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Building a Home

Trying to Estimate Cost/Sq. Foot for building in Texas

16 years ago

I am in the midst of planning for building a home in the Houston, Texas area. I am trying to do some benchmarking on per sq. footage costs. I would appreciate any feedback or counseling on your experiences with cost/sq. footage. I am building a home with about 5000 sq. of liveable space. The home style is Tuscany/Mediteranean.

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Comments (7)

txgal06
16 years ago
As others have said and you probably know, it is so difficult to give a cost/sq ft without knowing specifics of finishes. I hated hearing that from people when we were planning for our build but it really is true. Will you have wood flooring or tile? Granite or laminate? Custom cabinets or stock? 1 story or 2? I'm in the Houston area and could give you ideas on some costs but it varies so much. Any cost I give would be 6 mo-1 yr ago. To start with, framing was running $2.75-4.00/covered sq ft with prices going to $5.00 inside the loop. Concrete foundations around $5.00/sq ft. Painting $2.75-4.00/sq ft. Don't know if that's what you're looking for. ???
owaller
Original Author
16 years ago
Txga106, Thanks for the reply. Yes, your numbers are helpful. Also thanks for the hint on what might be helpful in providing me with some additional numbers. Accordingly, the following are some additional details:
- granite kitchen counter tops
- stucco with stone verneer in some locations
- wood floors in most downstairs rooms except kitchen (tile), front entry way (marble), mud room (tile), utility room (tile), and bathrooms (tile)
- two story with game, media and two bedrooms upstairs

I've been thinking about custom cabinets for the kitchen and master bath from one of the major cabinet makers. Do you have any suggestions on this point?
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Unless you have significant trade skills and will help to construct your own home, I think building a custom home is something for the rich who want what they want at a premium price. Most people cannot afford the premium in a custom home, and it certainly is a losing investment nine times out of 10. Reading your remarks, I think you are clearly the person who should be looking for a premium-built used home that is selling below its cost to build. Such homes can occasionally be purchased at steep discounts. I was toying with the idea of retiring to Nevada, and one home I saw had outrageous build quality. They had high-end stone masonry everywhere and things like custom arching beams. They spent about $375/square foot to build but because the neighborhood had homes with $150 to $200 build cost, the resale value of the home was $240/square foot. I would rather pay $250/square foot as an investment, and buying $375 for $250 is the way I would want to invest $250. I think the problem for people building a custom home with a tight budget is they can be easily fleeced on the home build quality without ever knowing what hit them. For example, to get costs lower the builder may switch to 2x4 framing on 16" centers instead of 2x6 framing on 24" centers. The 2x4 home will be much less insulated and will have very shallow window bays. It will feel cheaper. The odds are you would never ask about the framing. The homebuilder saves a ton of money on his material costs by switching to 2x4. You end up with a home that does not feel quite right and never know what hit you until much later down the road. Where custom home building really shines is in the ability to select high-end materials and building approaches that are never seen in tract homes. For example, when you do the framing you can use new stud designs that incorporate closed-cell foam into a truss design inside the studs. Normally a wood stud in the framing has very poor insulation and directly acts as a heat/cold sink that bypasses your home's insulation. The newer style studs (e.g., "T-Stud" is a brand) have an R-value of 20 (versus 6 for a normal stud) and have four times the strength because of the engineered design. Alternately, you can insulate the outside wall of the home and use SIP insulated panels on the roof, to directly overcome the insulation problems with normal studs. These things can greatly increase the comfort of the home, but they also increase build cost, and in any case, they are rarely done outside of a custom build environment. In a perfect world, in addition to an architect, it would be great to find a home builder that you could hire as a consultant - at an hourly rate - to help educate you about key variables in building a home, and that person could help you to understand budget impacts of various build choices, as well as help you specify things to the builder and architect. I wonder if there are retired home builders who do this on a consulting basis, even remotely.
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txgal06
16 years ago
Granite will run $30/sq ft and up, depending on the slab you pick and the edge treatment. Most suppliers have "levels" with certain granites within the level (e.g., Level 1-Uba Tuba, Santa Cecelia, Kashmir Gold Level Two- New Venetian Gold, Tropic Brown). Bullnose edge is usually standard, bevel would be more, and ogee edge would be the most expensive.

Flooring would vary greatly. You can get tile for $2/sq ft and tile for $12/sq ft. I would say a nice tile installed would run around $4 but using the marble or travertine would increase that. The pattern also increases the costs; if you use tile on the diagonal or a versaille pattern with the travertine, you will pay more. We found great deals on tile at Floor & Decor, particularly on the travertine.

I have seen beautiful cabinets built and finished onsite. That's what we did for our house. Mine, however, did not turn out as well as I would have hoped and it was crazy trying to make the guy understand what I wanted, even with pictures! I think for my kitchen and family room I would probably use the cabinet manufacturer based in College Station if I did another house and keep site builts for the bathrooms and utility.

If you interview builders they usually give you allowances that may or may not have enough to cover what you are dreaming of.
owaller
Original Author
16 years ago
txga106, thanks. this is very helpful.
lucky32
16 years ago
We built about 80 miles form Houston and we have a 1850sqft. for about 120K we got our granite from a super place near Houston. I will have to ask my hubby the name of it though I forget! They has the best prices I found.
sweeby
16 years ago
I'm also in Houston, and have noticed that there seems to be a lot of 'zip coding' around here. In other words, the same supplier will have different prices for the same product for different zip codes. Annoying - but something to work around.
shedit
16 years ago
omeyers, are you still out there? we're getting quotes for a home in NW Houston with the same basic specs as yours. What did your $/sq-ft come in at?
Thanks

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