Spinoff Building vs material cost

[Grumpy365]

Several people list their building cost per sq. ft as a material cost.

Is a material cost a true building cost?

How much is your time worth to you?

I would be curious for people like Falcon67 and Brownbagg , how much time do you have in on your project?

What would your cost go to if you applied a value to your labor.

It would take me a month for me to do what a building crew could do in a couple of days.

Do you have help? I have found I don't have near as many friends as I thought when I actually need help building something.
(EVERYONE is all supportive until I need help framing the roof on Sunday morning).

When I built my house 2 years ago, I was my own GC. I did the Electrical, AC, Plumbing, site prep, and some dirt work myself, I subbed out concrete, framing, finishing, and painting.

I had hundreds of hours in labor plus the favors I called in to friends.

If I figured my labor at minimum wage my building cost would have gone thru the roof.

I have the ability and skill set to build my own shop, BUT I am not sure I am willing to put in the commitment of time and strain on my body (fast food for every meal, working till 10:00 PM every night, straining my nuts out at every turn), and the strain on my family (never being available for dinner, birthday parties, karate tournaments, etc.) because I am building.

Looking at the numbers I am not sure it's not worth it for me to do it. ESPECIALLY when I compare what it would cost me to do it (if I apply any value to my time) versus having somone turn key the project.

Note: The house was an intense year long project,nad this is a shop, so maybe it's different.

 

[gtivr4]

You can try to "pay" yourself in lots of projects, but unless you really could be making money doing something else, that is "free" time. Whether its worth your time or not is up to you.

 

[reinhardt]

if u have the money and don't wanna do the work, dont.

 

[Falcon67]

I spent maybe 2 months on the last building, working nights and weekends. It was a fun project and I was rewarded with a nice building to work in. The knowledge gained and the satisfaction with the complete project can't be priced. That was the payment for the labor. If I paid someone, it would have been done faster and been maybe 3~4X expensive. I would expect the next one to take 3-4 months, that's fine. If the money runs out, it'll take two years. It's my time to invest the way I want to. It is technically more expensive for me to do it, but I like doing it so there is no burden from it. Woudl I rather watch Mythbusters or make rafters...rafters wins. You can buy a race car cheaper than you can build one - usually - but if you like building race cars and you enjoy the investment of your time, then I think the satisfaction and mental exercise offset the expense. From a "time exchange" point of view, I cannot really do other projects that might bring in extra income without a base of operations. We saved many thousands of dollars on our existing house remodel because I spent the time to build a working shop first. Material storage, staging, rework, prep, etc would have been much harder without a good building. We also made a bunch of money drag racing and that would have been much more difficult without a secure and comfortable shop.

So it all washes out IMHO.

I also make plenty of time for family stuff, etc. There are phases where you have to say "I gotta get this done, X has to be completed quickly, leemealone" but there are plenty of breaks in the work otherwise. My grandad was up with the roosters swinging a hammer through his retirement, always building something for somebody. My peoples is used to the "dad's always got something going" thing.

 

[Grumpy365]

I tried to delete this thread on the grounds of unintended whininess or poor verbalization of thought, but i don't see the option so i guess the thread stays

 

[Colonial Cobra]

I hate to imagine what mine would have cost if contracted out. (Take a look at my garage project post in my signature line.) Only cost me about $5K. I was told by a neighbor that he was quoted over $50K for a simillar project. So the option was to do it myself or never get the garage. I would have been doing something anyway. I think it was worth the lost TV time.

 

[DeadSock]

"cost" is a hard one to measure ... It really is a personal thing to measure.

The OP brought up the "cost" of missed family time. So, what is the cost of tossing a football with your child worth? They are only going to be young once, so that "cost" could be priceless.

There is also the time-to-completion "cost". For some, having a bathroom remodel take 4 weeks vs. 1 week is zero, for others that can be divorce expensive.

Then there is the out-of-pocket "cost". This falls into materials, tools, and labor.

