Square foot price

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mpej

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I am new to biding large custom homes and just to be safe does any one have an idea what percentag of the final home price should my square foot price match.
 
How many sq feet of cable will you use?

Square foot estimating, may be fine for roofing, sheathing, and many other building trades, electrical is usually estimated by unit takeoffs, and job actual records, after you have a completed an estimate, you can if you like, convert it to a square foot price.

Custom homes, require carefull planning, and working close with the builder and owner, on details and finish items, usually your first meeting will produce a budget price, and then you will be able to produce a rough estimate to submit for approval.

Good Luck!
 
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large custom homes + square foot price = disaster


Think about it..if it's custom, how would you base a sq. ft cost?
 
You really want the job? You really want the builders business? Go with $2.00 per sq ft like alot of the other contractors bid here and you will get the business. Only one catch, you won't be able to pay your supply bill, you won't be able to pay insurance and you will basically drive junk and work for $3.00 per hour. Sq ft prices can be ok for a measuring tool on some projects, houses sometimes and honestly most custom large homes around here are at $3.25 to $4.00 a sq ft but I would not sq ft anything.

On a commercial project here is an example. I talked to a guy today who told me he bid a beauty salon in MC cable at $5.00 a sq ft. I told him he was kinda low and needed to be careful with his money on that project. It was 5000 sq ft and his price was right at 25k. We did a restaurant a while back, it was 1700 sq ft. Some people bid these at $8.00 a sq ft so that would be $13,600 right. Well we were low at $72,000 on this project. Now do you really want to sq ft these projects?
 
mpej said:
I am new to biding large custom homes and just to be safe does any one have an idea what percentag of the final home price should my square foot price match.
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Approx 40%, just to be safe.
 
mpej said:
I am new to biding large custom homes and just to be safe does any one have an idea what percentag of the final home price should my square foot price match.
Click to expand...

I am not new to the process, and I would suggest you heed the others' warning.

You're starting off bad with sq. ft. pricing, and whatever you come up with for a price, cannot be estimated as a percentage of the final home price.

There are too many variables that come into play on the final price, such as, outside finish, type of driveway, type of kitchen, type of faucets....and the list goes on and on.
 
40% on almost any project is way too high, I didn't say all I said almost. There may be a few exceptions but there again we are explaining why the sq ft price is not fool proof. Rule of thumb, not always is 10% for small commercial electrical projects give or take a few %. This means a $1,000,000 commercial project will be around $100,000 electrical. But I have seen more than several projects go for 8% to 35%, it depends on alot of things such as light fixtures, service size and length, amount of outlets, type of wiring, etc.

About the easiest but not most accurate way is to unit cost each item. But then again you are giving each item an estimated guess. But then again that is about all an estimate is. Good luck !

If you really want to learn start with Mike Holt's estimating material. It is pretty good stuff !!
 
dduffee260 said:
40% on almost any project is way too high, I didn't say all I said almost...
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In my defense, I was being silly. The OP asked for a percentage value "just to be safe", and I figured a nice, high percentage would be safe. :)

Your advice was, of course, much more useful.
 
ceknight said:
In my defense, I was being silly. The OP asked for a percentage value "just to be safe", and I figured a nice, high percentage would be safe. :)

Your advice was, of course, much more useful.
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You are correct, in 95% of the cases you number would be safe. If people would give me 40% on projects I would have only one problem. What to do with all the extra money that would be roling in.
 
I agree that you need to know the material going into a custom house but I bid by the sq,ft all the time and make money. However I bid sq. ft code min. ALL addon are charged by the unit,cans,fans,three ways not requried,$3.00 per amp for service,switched recp ect. The speck. homes I have been doing sell for 489,000 to 500,000. after addons it runs that the cost of the electrical is about 3 to 4 percent of the cost of the home. these homes range from 3100 to 3300 sq. ft.I am smaller than a lot of the guys in my area and I do not have the pay roll burden and expense they have but all in all I make more per house than they do as far as bottom line profit
 
$3.25 - $5.80 per sqft, or 5.20% - 8.40% of total cost. Would have to adjust up, depending on any special features, that would be considered far out of the ordinary.

Thes are good for checking, but doing a take off is better, then do a sanity check using percentages.
 
Lets not forget the dreaded laminated beams that we must avoid drilling. A custom home around here is not bid by square foot unless its a "friend" of the builder. I bid them at whatever is on print after meeting with the customer plus ALOT of options. Be careful.
 
aline said:
Below is a link to an insteresting article on estimating by the square foot.

The Hidden Dangers of Square Foot Estimating

http://paradigm-360.com/WhitePapers/SFEstimating.html
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That is some backward thinking, just to sell services.

Why doesn't he point out that no-one figures their sq/ft price on a big job, and applies it to a smaller one. They do the opposite.

If the small deck costs $27.64 sq/ft to build, then the big deck should of sold for $14,151.68. A difference of 20%. He sold a big job for 20% less, and used that thinking to justify his position that sq/ft pricing a deck is bad.

No wonder he doesn't build decks. With that kind of thinking, I'd stay away from that guys marketting system.
 
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