# cost to build a house



## zeke392

I am wondering what the average cost per square foot is to build (or have one built) a brick ranch house on a basement right now.  I would really like to know what the materials cost alone and also what you could expect to pay to have it built.

Can anybody tell me those numbers?

Thank you,


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## greg_n_clayton

Can't give you any numbers, but I can say that stuff like finishes, fixtures and cabinets and such will have a impact on the price variance !!


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## zeke392

I'm sure luxuries will inflate the cost but for this request, lets use standard finishes, fixtures, carpet, etc.  I can adjust those numbers if needed later but right now I am trying to decide on building a home on some property I own or selling the property.

Thanks,


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## dwhee87

I've heard numbers between $80 and $100 per square foot. Not sure how accurate that is. Based on what I've sold and bought several homes for (understanding that cost to build and resale are two different things), that number seems to work, with the "build" at the lower end and the "sell" at the higher.


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## zeke392

Is $80 per square foot what a contractor would charge or the cost of materials?


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## greg_n_clayton

zeke392 said:


> Is $80 per square foot what a contractor would charge or the cost of materials?



Maybe a lock and key deal !! But that would be with the bare minimum on finishes. I believe it depends a lot on where you are too !!


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## bfish

Around here (it varies place to place) it is $90-120 sq ft finished (ie paying labor and materials).  That doesn't include land cost or any fiancing charges (ie construction loan and mortage closing fees).


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## Maggie Dog

http://www.wdfarmerplans.com/cf/index.cfm

Evey neighborhood in my county during the 80's were just about built with these plans.

With a purchase you can get a material list.

Cary plans and material list to a building supply, get a price on a framing package, trim package, sheet-rock, ect.

Find some HVAC, electricians, plumbers, framers, trim, cornice and siding, block masons, concrete finishers, sheet-rock hangers and finishers, etc. Show them your plans and get a written bid.

If your planning on doing the work yourself, awesome, nothing better than self reliance.

It's a start, In my experience, you will go over budget, so be prepared.


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## Wycliff

Look at 84 lumbers website they sell home packages that include all material besides plumbing and electrical.


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## skiff23

Depends  on location ,size and finish. If it is around 2000 sq ft the basement will run around $ 40,000 and the house around $ 90 per sq ft heated space.Porches garages and extras are extra.Any fancy stuff will cost more.


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## Luke0927

Little over 2 years ago I built my own being the GC.  3,000 sf heated 4 sides brick ranch 4 bed 3 bath about 4k sq/ft under roof with covered porches and garage (little more in ranch since you have so much roof but we didn't want to have steps and upstairs since we have small kids).  I did a crawl instead of a basement since I plan to build a shop in future.  My grandfather was a retired builder so I had him get a crew together so he did the framing, I subed to local folks and did some myself.  I've got $80 sq/ft in it with a good amount of equity in it when I was done.  Hardwood in full house with 1 bedroom, tile in all bathrooms and laundry room granite kitchen and master bath.  9' ceilings except living room is 10' with 11' tray.  Only thing else I would like to do in future is foam the attic, didn't have the money to do it at the time.

You can save a lot of money doing yourself but was the most stressful thing I've ever done work full time, handle family and work on house in evenings, but you know exactly what it cost to build it, we priced some builders to do it the exact way we did would have been up there in the $90-100 sqft for turn key house.


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## zeke392

Thanks again for all the info.  I never even realized this sub forum was here and as always, lots of good people willing to help


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## Brian Groce

*Be your own GC*



Luke0927 said:


> Little over 2 years ago I built my own being the GC.  3,000 sf heated 4 sides brick ranch 4 bed 3 bath about 4k sq/ft under roof with covered porches and garage (little more in ranch since you have so much roof but we didn't want to have steps and upstairs since we have small kids).  I did a crawl instead of a basement since I plan to build a shop in future.  My grandfather was a retired builder so I had him get a crew together so he did the framing, I subed to local folks and did some myself.  I've got $80 sq/ft in it with a good amount of equity in it when I was done.  Hardwood in full house with 1 bedroom, tile in all bathrooms and laundry room granite kitchen and master bath.  9' ceilings except living room is 10' with 11' tray.  Only thing else I would like to do in future is foam the attic, didn't have the money to do it at the time.
> 
> You can save a lot of money doing yourself but was the most stressful thing I've ever done work full time, handle family and work on house in evenings, but you know exactly what it cost to build it, we priced some builders to do it the exact way we did would have been up there in the $90-100 sqft for turn key house.





Everyone should do this once.


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## ryork

My wife and I built a home in 1998, and did it without hiring a builder. You can definitely save money going this route, but the stress involved was unbelievable.  As stated above, the "budget" will most likely turn out to be a starting point. In my opinion $80-$90 per sq ft will be pretty basic, most new homes these days are north of there.

