fly out there and do it for you. :)

Geez.... must be your area. SF is known to be pricey but I smell rip-off. Our electrical (not including the fancy fixtures we bought) was $20k for just under 3000 sq ft. Our drywall was $11,000 (inluding 900 sq ft garage), very light orange peel, bullnosed corners. Beautiful premium Brazilian Cherry flooring (1300 sq. ft. and includes glue and underlayment) was $6000. We installed ourselves.

Remodels are always bid high. Contractors never know what they're getting into until they've broken out the old stuff. More often than not the work ends up being much more extensive than they had anticipated. There are just too many unknowns. However, those prices do seem high.

Seems high to me. My father lives in Berkeley and we came up with a good rule of thumb. Labor costs are double what they are around here. Here we pay about $3.50/sq foot for site finished oak install which includes stain and poly. So you should pay $7 - $10-12 seems a bit high.

At the size you are at - it might not be a bad idea to fly tradespeople in. Airfares and hotel are pretty cheap right now. I'm sure my builders floor people could come in and do the job. Let's say they charge $5 (higher for their trouble) and your install comes to $14k. Figure $1000 would cover airfare and equipment rental. Another $1000 for hotel - oh heck - lets make it $2000. So then your at $17k instead of $30k.

Do that with all the tradesmen and you are really saving some money and with an interesting story to tell about differential labor costs and how the higher priced labor markets do proportionally worse in a recession.

We are paying $5.50 sq ft for raw wood. Paying $3/ sq ft to install and another $3/ sq ft to have it sanded and finished. Hope this helps.

I can't say for the wiring or plumbing because we did our own, but that is really high for flooring. We did our own white oak flooring too, but the quotes I got were $1.50 install and $2.00 to sand and finish. The $10 to $15 they want to charge seems really high to me! I don't have any idea how much it costs to get terrazzo installed....but $50 a foot?? Geeze....that's pretty extreme! Like others have said, you may be better off importing some labor!

Thanks everyone for verifying this pricing is ridiculous. I suspect since San Francisco Real Estate started dropping in value much later than the rest of the country, that local tradespeople are still thinking that its 2007. Moreover, I think I'm getting quoted the "Nob Hill Price" (ritzy neighborhood price) because a local well known architect is involved.

What scares me is that if work that is subbed out like plumbing and electrical and wood floors is so ridiculously high, then how much fat is built into the framing / foundation costs?

I'll have to think about how to GC a house (while holding down a full time job) + kids) while also importing labor from elsewhere in the States. Seems a bit like a herculean task to me. :-)

You might consider getting estimates on your own from trades in and around your area and compare. This will be time consuming but if you can schedule the meetings after work for you as well as the trades, it might be best for all concerned. Ask friends, co-workers, family for referalls and get multiple estimates from each trade. If you find some that hold interest, ask to see some of their past and present projects. I would assume working something out with your G.C. will be involved as you will be seeking out your own subs. The bay area has many outlying areas as you know with many communities. Dont limit your search to the city limits.

I think the problem with the pricing began when your architect received quotes from his own 'people'. He likely knows their work, and trusts the outcome and you pay for that luxury. However some of those prices are way out to lunch. Renos are costly though.

As far as the comparison between 2007 and 2009 prices...we are still charging as much now, maybe a bit more compared to last years prices. I am talking about electrical. Our costs ie gas, parts etc have not gone down. And my husband believes he gives good service for the price he charges. He also has many years of experience. Our company has tons of work, we barely keep up with it. However because of the economy there are some who will do the work for cheaper. Many started their own businesses at the height of the building craze and they are finding it difficult to find work now that things have slowed down. Their prices have come way down.

So you will find people that will do it for cheaper but I would suggest that if you decide to go with the cheaper trades that you really get recommendations or check out their work. Many are really good and give you good value for service but some are legends in their own mind. Alot of our business consists of cleaning up their mistakes. Their work is scary. That is likely why your architect likes to work with people he knows. But you shouldn't have to feel like you are being robbed to get good service!

Whoa!!!! that flooring price is OUTRAGEOUS!!! We paid $12K for Cumaru (brazilian teak) which is considered an exotic? for wood and install. This was for about 2,000sqft. Stairs and railings (also in the cumaru) were $6800 for parts and install.

our electrical was $24,5K (total house is 3800sf with unfinished basement) and we've got ALOT of lighting going on (low voltage, puck lights in all glass cabs, cans, etc.)

FYI, I'm in Chicago, which is not at pricey as your area, but no cheap place!!

I'd come out of retirement for that.

Bringing in contractors from somewhere else is really not that unusual at all; it's done all the time in commercial construction. Seriously; if it's something you want to consider, let's talk about it; all that logistics are up to the company providing the service, not you.

We are also in the SF Bay Area, and I think those prices are expensive, even for the Bay Area - at least double what they should be. (our white oak flooring - 600sf of new and 900 sf that they refinished - cost less than $8K). WIth a 4 level house, I would expect that things like foundation and seismic concerns to be expensive, but not basics like flooring.

However, I know people who have paid those high prices becuase (1) they didn't know better, and (2) they had that kind of money to spend, so they didn't bother to push back. Some GCs are happy to take their money.

We remodeled our house 16 months ago and the bids we got back from GCs varied hugely - some were twice as much as the lower ones. It made no sense to me. The only thing I could think is that some builders have a higher overhead that they need to cover, but that doesn't account for 100% higher bid!

Think about talking with someone other than your architect about GCs. Talk with people you know who have remodeled their houses locally and get their recommendations for contractors and their pricing. Or you can go back to the GCs that you got bids from and negotiate and ask them for actual materials costs.

I have talked with a lot of GCs lately that used to have schedule their projects 6-12 months out, and now their crews are ready to start next week. The fact that financing has dried up has really put the brakes on a lot of projects.

I would also be careful bringing in a trade person from out of the area because they might not be familiar with local code. Different parts of the county have different building practices (I'm not making a value judgement on which is better - I have no opinion on that!). A lot of Bay Area towns are very particular about code, and many have recently updated code for energy savings/seismic safety. And some inspectors are just plain persnickety - if they didn't like the way it's done (especially if they are not familiar with it) they can refuse to sign off. If you were to go with someone from out of town you should make sure that they are well versed with local building code and expectations of inspectors.

Good heavens. It's amazing how much the labor costs vary across the country. We paid $1.00 PSF for install and $1.25 PSF to have our maple finished (stained & 3 coats of poly). We shopped around to get those prices. Most of the subs that we spoke with were $3.00 PSF for install & finishing.