OT new home construction

I know this is OT, but there is a ton of knowledge here that I want to tap into. We are planning on building a house (@2000sq/ft) on our small farm soon. I think I want to do most of the work myself with the exception of pouring the basement. I will decide that after I get some estimates. Let"s say I hired a contractor to build the whole house the turn key and it cost $100.00/ square foot (just an example) how much of that $100.00 would be labor? I haven"t gotten any estimates yet, I plan to do so in the next two weeks after I get a few answers to this question. Thanks alot.
Fud

Back when I was in the building houses in the 70's about half the cost was labor. Do all you can yourself . But put your health first don't overdo it I know a few people that have overdone it and ended up with health problems. Good luck in the building of your home .

I always thought if I was going to build a house. I'd have all the exterior work done professionally. That being the foundation/basement, framing, roof, siding...maybe windows. That way, the house would be a house and I could take as long as needed to do all the inside stuff like insulation, plumbing, elec., drywall and finishing. The exterior of the house just seemed like a job suited for guys who do it all the time, but I'd do all the inside stuff myself. I dunno. Just something to ponder.

Your savings won't be limited to labor, if you do it yourself. I built a house in 1979, and it came in at about half the price it would have been through a contractor- and I hired most of the labor done! Key was to obtain my own materials, and act as my own "general contractor"- Get stuff on sale, through wholesale outfits, etc. Had a full time job, but took my pickup and flatbed trailer to work most every day, and bought materials after work and haul them home.

Also, find electricians, plumbers, etc. who can be trusted to work on "time and materials"- They won't be the ones who advertise in the yellow pages- you have to get them through word of mouth from builders, real estate people, etc. Don't try to do electrical, plumbing, or HVAC yourself- You'll bang your head against the wall trying to do plumbing and electrical up to code. You don't have the equipment or expertise to do HVAC. Hire the sheetrock and insulation done- they can usually do it for very little more than you'd pay for the materials, and its heavy work best suited to "young bucks". You can do things like the framing, roofing, windows, painting, clean-up.

I was 10 years old when my father started a similar project. Served as his own contractor. Hired masons for the foundation and a framing outfit for walls and roof. Did not get it sided for the first Wisconsin winter and boy was that place drafty. Probably could not get an occupancy permit to do it these days, but circumstances dictated that we had to move in before any of the bathrooms were even usable. Borrowed a friends camping trailer for restroom use. That situation did not last very long, but my sister and I had to haul dishes down to the laundry sink in the basement for quite a while before he got to the kitchen. Have a few more stories, but basically almost everything that could be seen (interior and exterior) was completed by us and most of the rest as well except the items noted above as time and money permitted. When my parents sold it and moved 12 years later he finally finished the master bedroom and basement. All of this was completed evenings, weekends and vacations. Moral is be careful what you bite off. I know my father would not have done it any other way, but be prepared to endure some hardships.

Kirk

We are currently building. What we have hired done labor and material are just about equal. Having footing and basement walls cost around ten thousand. We paid ready mix plant and we paid crew for labor. If we hired a General contractor it woulda cost 15 thousand and about the only time he would show up was to get his check. You should find a lot of dependable sub contractors to work with and do a good job. As has already been said be your own general contractor. We have been fortunate enough to find a building supplier to really work with us as far as double checking our material list and helping select what to use.

To give an example I built a home in 1999. It cost me $71/sq foot. I did most of the work myself. I did not do the septic, driveway, foundation, HVAC or drywall, or well digging, rough plumbing. I Put in all the windows, doors, flooring, cabinets + all woodwork, rough/fin elect. fin. plumbing all painting, roof with some help. I worked my arse off doing it do. It took me 11 mohths working 40hrs/week at my real job.

One particular house we owned when we lived in town, our neighbor across the alley behind us had an empty lot next to his house, so he started to build another house. He and his sons dug the basement with shovels and a wheelbarrow.

When we sold our house and moved eight years later, he was still working on it. He told me once, "If you're ever looking for something to do in your spare time, for God's sake don't start building a house".