One thing to consider, you can buy a home much cheaper than you can build one these days. We just bought a new home in August of this year.  Almost 5,800 sq ft heated, with a detached three car garage, with an apartment above it on 5.5 acres for $240,000.  This includes granite countertops, molding and trim out the wazoo, two marble fireplaces and a large in-ground saltwater pool. It was not bank owned and close to move in condition. I had about $7,500 in paint, landscaping and handy man work in it to get it like we wanted it. It appraised for $300K, but would have cost well over $500K to get it like it is now if we had purchased land and built it.


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## Luke0927

That's true, if you don't already have land that you want to live on you can probably buy one for a better deal than you can build right now.


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## JohnnyWalker

If you are your own GC and are going to have a construction loan then you are going to accrue interest during the building process.  Things beyond your control that can cost you are::  Bad weather, material delivery delays, labor delays, equipment breakdowns.  If you plan on doing some of the work you will have to work quickly or run out of time on your construction loan.  If you don't have a long relationship with the banker, things can get nasty, they can call the loan due and payable immediately.


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## BreamReaper

My experience with building this past year-

1. Allow for double the time a sub tells you he'll be there or be finished, and DO NOT pay until the jobs completed! I know everyones not like this, but you'll get taken advantage of being new to this. 

2. Shop around and get bids, then negotiate. Friends are just that but this is business, keep it that way.

3. Spend the extra $$$ on insulation, and build a smart functional home to enjoy. My home is 1900+ sq ft heated and nearly 2700' under roof. I drew my own plans, spray foamed the attic and put a 2.5 ton HVAC downstairs/ 1.5 ton upstairs. My highest power bill this summer was $217.00, and we kept the air on 73 degrees, its cold.

4. You WILL go over budget! I did build my house and buy the 5 acres for about $130k. Thats all hardwood/tile floors, 3 bed/ 2.5 bath, Knotty alder cabinets, solid surface tops, ORB fixtures, metal roof, shake shingle and B&B vynil, fireplace, and a wrought iron staircase. So shop around and good luck! It can be the worst time of your life, and the funnest.


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## jigman29

I was a builder for several years and two things I found out when someone wanted to build they're own home.It will go over budget and you don't have any where near the friends you think you do no matter how much they say they will help they never do.Cabinets can be one of the biggest expenses in a home.I worked at a cabinet shop for several years and saw them run from a few thousand a set up to 30 and 40 grand for average homes and saw some of the mansions on the lake have over 100k in cabinets alone.You can run the gamut when it comes to cost of hme building so really do your homework.


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## southernboy2147

i would guesstimate 130per square foot at least.. my papa was a contractor before he retired and my dad bought one of his last homes which is a little over 1200 square foot for a little over 120,000. and this was one of his cheaper house plans he called starter homes. vinyl siding, a little above average carpet, and cheap fixtures


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## Makeithappen01

Anybody know any honest bulders around dawsonville,dahlonega,cumming area that can due a turnkey deal


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## 1gr8bldr

I have built many brick homes, granite, hardwood, porches, well, septic, etc, in other words, no corners cut, for $68 per ft under roof on your lot. My charge included. But I am in a different location/state


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## ATLGA

I know this is an old thread but has anyone built a house in North GA recently?  I would like to hear of their experiences.


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## gobbleinwoods

North GA is a large area.   Can you narrow down the general area?  Karen a Billy thread regular is currently building near Ellijay


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## GoldDot40

Our house is 7 months old. Final cost was right at $81/sq ft. I'm in Madison County.


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## tdw3684

I know the OP was looking for brick.  I will suggest checking out Blue Ridge Log Cabins in Campobello SC.  They will give a price down to the penny.  Cool way to build a home too.


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## MewsicLovr

Are these prices with "turn-key" built homes (ie, you decide on plans and then everything is built for you)?  Or are you hiring electricians, builders, etc yourself separately?


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## Miguel Cervantes

zeke392 said:


> I am wondering what the average cost per square foot is to build (or have one built) a brick ranch house on a basement right now.  I would really like to know what the materials cost alone and also what you could expect to pay to have it built.
> 
> Can anybody tell me those numbers?
> 
> Thank you,



Too many variables for this type of question.

Typical 2x4 outer walls or extra insulated 2x6 outer walls

8 foot ceilings or 10 foot or more ceilings, flat, vaulted, tray ceilings.

Trim package makes a huge difference as well. 

Prefab tubs / showers etc. or custom tiled. 

Prefab cabinets or custom built. Laminate tops, solid surface tops or granite?

Lighting package will break you if you aren't careful also. 

Hardwoods throughout or carpet, or a mix of the two. 

Spec your basement 10ft tall, you'll thank me later when you go to finish it out. 

Roof pitch factors into the equation as well as number of gables, gambrell style roof etc. 

Can you provide a little more detail as to what your looking for? Do you have a plan picked out already?


