Another Cost Estimate Question

[Hotzcatz]

There is supposed to be a new lumber mill in Pepeeko which will be making dimensional lumber for local use, that might help bring down prices.

There are also some moveable timber milling rigs that can make trees into lumber if you happen to have some large trees which will be cleared during the construction of your house. There is a drying kiln in Hilo, so if you provide the trees, the milling guy will usually cut them up into lumber and he gets a percentage of the lumber. Have the lumber taken to the dryer and then final milling in Hilo as well. That gets you hardwood at really good prices.

I've also been seeing a lot of good concrete counter tops made by "regular" people. One was a computer chip designer for Intel and one was an attorney. All the countertops they made for their houses turned out really nice and concrete is an inexpensive building material. They both recommended having your own small concrete mixer.

Depending on your plans, a house can cost $25 per square foot in materials or $300 per square foot for materials so square foot doesn't always get you useable numbers. To keep the cost of construction down, you could try looking to see what construction materials are available locally and use those. Even if a specific material is the cheapest in the mainland hardware stores, if you have to ship it in, the price probably won't be the cheapest here.

[sansei]

From the Honolulu Advertiser: Matson raising fuel surcharge to 24%

Read the whole article here:
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/p...10320/1071



Larry

[robguz]

John, is that $130 figure owner built or with a contractor?

[John S. Rabi]

quote:

---

John, is that $130 figure owner built or with a contractor?

---

That would be by a GC. It's hard to give anyone owner-built numbers since it really depends on how much the owner is doing by himself.

Aloha,
John S. Rabi, ABR,CM,CRB,FHS,RB
http://www.JohnRabi.com
Typically Tropical Properties
"The Next Level of Service!"

[Francesca]

quote:

---

I wish you were right Larry. I have a client who is a GC in Ohio. He said the Home Depot prices are 10% higher here than there. With the average building cost being $70/sf there, with the 10% added cost it should be $77/sf here, right? The average building cost is $130/sf in Puna and $200/sf in Kona. So where is the difference going?

Aloha,
John S. Rabi, ABR,CM,CRB,FHS,RB
http://www.JohnRabi.com
Typically Tropical Properties
"The Next Level of Service!"

---

John, would the Puna price per sf apply to Hilo? Also, if you build only a 600 sf home is the cost more per sf than for a larger home since costs such as the septic are fixed? Thanks!

Francesca

[Kapohocat]

quote:

---

John, would the Puna price per sf apply to Hilo? Also, if you build only a 600 sf home is the cost more per sf than for a larger home since costs such as the septic are fixed? Thanks!

Francesca

---

if you have a 20' x 30' house and you increase to 24' x 32' although you have added 168 sf - you have added 4 x 2 linear ft + 2 x 2 lf = 12 lf in wall framing. The roof structure and floor structure would increase by the SF. So what happens is that to a certain point (all things being equal) increasing your SF brings down your SF price slightly as you get larger.

The costs that are fixed such as wasetwater, or driveway apron, etc will be spread out over more SF.

Plumbing probably wont increase much if you keep the same number of fixtures as the smaller SF so will be spread over a larger SF.

Catherine Dumond
Blue Water Project Management
808 217-7578
http://bluewaterpm.125mb.com/index.html
"We help make building your dream home a reality"


Edited by - kapohocat on 11/08/2007 15:12:56

[Bullwinkle]

http://www.building-cost.net/CornersType.asp

give this a try - Its pretty darn close

[Hotzcatz]

I dunno Bullwinkle, that came in four times more expensive than it cost me to build a small house in Nanawale in '95, have prices gone up four times since then? Double maybe, but not four times. Maybe I'm just cheap?

[Bullwinkle]

I used it to "dream wheel" my project before asking for bids -- contractor built '07 ... The building estimator was within 5% (high) coming in right at about $130 a square foot ... what were the numbers in '95 ?

[Francesca]

Thanks Catherine and Bullwinkle. I have another question. We'd like to build a single-wall home. That's what we have now and love it. Does anyone know of a carpenter who knows how to build a single-wall home to code? Also, do you know if single or double wall construction is more expensive? I've heard conflicting information on the expense, but mostly I'm hearing that single wall costs more.
Thanks!

Francesca