photo by refractedmoments
A remodel or addition to your home is one of the biggest purchases you will ever make. But unlike buying a car, or a house for that matter, you don’t even have an advertised price to start your budgeting from. What in the world does a bedroom suite addition cost anyway?
There is no exact science to answering that question. Many homeowners have gone down the road of getting a full set of architectural drawings, complete with structural engineering calculations and an energy report, only to end up with construction bids they couldn’t possibly afford. There has a to be a better way.
Rule of thumb
What I suggest to my clients is this—get a preliminary cost estimate. This fits somewhere between a rule of thumb and a final bid. A common rule of thumb is using a dollars per square foot guesstimate. For example: construction in your town these days costs about three hundred dollars for each square foot of an addition.
However, this number varies with how much plumbing is involved, whether the soil requires a different type of foundation, what quality of finish materials are used, and a host of other factors.
Even more elusive, the number of square feet involved isn’t always straightforward. Sometimes a room needs new flooring, or a wall needs to be beefed up because a new window is going into it. How many square feet is that?
Preliminary cost estimate
A preliminary cost estimate is based on preliminary drawings and material selections. These can often be done in a few hours and can be fine-tuned later. The estimate is done by a general contractor.
Yes, they will want to charge for it, maybe a half days worth of work. But it will be much more meaningful than using a rule of thumb. Typically they go through a similar process as when they do a final bid, adding up walls, finishes, number of electrical and plumbing fixtures, and so on.
If the resulting figure is beyond your budget you have several choices. Rethinking the scope of your project, doing part of it now and the rest later, postponing the project, or maybe moving to a house that has the room and features you want.
You also might be able to find a less expensive contractor, but be careful about hiring someone who’s too low. Either their work will be poor or they will push hard to charge extra during construction to make up for their lowball bid.
Making adjustments
Another advantage of getting a contractor involved early is this—they can give advice on cost ramifications as the design is being further refined by the architect.
Does this approach seem sensible—or do you have different advice for homeowners?
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