But, when we built our present house, I did the sub-contracting myself and a bunch of the work myself, and we wound up paying maybe 2/3 to 3/4 what it would have cost if we'd just told a contractor to go build it.

Hello Fud ---

Have you thot about later years?I am 72 been retired 15 years....my wife was in a wheechare, now I am.....

Spend that $10,000 on a one level house...washer and drier all on the same floor....36"pocket doors...pocket doors slide into the wall..saves space over the swinging door...

The utility bath with all tile walls and floor....floor slopes into shower for rolling shower chair...

Use quality materials and fixtures......

Just think about it .......know is the time...

Don

Google: R-Control (Wisconsin) Their method of construction is so superior to stud and plate technology (and thermal efficiency 3 times that of normal) that the cost is the same and the product way better. The labor is reduced to 40% of stick built. JimN

The thing that nobody has mentioned that will sink your project is lack of a set plan. If you want rock solid bids then get a set of plans made that cover it all. Then you can actually get comparable bids plus holding yourself to a budget. You can't believe the extra money that will explode your budget when you start thinking that because you saved 10 cents here you have 10 dollars to spend here. You also need a good cost tracking method. People think that spending 1000 upfront is just a waste of money until they are putting down linoleum instead of carpet because the upgraded the unfinished basement that was planned to a finished basement (just an example) that wasn't in the original budget.

Longer ago than I enjoy remembering (before WW II) my parents bought what was called a "shell house". A small one story, no bsmt but gable roof, room in attic to make two small bedrooms for bro and I.
Exterior walls finished on outside but not inside, bare bones elec and plumbing in (both of which my Dad expanded when doing all interior finishing); only interior wall was around bathroom. Don"t know if anyone builds those anymore.

One rule of thumb is 1/3 materials, 1/3 labor, 1/3 profit margin to contractors.

Gordo

When I was a teenager I worked for my uncle who was a contractor I did almost everything from building foundation forms to putting on the roof. I have framed put in hardwood floors and nailed up plaster board.
Now that I am 70 I leave all that hard stuff to the kids unless its a small room like my bathroom.
Get a good set of plans and be the general contractor and hire subs to do the work you will come out better and be able to walk away from it with your health.
Walt

A more realistic breakdown is 60% labor and 40% material and if you really manage well and have a little luck on your side you"ll make 10%. This is from a senior project manager with 37 years experience at a $100 million per year construction company. Can"t speak for the residential building goobs tho.

There is a lot to consider, lot of good advice here already, Mike in WA made a good point about trades like HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical and Drwywall.

Another good point about future considerations, one level, accessible baths etc., you don't necessarily have to adhere to those details, but the point is right on the money, always consider future uses in your design, or it will cost you triple later.

I spent much of my career as a construction manager, general contracting and specialty contracting, multi million dollar size jobs, but the philosophy of sound management practice can and is very applicable to smaller scale residential projects.

You must have a complete set of drawings and specifications, be prepared to separate precise scopes of work for each subcontractor, use a subcontractor agreement (contract)always and utilize a percentage of completion payment schedule, also you need to outline a project schedule and identify a critical path within it, if you want to meet your schedule, your subs must buy into the schedule, make it part of the contract. Keep yourself organized and focused at all times, no if's and's or but's, things can get out of control, or less than desirable situations can arise, I've seen plenty of it in my career, those subcontractors need to provide good workmanship, be able to coordinate their work, ( you must make sure the trades are coordinated ) and be held accountable for the schedule and down to the small details towards the end, that will be on the punchlist.

If you can do things like sitework, you can save some money there, concrete and formwork is best left to a sub, make sure to coordinate all penetrations, stub ups and any attachments to the concrete, walls and slabs. Your design documents must be prepared by a reputable designer, also coordinated, structurally and architecturally, including all mechanical, electrical and plumbing trades ( M.E.P ) as well. The remainder of the work that you can do will save you money, but will take up a lot of your time, so you have to weigh it out.