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## jimbo4116

Miguel Cervantes said:


> Too many variables for this type of question.
> 
> Typical 2x4 outer walls or extra insulated 2x6 outer walls
> 
> 8 foot ceilings or 10 foot or more ceilings, flat, vaulted, tray ceilings.
> 
> Trim package makes a huge difference as well.
> 
> Prefab tubs / showers etc. or custom tiled.
> 
> Prefab cabinets or custom built. Laminate tops, solid surface tops or granite?
> 
> Lighting package will break you if you aren't careful also.
> 
> Hardwoods throughout or carpet, or a mix of the two.
> 
> Spec your basement 10ft tall, you'll thank me later when you go to finish it out.
> 
> Roof pitch factors into the equation as well as number of gables, gambrell style roof etc.
> 
> Can you provide a little more detail as to what your looking for? Do you have a plan picked out already?



Needs to find a floor plan he likes, answer all your questions.  Visit the flooring store, lighting store, Plumbing showroom, etc to see what he wants and costs.

Get it all down on paper then approach some builders for a price and then add at least 10%


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## Miguel Cervantes

jimbo4116 said:


> Needs to find a floor plan he likes, answer all your questions.  Visit the flooring store, lighting store, Plumbing showroom, etc to see what he wants and costs.
> 
> Get it all down on paper then approach some builders for a price and then add at least 10%



If there is a wife involved add 20% and then 1/2 way through the project add another 10%. No joke. 

I said "*at least *10%"


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## 95g atl

Miguel Cervantes said:


> If there is a wife involved add 20% and then 1/2 way through the project add another 10%. No joke.





so true haha


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## Georgiadawgs78

I've been hearing builders cost on slab houses in the low to mid 70's. These are hardy siding with little to no rock accents and with granite countertops, hardwood floors in den/kitchen and carpet in the bedrooms. These guys are also building 4-5 at time in a row and 40-50 a year.


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## biggdogg

Interesting subject for sure, but I'm gonna assume the OP has either built what he wanted or has settled on another option by now...


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## ATLGA

Does anyone know of a company similar to this http://www.linwoodhomes.com/ based here in the US? Or in GA for that matter?


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## karen936

I am building in blue ridge and the cost is really high cost plus
15% my builder charges so far we are over budget, concrete costs are up and so are wood cost. It's a small town and not much competition so my budget went out the window.  Good luck
get everything in writing.


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## skiff23

If you build a custom house and the builder is not building the same plan over and over it cost more that the fast paced flats builds that are generally cheap. Homes built in neighborhoods and plans that are used multiple times are easier for the same crews to build and they have the material list down to the count. And for what I have seen in the past most of those homes are built cheap . Custom home prices differ slightly in different areas. Right now a typical home with 9 ft ceilings cement fiber siding with decent but not high end interiors is running about $ 100 per square ft. When big roof lines and long spans of open rooms go in a home, price goes up. Fancier finishes cost more. I can build down to $ 85 but it is a  no frills home. I will not build junk either . At the moment I am spray foaming for insulation and using a good quality cabinets. Cabinets will affect your bottom dollar.   Remember you get what you pay for . as long as you don't have a crook building for you and there are some out there. And there are some like me  , honest and doing what I am supposed to .


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## westcobbdog

Most houses I deal with avg $100-$200 per sf

Looking at a bad appraisal tonight on one of my listings and the comps the appraiser used were valued at$136, $152 and $170 per sf


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## lx708

GoldDot40 said:


> Our house is 7 months old. Final cost was right at $81/sq ft. I'm in Madison County.



Is this turn key ? and did you do any of the work yourself?


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## 1gr8bldr

lx708 said:


> Is this turn key ? and did you do any of the work yourself?


I see this as possible, but very tight, however, smaller homes go higher relative to larger. The reason is that they usually still have the same amount of appliances, cabinets, toilets, etc.


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## GoldDot40

lx708 said:


> Is this turn key ? and did you do any of the work yourself?



Was indeed turn key. I did none of it myself. Keep in mind...it is a spec house the builder already had the plans for. I did watch the entire build closely. Just a couple of head scratching moments, but all were corrected before the final walk through. Punch list was pretty small and simple. Had a private inspector check it out BEFORE we went to closing. Passed with flying colors.


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## OmenHonkey

I just finished mine. 1940 sq ft 3 bedroom 2 1/2 bath 2 story crawlspace home. I foamed the entire house, I have a Standing seam metal roof, granite on all counters, custom cabinets throughout and very nice hardwood and tile in the entire house. did mine for $91 per sq ft but I did ALOT of the work myself. I wired and plumbed my house. I have a lot of nicer finishes throughout but I bought them and installed them myself. My standing seam roof was the most expensive thing at 16K. But, it's what I wanted.


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## jiminbogart

1gr8bldr said:


> I have built many brick homes, granite, hardwood, porches, well, septic, etc, in other words, no corners cut, for $68 per ft under roof on your lot. My charge included. But I am in a different location/state



I didn't realize that this post was from 2012. I was going to have you build me 20 houses a year and I was going to sit back and cash the checks.


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