Generally, I've found material costs are what they are. For example, if a non-contractor buys new materials they are likely to "cost" around the same as a contractor will bill for (e.g. retail price versus contractor price plus markup). A non-contractor can hunt and find deals (surplus materials, used, etc) ... but if you work with a contractor, they are very likely to be able to source the same level of "cost" for you.

Some jobs require specialized tools. In some cases it might just be a compressor and a air gun (e.g. roofing/framing/trim). In other cases it isn't reasonable to buy (or even rent) that specialized tool to get a job done.

Now, there is labor "cost". This I judge on the type and/or scope of the project.

When it comes to the type of project; There are some I will simply always hire hire out.
Drywall is one example ... sure I can hang/tape/finish but hate every single minute, usually shows flaws, and takes me forever. The quotes from a pro (and 2-3 day timeframe) are generally well worth me opening the wallet.

For the scope of a project; It can depend.
Framing a multi-story building by myself, no way. Framing a ground level addition/shed, no problem.

 

[sberry]

A lot of factors to consider, I save 65 K for 3 months work on one project, hard to go out and earn that and if one considers I would have had to borrow over time it would ran the cost even higher.

 

[sberry]

The shop was even more difference but it took longer due to the fact that there were a lot more features. The storage in the pic above was apprasied by the ins underwriter at 150 which would have moved the margins a bit farther, from my figure of 65 to 85 juice, maybe a touch more if one accurately accounted for air, water and electric.
My shop is slightly different, basic structural takes the same time but finishing off the features took a while but again no mortgage just due to the fact I did it all. Took almost steady for a year and part time another year and some items another 3 months over a year but modification is ongoing to some extent. I had about 100 or so in materials but its value, 250, probably closer to 300k.

 

[patrick66]

Look at the money spent only. If you have a 3,000 sq ft shop that cost you $40K to build, from permit application to final inspection, then that shop cost you $13.33/sq ft. If you have 300 hours labor, figure what it would've cost you to hire a hand to help at, say, $15/hr, and there is $4,500. That makes your shop cost per sq ft $14.83.

No big mystery.

 

[WVBrady]

...We also made a bunch of money drag racing...

People make money drag racing?

 

[EdT]

Curiously, when calculating the value of a structure for capital gains purposes, sweat equity is not included. That is, if you paid someone $10K to do something with $10K worth of material and have receipts for it then the base is $20K. If, on the other hand, you took the same $10K worth of material and put it up yourself, the base is $10K; your labor is worth nothing. At least that's how it used to be. There is a book called the "Construction Estimators Guide" that can break down the costs of materials and labor regionally for all manner of projects. I get it at the local library or you can buy it.

 

[Heavy Metal Doctor]

I love the ideas some people put out about "what is your time worth?" as though you should jut pay someone else to do the work so you can be out making more money so you can afford to pay them for thier work........I'm glad to see GJ has more people who feel like I do......
I've been blown away by costs on contruction because so many of the things I've looked at have been listed with labor included. We've been planning to build and I WANT to do the work myself as much as possible. There's many reasons for it, but cost IS a large factor. I'm not in any rush, so I will use my "free" time to do the work.....and after paying contrators to do some projects, I've realized I can do the same quality or better.
As other have said, it's personal choice to figure out "what is your time worth" and get into a project doing the work yourself or decide to pay someone - lost familly time is an issue to some - just depends on your circumstances.

 

[rieferman]

Lowest bid to save my building, but only basic interior finishes = $50,000

Lowest bid to knock down my building and put a new single story building up (instead of the 2 stories I have now), and only basic interior finishes = $60,000

My total cost once my projects is fully complete and custom finished to my liking = $15,000.

The value of proudly telling people that this pencil pushing corporate geek built a barn... priceless


(PS - working while kids are asleep at night, or in small doses here and there, minimizes the impact on family.. takes a lot longer to get done, but that's how it has to be for me.)