Home Construction Cost Per Square Foot
Andy Henson
7 years ago
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millworkman
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agoVirgil Carter Fine Art
7 years agoRelated Discussions
Literally DIY Home Building - Price per square foot?
Comments (47)Hi Cpartist... No, we definitely didn't steal the materials, but we also didn't just go down to HD to buy everything either. There are lots of ways to save money if you're willing to look. For the kitchen we have an L-shaped section of cabinets which includes a built-in sink and dishwasher on one side, a refrigerator on the other side. and stove in the middle. There is also a second short wall of cabinets across from the L-shaped section that includes a double GE convection oven which only cost us about $150. We got it for free because it wasn't working, but it just needed a new board installed which is where the $150 comes in. The cabinets definitely aren't as nice as our cabinets at our main home in Florida, but they certainly aren't made from particle board or something like that. The way we built the house so cheaply was by doing the work ourselves; having the time to spend looking for the best deals on this or that; or finding great deals on items that we could fix or re-purpose for our needs. The wood floors we got from the Lumber Liquidators annual sale. In the bathrooms we installed stone tile in the showers, tile on the floors, and used granite topped vanities bought from Costco for a couple hundred dollars. Ultimately, though, I think the biggest thing that people are missing here is the difference between single level and multi level construction. The biggest expenses in building our house, besides from the high end windows and doors, were the roof and the foundation. Framing out a house is cheap and easy. Adding an extra floor to a house is incredibly cheap and easy, and it basically doubles the square footage. We're working with three stories including the fully finished walk-out basement. That's essentially three times the square footage for little extra cost. We actually could have spent far less on the house. The windows and doors were by far the largest expense, but they are incredibly high quality and they are very well insulated....See MoreWhat's your rough cost per square foot estimate?
Comments (56)Hey bobyoe! Glad you straightened that out for everyone! However, your comments do raise an issue that "$ per sq. ft" obsessed folks need to think about when they talk to a builder. It's the cost of the whole project that counts, not just the cost of the house. Plus, the features, finishes, and location of the house within a market area can make a 10,000 sq ft house cost less than a 6,000 sq ft. house. No one gave us a good ballpark estimate for things like professional fees, permits, impact fees, drainage systems, or site work before we started. Most of those items were not related to the size of the house. Those costs will end up being about 18% of the total project costs. No one could convince my "$ per sq ft obsessed husband" that the features he wanted in our house were equivalent to building multiple luxury kitchens. He is convinced now :-). Same thing goes for the outside entertainment areas. He thought the covered areas should be priced like a garage. Wrong. The spec'd finishes bring the entertainment areas to a higher cost for build out than any non-plumbed room in the airconditioned space. The thing that I think we could all agree about is that you can buy an existing home at a significantly lower cost per sq. ft. in today's market. Major builders are dumping new 5 and 6 bedroom 8,000 sq ft homes in our county for $600-$800K. Yeah, they are in outlying areas on small lots, but they are brand new homes. So, in addition to size and features, you have to price in: 1. supply and demand, and 2. location within a location. We are in Palm Beach County, Florida. Our lot costs vary from $20 million per acre on the ocean in Palm Beach, $10 million per ocean front acre 15 miles south on the same island, $2-5 million per acre intracoastal waterway on the same island, and $50,000 for a 1/4 acre builder's lot 15 miles west of the ocean where the national builders are dumping their inventory. Why bring lot costs into the discussion? It's because builders will hit you hard for building in an area of high land costs. I guess they think they are entitled to a big premium if you are paying premium prices for your lot. That's my 2 cents for the day!...See MoreNew Garage Cost Per Square Foot?
Comments (19)After reading the posts I'm still not sure if I have a handle on cost differences between adding a detached or attached garage/shop. I haven't nailed down what I'm going to do yet. I currently have small shop (inadequate) in the back of an oversized two car attached garage. The garage is on the left side of the house. I'm considering extending out toward the street with two doors again facing the street. I'm also considering extending out for a three car with right side facing doors. A third consideration is adding a single car garage with shop to the right side of the house. The first two options allow me to turn the old space into half shop half game room. I'd love to get a ball park figure on all three to see the impact on pricing. In any case I will be doing the electrical and the interiors. I hope I have'nt jumped off topic here....See Morecost per square foot for an addition in Miami
Comments (18)I think there can be a sweet spot in the extremes between panicking and blindly trusting a contractor to give the best quality and price and exhaustively interviewing contractors for best prices. Generally, and very respectfully speaking, contractors with beautiful websites and glowing Google reviews have staff or services to keep the marketing machine going, so naturally they get more referrals, they participate in projects and work with other professionals who also feed the referral pipeline which enables them to be more selective. Congrats to those people. I think one path to the sweet spot can be found by asking friends and relatives and professionals and even strangers sometimes for contractor referrals while the concept plans are being developed. Once they're developed, email the plans, discuss the scope and budget briefly on the phone so you can each pre-screen each other. If a referral is too busy or the scope isn't a good fit, ask that person for a referral. It's definitely more work but there are skilled contractors who know their market and rely on word of mouth. An enterprising neighbor we didn't know left a note on our door (written on a napkin!) asking for our contractor's name and a recommendation and as a result, our contractor got that job too....See MoreUser
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