I could go on and on, lot of things to consider and many different ways things can be done, but don't ever be foolish with money with any outside subs or help, that is the ONLY leverage you have, so many people get taken by fronting money, DON'T do it. Providing materials is ok, you don't pay a contractors mark up, but for M.E.P. trades it can be difficult to purchase from contractor only supply houses, though if you can set up an account with any places like that, those trades are expensive bought out, so if you can get those materials and have a M.E.P. person install, pay em a good labor rate and you'll come out ahead. Again, lot of things to consider, stay focused and organized, common sense goes a long way when acting as your own G.C. !

Oh yeah
If you build a 2 story instead of a 1 story it will be cheaper cause you dont need as much concrete but you need the same amount of floor joists.
Basements are a good investment, it can be made into living space for cheap, even though the tax man wont consider it as living space.

I think the idea of a single floor house is a good one. We have a multi level, and as we get older, it is more of a pain.

Thanks for all of the input. I know it will be alot of work. I will definitely take all advice into consideration. I may even talk myself out of it. Thanks!

I built my home in 1989.Final cost was about 60% of what a contractor had ask to build it.BUT,so much homework has to be done to save any money in the long run.You will have to get your plans of course and study them close for material estimates.A good building supplier will be able to figure your material using the plans also.But you need to be able to look at those plans and be able to understand them yourself.This will help you not only in the labor itself but,also in purchasing the material.That way you can shop for the best price and quality and not be tied to only one supplier.Or you might be able to buy from one supplier.But you do need to know exactly what you want and need.Also you will be dealing with,dirt men and concrete contractors for the footing,masons for the foundation and/or brick work,drywall hangers and finishers,electricans and plumbers,roofers and heating and air people.I was lucky as i had a friend who was a homebuilder that recommended some of these contractors to me and it worked out well.But if you have no one to help you it can be a pill to get good reputable contractors who do good work at a reasonable cost.All this takes time and careful research.Things have changed so much in the years since i built that i doubt that i would want to go through it again.I can remember working 10 hr.shifts on my regular job and coming in to work on the house at night.You have to take all this into consideration also.But if your determined and driven you can make it happen.And you can save some money.But you need to do everything that you can possibly do yourself.And you need to be around while the subs are working to be sure what you are getting from them.I can tell you from experience,its no walk in the park.Good luck.

I too always found that it worked out to be about 50/50. And then part of the contractor's 50% goes for hand tools , equipment , insurances , advertising , gas/diesel , employee's , etc. , etc.. A lot of behind the scene stuff the average person doesn't see.

One of my uncles, after he retired from the merchant marine, built his new house, starting with a portable sawmill and the trees on his property. He saved a whole lot of money.

My parents built their new house starting in 1976. They bought a kit from Western Home Center. The trusses, wall units, and plywood were delivered in one load and dumped in the driveway. Because their house sold we moved in before the doors were on the new house. When I left for college that fall the cistern wasn't finished and the regular power wasn't on yet.

When my parents couldn't agree on how something should be done they just moved on to a different project. Which is why there is no porch at the front door and bare studs still show in the doorway between the living room and the kitchen.

Not quite finishing is a real risk when doing it yourself. You just get tired and live with things that are not quite right.

I know a guy that has a house just like one down the road. Don't know if he was pulling my leg or not. He said when he bought his property a contractor was just beginning building the house down the road. He said when the sub contractors did the slab he went and ask them to build his slab down the road just like that and so on for all phases of the house. Said he saved a bunch.

