Materail cost for house???

Al killian

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Floydada, Tx
I know that there are a few contractors that hang out here so we will see if they can help. The wife and I are considering building a house( Ranch style) and was wondering if there is a way to figure out the rought cost of materail other then sitting there and hireing someone to make up the blueprints? I have freinds that are willing to give us a huge break on labor cost so that is not a problem, but just wondering if there is a rough cost per sqft for new construction. If it help the house would be around 2,000 sqft with catehdral ceilings(12') w/ full basement.
 
Al, I'm far from being a contractor, but here in the Albuquerque area, new construction is being quoted at $100-125 a square foot - no basements here.

Nancy
 
Al, I'm far from being a contractor, but here in the Albuquerque area, new construction is being quoted at $100-125 a square foot - no basements here.

Nancy

However the question is; how much of that is material cost?. And how much is labor cost and how much for other things such as permits, special fees, ect.? I would like to know myself. I am sure that it varies from one part of the country to another.
 
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Fair question, and I don't know the answer to that. I do know that the city of Albq has an "impact fee" that runs about $2500-3000 per building lot, plus the permits, etc. It would be interesting to see how much is materials and how much is "extra."

Nancy
 
Where I live a building permit for a new house will cost you 50 dollars. That will get you started but you will also need a septic system plan which is another 300 bucks, (by a licensed soil engineer) and then a plumbing permit which is 20 dollars outright, and four dollars for every fixture in the house. There is no need for any electrical permits, driveway permits or any of that other stuff I see on This Old House of Home Again.

Surprisingly, the biggest cost of getting a home underway here is getting electricity hooked up. When a new meter is installed, the power company here charges a whopping 1000 bucks. I guess they want to make sure that anyone that has power hooked up is serious about it.

As far as material costs, ½ the cost is material and labor here. When I speced out my new addition, a 28 by 40 foot ranch addition with concrete slab, the turn key price...that being I do nothing but cut a check to the contractor, was 79,000 dollars. I decided to do the majority of the work myself. In the end I had some subcontractor work done that amounted to 10,000 dollars. The materials cost was 35,000 dollars for a total cost of 45,000 dollars. That is about as close to ½ as you can get I think.

One word of caution though. You may have plenty of friends NOW, but after you pour the concrete, you will have very few friends! Its just a given. My Dad and brother helped me one weekend out of the 7 months it took to build my addition. I can honestly say, that other than pouring the concrete, and doing the drywall mudding, I did everything else. I'm just saying, when you are building something, don't count on your friends too much. They have a strange way of not being around when you can really use them.
 
The basement walls would be done a local guy that does nothing but basements. Concrete and insulation work will be the only things that will have a contractor hired for. All the other stuff will be done buy freinds at our own pace. For permits I have a good idea of the cost, Building permit $50, Perk test(septic drainage) $100. Ther not really many permits required. A good chunk of money will go into inspections such as concrete, framing, plumbing, electrical rough and finished, septic, occupentcy(sp?). According to a few freinds these could cost almost $1,000. We where hopeing to build the whole thing for around $100,000. As we will have access to plenty of hemlock on the site we are looking at. The apartment (if you can call it one) is 2100 sqft and that is what the wife wants in the new place if you do build. That is if the sis-inlaw keeps here mouth closed. She has a habit of feeding my wife ideas that always cost me more money.:rolleyes: Next week I will have to call around to see if I can get a better handling from local engineers for makeing up blue prints and materail list. I will let you know what I find out.
 
Our new home (1800 ft/sq) cost us $85/foot. You can get books with house plans at Borders. The working blueprints will cost you $600.

We live in timber country in Northern California, so lumber was the best quality and inexpensive. Since our final inspection early last year, the cost of concrete has gone sky high. Because local building regulators and community governments can drive you crazy, a well-known contractor from your area can save you headaches and unpleasant surprises. I would never want to tackle a project like this. Unless I had several years to lavish on the project.

Some costs come to mind:

Lumber -- $16,000
Trusses - $6000
Cabinets -- $15,000
Wood flooring (800 feet) $4000
Tile - $20,000 (antsy-fancy stuff)
Plumbing fixtures - $6000
Windows & Sliding Doors - $7000

Gary Curtis






Gary Curtis
 
We're somewhere around $65/sq foot. That includes all those trips to Albuquerque in my gas hogging flatbed, but that was still cheaper than delivery. Bear in mind though, our foundation was a lot cheaper than most - its local rock with a bit of mortar. But then our roof makes up for it - tech shield and metal, could have cut the cost in half if I'd used regular osb and shingles.
 
A hundred grand sounds reasonable. I am not a contractor, but my Uncle is and we have built enough houses together to learn a few things.

The first and foremost is to keep things simple. Bump-outs, curves and multi-floors cost a lot of money. Just building a ranch as you mention will save a lot of time and effort. Second floors go up slow when everything is done from staging, ladders or a lift.

I would also caution you on purchasing plans from such places as those Home and Gardens books. We built a few houses that came from those plans and they were the worst set of plans we ever worked with, not to mention such generic details that just don't make sense in northern climates. For instance they spec the walls for 2x4's...great in southern climates but here in the Northeast you want 2x6 walls for the extra r-value. One would think that adding two inches would be no big deal, but then it almost renders the entire set of plans useless.

