Bidding new custom homes - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

gary lee · 02-18-2007, 09:16 PM

Hello All,

Wonderful site with tons of great information. My question is what is the going rate for contractors that do new construction, custom homes. Bidding one currently that is around 6000 sq. ft. Some specs on the home are birch(base, case, doors with a few built-ins but no cabinets) throughout with smooth walls. Exterior is cedar that will be stained. Just curious what people would bid this at per sq. ft. of floor space. I hope I gave enough infomation for people to take a stab at it. Thanks for input.

Gary

Brushslingers · 02-18-2007, 09:36 PM

6k sq footage? Your talking higher end custom... around here it's about 5+ per addons, like stained front doors etc. Most i've seen is around 5.60 sq footage plus addons including paint. Good luck to ya!

gary lee · 02-18-2007, 10:09 PM

Benn,

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking around $6.00 per sq. ft., This is a upper end house so finishes will have to reflect that.

Gary

Traditions · 02-19-2007, 08:31 AM

36,000 dollars to get a bouse painted!!! Am i reading this correctly? I need to move to Florida. Wow, crazy how different prices are around the country.

Brushslingers · 02-19-2007, 08:50 AM

Naaa, did one a couple few years ago in Rehobeth beach in Maryland 34k, was close to the same size.... extreme custom on high end homes is expensive, but you use top of the line paint, most of the time its a huge expensive door to stain, etc.

Edit - Or is that Delaware... working the delmarva area it tends to blur.

Frankawitz · 02-19-2007, 09:18 AM

My brother talked with a GC the other day and he just had a custom house painted out said the place was 36,000 sqft and the guy paid his painters a $1.50 a sqft that came out to 54k. so here in Michigan you have to work real cheap to get the job.

Like I told my brother this guy is a rip off, I bet he had illegals working for him. Cause I told my brother if you take all the wall area and figure out the sqft area you'll end up broke when it comes time to buy the primer and paint for the job.

gary lee · 02-19-2007, 01:07 PM

We did a penthouse for this gentleman about a year and a half ago for around 5.50 a sq. ft. same deal high end home with lots of upgrades. Cherry doors 8ft high, level 5 finish through-out, They even had cherry shelving in the closets. That job was a pain in the butt. Something to consider is that we had no exterior because it was in a high rise. Good money but you earn it because customers at this level can be very picky. With the penthouse they had 7 different eyes create 7 different touch-up lists. $1.50 a square foot to do a 36,000 sq.ft. house seems like highway robbery. The largest house I have ever worked in was 12,000 sq. ft. and that was a fancy house. Hot oil on all trim and oil on all walls and ceilings. I was working for a company at the time, I cant imagine the bid on that house(price that is-big money).

Gary

boman47k · 02-19-2007, 01:22 PM

So when you guys base labor and paint, stain, etc on floor footage, it includes everything? Windows, doors, trim, ceiling, ..? Just interior, right?

Brushslingers · 02-19-2007, 02:44 PM

Yes... and yes. Larger contractors like a price per square footprint plus addons (crown,stain,gelcoat,etc) so they can build in a budget for the bank... i've had to type up how much each addon is and send it to em before. 5.20-6+ range is million dollar homes, most people expect to spend 10% of the value on anything... roof, paint, etc. When you dip into the 100k homes... ya, people want a 1000 dollar exterior paint job.

NSolano · 02-19-2007, 03:08 PM

price around 2 bucks a sq. ft but only if it asks for just two colors. I see that this is a custom home, so around $3.50 a square foot should do it. You could always add more if there are high ceilings, metal doors, and exteriors. I think 6 dollars is extremely high, unless the market in your area is much different than here in the washington metropolitan area.

Brushslingers · 02-19-2007, 03:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NSolano

price around 2 bucks a sq. ft but only if it asks for just two colors. I see that this is a custom home, so around $3.50 a square foot should do it. You could always add more if there are high ceilings, metal doors, and exteriors. I think 6 dollars is extremely high, unless the market in your area is much different than here in the washington metropolitan area.

Heh, ya my cost of living is way less and we get 2.25 for cheap spec homes here.... perhaps its you that needs to re-look at your prices.

boman47k · 02-19-2007, 03:53 PM

gotta ask, is sherwin williams, ben moore, the paints most often mentioned here used on these million or multimillion dollar homes? Or very high end European paints?

I guess the sguare footage price is kind of throwing me off since here in this area a million dollar home is not the same footage. Prop be a taj mahal ( spelling?) here.

boman47k · 02-19-2007, 04:05 PM

Quote:

We did a penthouse for this gentleman about a year and a half ago for around 5.50 a sq. ft. same deal high end home with lots of upgrades.

Quote:

$1.50 a square foot to do a 36,000 sq.ft. house seems like highway robbery

.

??????? Scratching my head over that one. Oh! You're saying the paint contractor is being rob.

Brushslingers · 02-19-2007, 04:10 PM

Ya regular paint... for example, last LARGE one I did was on the market for 650k, 5 colors plus ceiling and trim... all porter, was about 15k market for the interior and footprint was like 2100 or so. Plus addons I think the total was around 21k? or something... i'd have to look, he had alot of woodwork on the trey ceilings, etc. Hell I stained a 14k front door several years ago for more than 2k.... was a beauty though, 12 feet high, double door of solid aged oak... opening was like 8 feet wide.... wish I had that picture.

There's this german castle in oxbottom manor that I would love to paint... seriously, a CASTLE reconstruction... prolly 70k square footprint... the dam poolhouse is bigger than my whole house.

It's out there.

boman47k · 02-19-2007, 04:37 PM

Quote:

footprint was like 2100 or so. Plus addons I think the total was around 21k? or something

$10 a square floor foot?! Well, I thats still below the 10 per cent someone said was expected. This ol' Alabama boy is trying to get a grip on some of this business that is out there in different areas. But, that same house might only be 150,000 to 250,000 here.

gary lee · 02-19-2007, 05:38 PM

your location is a big deal. I am here in colorado and it is amazing how prices can very from city to city. Don't they say in real estate, "location, location, location". We have alot of people who move out here from californa who can get twice the house they had in californa. This house that I am bidding is in a very upscale area in which it is not unheard of for homes to be in the 2 and on up million dollar range.

Gary

RCPainting · 02-19-2007, 06:49 PM

Here in Southern Utah custom homes 4-5 bucks sq ft. Production homes single tone 1.50, two tone 2.00, three tone 2.50-3.00.

sttryffe · 02-27-2007, 05:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RCPainting

Here in Southern Utah custom homes 4-5 bucks sq ft. Production homes single tone 1.50, two tone 2.00, three tone 2.50-3.00.

Hey RC Painting!

I'm kinda new to some of the terminology! What do you mean by 3-tone? Thanks!

gary lee · 02-27-2007, 06:09 PM

If I am understanding RC, I think he means one color ceilings, one color walls and one color for trim.

Gary

DeanV · 02-27-2007, 06:31 PM

It is all in the details. These big homes tend to have A LOT of windows on facing the lake, they usually have a few different trim paint colors (lots of time masking), throw in a fancy wood front door, a few pillars, spiral maples stair case, 16' ceiling here, 12' ceilings there, and suddenly you have a whole lot of job security!