General Contractor New Jersey
Cost to build a house please?
Hi,
I want to build a house. I tried to inquire about the cost and get so many different quotes, anywhere between 120 to 400 per square ft. that I am still confused. Whats the best way to calculate this? Where can I get reliable figures or something as close to reality as possible? I am building the house in North East, lets say New Jersey, and its approximately 3000 sq ft. What are the major factors that affect the cost deviations if I had to play around with options? I know I have to get a General Contractor, who typically just charge you one price for the whole house and they go by square foot. Say they charge 200/sf, so they will multiple 3000 by 200 and thats the total cost. Is there a way for me to get the GC to let me do some work myself so I can save money?
All the help is greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Rick
For New Jersey (and most of the mid-atlantic and New England) $350 per square foot is a realistic price for base model home (no travertine foyers or oiled bronze Kohler fixtures here). First you must undertsand the difference between a home builder and a general contractor: A home-builder will make is profit from the contruction of the home a GC, derives his profit from arranging to have the home built, adding a percentage to the cost of all the sub-contractors (usually between 15 – 20 percent). However a homebuilder will also add a percentage for the major subs.
Factors concerning costs are nebulous and are a simple matter of what level of home you want, For instance carpet is cheaper than hardwood, fiberglass showers are cheaper than tile, tile is cheaper than marble, kraft-maid cabinets (HomeDepotBrand) are cheaper than custom made, 3 tab roof shingles are cheaper than architectural grade, etc the list goes on and on. Also keep in mind that material cost have be flutuating greatly over the past few years (example 7/16″ OSB has been as high as $21 and as low a $7 in the last 3 years)
As far as helping I as a home builder encourage participation by the new owner, but it has to be on a very limited basis, mostly grunt work, done in the evening or weekends when the pros aren’t around. Usually I limit this (which is called sweat equity by the trade) to site clean up, humping materials to upper levels, moving dirt piles, etc. While all this sounds kinda unfair, look at it this way someones gotta do it, either you or someone the home builder is gonna bill at $20+ an hour. Helping in the actual construction is something I do on an hourly basis. If you wish to help and learn, lets say, tile installation, I charge an extra $25 for you helping, this covers the cost of you the homeowner slowing a pro and reducing his productivity and the cost of ruined materials.
the short answer is square footage time per square foot price is the general rule of thumb. So 3000 sq. ft. at $350 per equals $1,050,000
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