The long and short of it is this. RIGHT NOW is you best chance to save money. It comes in planning a house that is well executed, easy to live in, yet has simplified construction details. What I mean is, try getting your kitchen and bathrooms on the same wall that way plumbing and pipes don't have to be plumbed clear across the home. Reduce the number of windows, especially on the north wall, they are expensive to start with, and yet even the best window only has an R-value of 3-4. Insulation will save you money for the life of the home. Also situate the house right. If I had turned my house just 22º, I could have used the southern exposure far better then I can now. Finally don't be taken down the "its cheaper to do now" theory. Yes things are often easier to do before the walls are up, but you can end up going down a slippery slope. For instance in my house I ran satellite cable and telephone cords to every room, yet with wireless routers now, all that work was for nothing. I also ran PEX tubing into a few closets so I can use my air powered tools without running a compressor in the house. That too was a waste. I found out its far better to have a portable compressor nearby rather then trudge out to the shop to adjust it. As I said, over-doing things "because now is the time" can be a slippery slope to go down. That will save you money.

So by now you are saying, "but Travis this will make for a dull home?" Not necessarily. I encourage budget minded people to look at the home in the OPPOSITE way of a contractor. A contractor uses expensive materials to make what amounts to an ordinary spec home into a custom home. With labor being expensive, a DIYer can use inexpensive materials and spend a greater amount of time on things, and walk away with a home that is truly personalized and inexpensive. My example of this is the baseboard I did in my addition. Yes its pine because I can have it delivered to my house, s4s #2 pine for 40 cents a bf. By really designing the baseboard well, and spending some serious time installing it in theme based rooms, the customization off-sets the inexpensive material. Other examples include doing custom counter tops out of artistically laid tiles. Trimming the exterior of the house with well designed, labor intensive trim. Those are the places that curves and bump outs look great and yet don't cost you a lot in the way of materials. Those are also the things that no contractor would ever do. Too labor intensive.

Here are some pictures so you can see what I am referring too, some baseboard pics and a cupola and weathervane I made to make my house stand out. Details that made a big impact, yet cost very little. Good luck with your home in any case.

Hearts.JPG


Shamrocks_and_Peacocks.JPG


Cupola_From_South2.JPG
 
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i second that

"One word of caution though. You may have plenty of friends NOW, but after you pour the concrete, you will have very few friends!" this statment by travis is the TRUTH i had dads help all the way through on my shop but on my house many years agao i had 2 days of help from the guy i worked with doing construction, although i had helpped hme daily on 3 differnt house for free... you will find out in ahurry who your true freinds are.. just as i did in my shop build.. so dont rely on to much help if you dont or cant do it your slef figure on hiring done.. and the permits are cheap in comparison to the other stuff.. travis has given you alot good info:thumb::thumb:
 
You could call up a local lumber yard, talk with a salesman, tell them the situation, I bet they would be willing to give you a guestimate for what you are trying to do...
 
The Owner/Builder System

I have worked for 2 different companies that are for the DIY Home Builders. Some of the numbers you have seen are correct based on retail costss and are estimates used all the time by Realtors and Contractors to reflect finished cost for the lumber materials and labor + land. $100+ is typical, for bare bones simple finished house construction. If you want all the fancy bells and whistles, it will go up from there.

Now my POINT.

DIY HOME BUILDING.

One site to look at is www.hbnsales.com it is a company I worked for, for several years and they have had homes built all over the nation. In essence, they will let you be your own General Contractor. They will provide all the money for land, materials and labor and put it all together into a mortgage at the end. With their help and guidence and the reduced cost of labor by DIY as much as possible, it is possible to save huge amounts of money.

My wife and I have in the past 8 years built 2 homes. One 2500 Sqft with basement same size on a $35,000 1 acre lot. Finished cost was $210,000 including the land. The basement was not finished. It was rough plumbed and rought electrical. All that was really neccessary was to hand the sheet rock. Finished apprailsal was $360,000, the second, where we live now is 1800 sqft, full basement un finished. On one acre of ground $25,000. Finished cost was $160,000 including the land. Finished appraisal was $260,000.

I hired all aspects of the home done by licensed contractors up to and including Dry In. Which means that he home looks finished from the out side. I also hired the electrical and HTG&AIR. Everything else on the interior was completed by my self and my wife and our two son-in-laws. I did all the plumbing and vent system. Whe sheet rocked our selves, installed all wood flooring, ceramic and marble tile in the whole house.

This picture show our house on day 5 after the foundation is poured and cured (approximately 30 days after closing on the construction loan)
DayfiveRoofing018.jpg

This is a shot of the finished house as it looked 7 days after start of completion. The interior was not complete.
3TheHouse.jpg

Some interior views after finish.
5FirstView.jpg

8Kitchen.jpg

7DiningRoom.jpg

Done
2Closerjpg4X6.jpg

Total time from close to occupation approximately 6 months.

If you calculate the finished cost $160,000 - Land $25,000 = $145,000, divide by 1800 equals cost to build. $80.55 per sq ft. Finished.

