Square Foot Pricing

It’s Hard to Figure the Square-Foot Price of a Custom Home

From an article by James and Morris Carey

Square-foot pricing can often be misleading. With subdivision homes, the price is based on the same type of construction being repeated over and over again. This makes specific pricing easier. When a large subdivision of homes is being constructed, the homes within the subdivision often become a standard for home prices in the community. However, when it comes to custom homes and remodels, pricing can become muddled. Custom homes and remodels can’t be priced like track homes. Unlike track homes, custom homes and remodels are usually built only once. Therefore, pricing becomes as unique to a custom home and a remodel as the work that is being performed. Every detail has a bearing on cost.

Types of building materials: Block walls and poured concrete walls may look alike and do similar jobs, but they are not exactly alike. Even though block walls are cheaper, solid concrete is stronger and lasts longer. Overall, poured concrete is a better buy, and Precast walls are even better. There is also a large variety of trim, doors and windows.

Material quality: Wood wall studs that are green (contain natural moisture) have a tendency to twist and bend as they dry out after they are installed. On the other hand, kiln-dried wall studs remain straighter before, during and after installation. The large variety of floor coverings (hardwood, ceramic, carpet, etc.) can also contribute to increased costs.

Architectural intricacy: Stacking a cube-shaped room directly above a garage can be cost-effective, but two stories of unbroken wall at a point very close to the street can make a home look like a barracks. This can result in diminished curb appeal and the lowering of the value of the home. However, the more complicated a roofline (eg., hip roofs with dormers), the higher the cost.

Amenities: A faucet for a bathroom sink can range in price from $39 to $1,200. Popular bathtubs range in price from $150 to $4,500. Plumbing fixtures for one bathroom can range in price from $750 to $12,000. Let’s do some math. A bathroom that is 10 feet long and 12 feet wide has an area of 120 square feet. Dividing the area of the bathroom into the plumbing fixture cost gives us the per-square-foot cost of our plumbing fixtures:

$750 divided by 120 s.f. equals $6.25 per square foot.
$12,000 divided by 120 s.f. equals $100 per square foot.
Thus, plumbing fixtures range in cost from $6.25 to $100 per square foot for a bathroom remodel.

Design: A structure that is 5 feet wide and 20 feet long contains the same area as a room that is 10 feet square. They both have 100 square feet of living space. Take another measurement and you will note that the total perimeter of the rectangular building is 10 feet longer (that’s 20 percent longer) than the perimeter of the square room. This means that the foundation, framing, electric, heating, air conditioning, insulation, drywall, baseboard, wall painting and gutters will cost 20 percent more on the rectangular house than on the square house, even though both houses are the same area, or square footage. Different heating and air conditioning systems also vary greatly in installation cost vs energy efficiency cost savings. And don’t forget that it is cheaper to build up (2 stories) than out, because of the decreased size of the roof.

From now on, prepare for your project by looking at the cost of individual items. Don’t be limited to asking, “How much does it cost per square foot?”