New home build prices, subbing it yourself

[fbchunter]

Hope to start building a new house soon. Will probably build it slowly out of pocket. Already have some ideas on prices per square foot on getting slab with plumbing, framed, and the outside complete. Can anyone give me some ideas on how to figure ballpark estimates on getting the electrical and plumbing in the walls, spray foam insulation and sheetrock? Just trying to get ideas on each thing individually to see where I will stand. I know there are many factors that can affect prices just wondering what you folks have paid. House will be about 2k square feet. Thanks for any input

[Tx625]

I just did one for 90 bucks a square foot, including land.

[fbchunter]

Do you have any idea what the individual costs were, say like insulation, plumbing and electrical roughed in?

[Sticks&Strings]

Not as cheap as it should be. Labor and materials are still holding pretty steady. I sure wish they would soften.

[clintb]

Around 5-8 k to rough in wire
Around . 75 per ft to rock and you buy rock
Anywhere from 2.00 - 5.00 per ft to foam

[fbchunter]

Great info! Kinda in the range I was figuring. Thanks everyone and please keep It coming

[RutnBuk]

You can save for sure if you know what your doing but I personally know a few people that have done this and they had zero knowledge about building a house and it bit them in the azz.

[solocam_aggie]

I can share with you soon some of my numbers on my build. I need to spend some time on my Excel sheet and get everything updated.

[cj7zrcool]

Unless you have a background in residential construction or will be working closely with someone that does, I'd leave it to a builder.

[aggie11]

Just finished our house in January and we spent right at $87/sqft living with me contracting it out and doing the electrical myself. prices are below on what we spent 2500 sqft house, 2.5 baths with 8 sinks (for plumbing comparison)

Electrical: I did this myself, had about $7500 in everything including fixtures
Spray foam: $6300
Sheetrock: $.48/sqft labor for hanging and texture, we supplied the rock
Plumbing: $10,400 total and we supplied fixtures

[fbchunter]

Thanks everyone. Any info is much appreciated. This will be my second new home build. First one I paid a build on your lot builder. All he basically did was schedule everything. He only came by 1-2 times a week, I was there every day. I would find things wrong, and since he was stretched so thin he would ask me to tell the subs. It was really frustrating because they didnt listen to me which I don't blame them, being they didnt get paid directly by me. I would call him to complain, and he would ask me if they did this or that yet, so Half the time he was getting updates on progress from me. I felt like I was doing a fair amount of his job. It really showed me how little he really did, and that I can do it as good as he did and save some money. I have a few friends and family with background in different areas who can help me Along the way. Mainly just getting ballpark figures to have ideas on what to design.

[mjhaverkamp]

Something to remember, most of the subs are not going to give you builder pricing, a lot of them look at you as a one hit wonder, if they are busy look to pay 5-10 percent more, some of them more than that, this is pretty common, look at it like this, if you were a builder that built several homes, would you want your subs giving a one time builder the same pricing ? Now if you have some connections you should get close to builder pricing. One other thing, good luck getting a sub back out to warranty anything, I used a hispanic crew to do my rock, tape bed and texture, no can do as far as getting them back, they did an all right job but I needed them back to do touch up stuff.

[fbchunter]

Something to remember, most of the subs are not going to give you builder pricing, a lot of them look at you as a one hit wonder, if they are busy look to pay 5-10 percent more, some of them more than that, this is pretty common, look at it like this, if you were a builder that built several homes, would you want your subs giving a one time builder the same pricing ? Now if you have some connections you should get close to builder pricing. One other thing, good luck getting a sub back out to warranty anything, I used a hispanic crew to do my rock, tape bed and texture, no can do as far as getting them back, they did an all right job but I needed them back to do touch up stuff.

I planned for somewhat higher prices. I know a few guys who work for builders and will come out in their off time or on weekends. As far as subs not coming back out, many builders are just as bad. Not saying all builders, just saying some are just as hard to get back out for warranty work.

[mjhaverkamp]

I planned for somewhat higher prices. I know a few guys who work for builders and will come out in their off time or on weekends. As far as subs not coming back out, many builders are just as bad. Not saying all builders, just saying some are just as hard to get back out for warranty work.

Thats true but a builder has a lot more clot than a one timer, right now the subs rule because there is so much work out there, they can pick and choose what they want to do.