With the Owner/Builder Program, we earned in 6 months $100,000 in equity by the time we moved in. Our total out lay of cash from start to finishe was less than $1000. acutally it was Down payment for land $1.00 Finished appraisal fee. $225.00 and Doc pre fee. $225.00

This a real program and it really works.:D:D:D
 
I goofed, that finished picture is of the house after the lawn was in 4 months after completion. That is the way it looked, just the ground around it was not so neet, mostly dirt and mud.
 
Al...Talk with a local lumber yard. When I built my shop, the contractor that put up the empty shell...used a local lumber yard. When I finished the interior I used the same place and they discounted materials significantly. I know a guy I work with built his own home. He used one lumber yard for all of his materials and he got some significant discounts!
 
Al, Ken is correct, however I would look at finding a lumber yard that can panelize your wall sections, and provide the roof and floor trusses also. On my first house, I went with one of the companies that I was working for, but on the second house, I got all my own bids from local sources and went that way. I did way better on the second house than on the first.

The only real down side was that I also used a local bank to do the construction loan, and I had to pay monthly interest during the construction phase, and as the bill mounted and the house got closer to completion, the interest on the const. loan grew as the disbursements went out.

The down side to this is that not a lot of people have the extra funds to come up with severl hundered extra dollars interest each month on top of their regular bills and mortgage or rent that they are paying.

That is why the first system with everything provided and loan included and no payments during const. is very attractive.

If you have the money and it is not a problem, then Local is the way to go.

Here are a couple of pics showing what I mean by panelization.

Crane lifting panelized wall panel sections on to deck
DaytwoCraneWork011.jpg

Interior wall panels stacked on deck while exterior go up around them.
DaytwoInteriorwallsgoingin012.jpg
 
Construction loans have their place, but you do have to be careful with them. Here some banks and mortgage lenders were pushing home buyers and builders into ARMs, or Adjustable Rate Mortgages. It got so bad that now the Maine Attorney's General is now investigating several lenders and publicly blasted certain lenders by name (uncharacteristic of the MAG) because it causes homeowners to have interest rates that rise. This dramatically increases their monthly payment and is causing hardships for many homeowners with this type of mortgage. I blame other factors, but they are claiming its killing the home market here in Maine :dunno:

The other thing to watch for is the time stipulations on Construction loans. Many have time limits, so if he is building the thing by himself 9 months might be a bit short to do everything the bank wants. Its no big deal, but yet it is. When you get pressed for time you have to resort to outside help (contractors) or do quick work. Both are bad in that you either spend more money then you want, or you end up with materials and construction slips that you don't really want.

When I was building my addition, I wanted to do the in-concrete radiant floor lines myself, and do all the plumbing. The concrete guy had a two week window and thus I was semi-pressured to let him do the plumbing work. This "push" resulted in an extra 4 grand that I would not have to pay for if I did it myself. One of the cost effective things about doing things yourself is having the freedom of time. When you erode that factor, you start spending more money then what is really needed.

I am not very good with mortgage loans so I don't know what is a viable option to construction loans. I got one on my addition, but since I had $33,000 already saved up, by the time we got our loan (12,000 dollars), I was so far along that the banks 9 month time stipulation was easy to meet. Still my situation might be different then other peoples situation. 9 months is not a lot of time to build a home by yourself.
 
Travis,

Both of the homes I built in the past 8 years were built in under 6 months, I also said that I hired the professionals that I needed to get it up and weather tight in the 2 months. Month one. Land cleared if needed, hole dug, foundation installed and cured. Month two. House (pre-panelized from manufacturer or lumber yard). Delivered and up and weather tight in 7-10 days. From that point on, only professionals I had were the electrician and HTG&Air. Both came in as their and my schedule allowed and we worked around each other. As this was my job, helping other customers build similar homes using the same process. I could be on site each day and work and supervise. It makes a huge difference if you know who to hire and ESPECIALLY WHO NOT TO HIRE. If you have to hold down a "real job" and do the house too, that is where the problems sometimes set in, as the contractors only see you maybe once a day and maybe not that often. Sometimes that is when they stall you off or don't show up because they know you are not there waiting for them. I always was. I always got a firm finished cost on each aspect of the job, no BIDS. If they finished under time, they made more money because they could go on to another job earlier. In this kind of thing, time is money. If you have the money and don't need to borrow, they you can also take your time.

Please don't misunderstand, even though I had family members and some friends help me, it was never for nothing, I always paid them fairly too. I learned early on that all good intentions fly out the window on a Saturday morning when you have agreed to help, but you want to go fishing. After having family and friends not show up the first couple of times because of all kinds of outrageous excuses, I started to pay them the going rate for what they did. The only ones who never took any money out of the budget for pay were my wife and myself. It is a learning experience, but one that 1000's of people do each and every year and have been for over the past 90 years or so.

Actually SEARS started the pre built packaged delivered homes back in the 1910-1920 I believe. Back then, Sears had the homes and all fixtures pre packaged and delivered by rail car, you picked it up at the train yard and took it home and put it together yourself with the help of family and neighbors.
 
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