Do Per Square Foot Estimates Include GC's fee?
cramereast
4 years ago
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Joseph Corlett, LLC
4 years agoMark Bischak, Architect
4 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 MoreAny idea what is the going cost per square foot in DFW?
Comments (6)per sq foot costs are almost impossible to guesstimate. Too many variable involved. How much of your sq footage is "cheap to build" space like bedrooms and garage as compared to how much is "expensive to build" space like kitchens and bathrooms? Is the house shape a simple rectangle or one with lots of corners and things like bay windows? All on one floor or two or more floors? Basement? What kind of roofing? What kind of siding? What kind of foundation? Lots of windows and doors or a bare minimum? Lots of built in cabinets/bookcases or a bare minimum? Will you be going "builder grade" on all or most of the plumbing and electrical fixtures or do you want the ability to upgrade? Building in town or out in the country? If out in the country, do you already have septic installed? Electricity run to the site? Water already on site? Will you need to build a long driveway? Etc? Etc? Etc? You might TRY to linked site which purports to give you an estimate of the cost to build in various zip codes. I don't give any guarantees on how accurate it is but it can't be any worse than the off the cuff guesses you're likely to get on this site. Here is a link that might be useful: residential building cost calculator...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 MoreData on marginal cost per square foot
Comments (22)The cost per carat of a diamond is easily established and in fact very public, and more importantly uses a factor just like I am talking about, you use a chart to select your stone's quality and then you multiply by the carats. It is called the Rapaport diamond report, it is updated weekly and available to anyone who purchases a subscription. You can always lay your hands on one. I am aware that I think differently than most people, and really, I wish I had never brought this up. But people keep bringing things in as variables that are simply not variables. Again, the pattern of the hardwood will probably not change if your bedroom gets a foot bigger, most people would continue a herringbone pattern, they would only put a contrasting boarder if the rest of the room had one. Is shoe moulding included in the rest of the room or not? Carpet waste is a legitimate variable, but given a sample size of even 50 homes, carpet waste will get normal. If you set the price of the rest of the square footage as the constant you don't need a number. By setting the overall cost per square foot to 1 (it doesn't matter the actual dollar amount) and testing for the relationship between marginal cost and nominal cost we get a number either less than or greater than one (a factor) that you can multiply overall cost by to get a marginal cost. With this method you don't need to really have two per square foot prices that are equal or even close. I was working with a statistician today (on something else), and he also thought that someone has to have done this, it has a simple dependent variable and only a few independent variables. We found one study that quoted a factor of 0.58 with a standard deviation of 0.085. Which means that 68.2% of the time the marginal cost per square foot is between 49.5% and 66.5%, while 95% of the time the cost will be between 41% and 75%. I don't know where or when these came from so I don't think I would use them yet. I think I wil put in a call to the college of architecture at some point this week....See MoreBT
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoCharles Ross Homes
4 years agocramereast
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoVirgil Carter Fine Art
4 years agoCharles Ross Homes
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4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoD B
4 years agoAdam Thomas
4 years agoMark Bischak, Architect
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4 years agoMark Bischak, Architect
4 years agoHolly Stockley
4 years agoAdam Thomas
4 years agoVirgil Carter Fine Art
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4 years agoAdam Thomas
4 years agoVirgil Carter Fine Art
4 years agoMark Bischak, Architect
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4 years agoJeffrey R. Grenz, General Contractor
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