I'd be careful on some things having owned a few homes. One, a basement. I'll never buy another house without a basement. Crawl spaces don't get it, neither do slab. We just got heavy rains in northen Indiana that lasted from the time I woke up Saturday morning through Sunday night. I spent most of yesterday helping my sister and brother-in-law bailout the basement of their five or six year old house, ripping up carpet and tossing it, and the water is still seeping in today. In that they have a finshed basement with drywall up everywhere, until that drywall comes down after the water table gets down to where it needs to be, no telling where that water's coming in from, except that you can see it streaming in steadily at the bottom of three of the exterior walls, not the fourth which lines up with a two car attached garage. It could be that they finished the basement soon after buying the house, and not long after it was built...without allowing the poured concrete walls to cure out and now have cracks behind all of that stuff. It could be that the water is coming in where the floor meets the poured walls...behind all of that stuff. But there is now water seeping in the cracks that have formed in the stress cuts that were made in the floor at the time of construction, as well as around the sump pump well, around the fresh water well pipe where it goes through the floor, and around a hallway drain that is piped over to the sump pump in their utility room. Apparently their normal water table is well below the foundation, and as the rain water seeps down into the ground, its looking for places to go. Never in my life have I ever seen stress cuts scored into a basement floor until I ripped up the drenched carpet in this house. I don't know what the bag mix was going into this floor, but I'm not guessing that it is what I've seen over the years. They've had problems with the wells of their egress windows filling with rain water and leaking in the past, so if you have egress windows make sure that the gravel below them goes plenty deep, I'm guessing at least as deep as the foundation, and make sure that the price includes egress covers to keep rain out in the first place. Make sure that the exterior walls are seal coated real well, I can see from looking into the egress wells of this house that the seal stops about four feet below the ground level. I'd have brought the coating up to at least the ground level, waited a couple of days for it to dry and crack, and then coated it a second time before filling in. And if you are going to have a finshed basement, make sure that your interior walls are cured out and sealed (drylok) before finishing the basement. I haven't seen it yet, but my brother-in-law says that there's insulation batting (BATTING, not Foam) between the drywall and the poured walls. Batting absorbs moisture and poured concrete butted up against moist dirt and then not allowed to breath because of drywall can draw moisture. Insulation batting? Their basement is a disaster, its not the first time its leaked, and hear that other neighbors out in that same subdivision are having similar problems. I've never had that problem in any home I've ever owned, except one that had a crawl space with a dirt floor. Heavy rains had to go somewhere, and guess where?

You're doing the right thing. Learn from other folks experiences and/or mistakes. Much good luck.

Mark

We built our own home about 5 years ago. It's a log home and we were going to do a kit and put it up ourselves, but found a company who would shell out the same thing cheaper than the kit. What I did was act as the general contractor. The log company did the shell and the roof. I sub contracted part of the plumbing (our plumber was an idiot, so we fired him), we also hired out the well and septic, brother in law did the heating/cooling. We did drywall on the interior walls, electric, cabinets, floors, garage and anything else we could do. It was the only way we could afford to do it. I figure I saved about 20-25%. The big thing I learned is to watch your subs like a hawk and perform multiple jobs at once. It took us almost exactly 1 year to complete.

I acted as my own contractor in 93 and came in about 60% of turn key. One thing though, the subs didn't like working for someone who wasn't a "real" contractor. Who can blame them I was giving them one job, the other guys a steady flow of jobs. I had to hire two wall guys and two flat work guys because they just never came back when their regular contractors picked up. The electrical inspector was atotal jerk because he figures I stole work from a "real" electrician, and so on. Granted, they might be hungrier today.
I may have missed out on some cutting edge technology, etc. but what I got was a very square, plumb, structure built to my very picky requirements.

I assume that you will need to borrow some money to build the house...so I would suggest that you talk to your prospective lender(s) before you spend too much effort planning.

It is hard to get a loan right now. There are thousands of houses for sale that are not moving because the prospective buyers are not able to find anyone to loan them the necessary money.

Back in the early 90's, I decided to build my new house. Even with my wife and I having very good jobs, sterling credit ratings, lots of assets and no debt, I could not get lenders to loan me money if I acted as the general contractor. It ended up costing us a year of wasted time before we finally bought a modular home and put it on a basement. It also cost us 2% more in interest than it would have if we had been able to go ahead when we first wanted to.

It made me mad at the time, and I guess I still am not OVER IT!

Building a house is a huge job. The lenders are afraid that you won't finish it, and then they will be stuck with a partially finished and unsalable house. I guess I can't blame them--it is only business. But still it was a huge disappointment to us that we couldn't proceed with our project.

If somehow you can build without a loan, or can get a loan from family or a private party, it still might work. But I would suggest planning on it taking about 4 or 5 times as much time as you can think it could possibly take, especially if you are more or less working alone and holding down a full time job. Completing a home is a long series of hundreds of small jobs. It takes forever! Good luck!