Bid for new home in rural Southern California
I’m a designer trying to get into new homes. I designed a new single story 1600 home in a rural/vacation home area of SoCal. Client paid for a thorough bid / precon from a custom home builder.
We all know that California is expensive but we were a little shocked by the price. I’m used to paying 1.5 or even 2 times the national average, but some quotes were out there and I’d like a gut check from you guys. With landscape we’ve been quoted $1.5 million.
It’s a modern 2 bed, 2 bath home (white stucco box with flat roof, 10 foot ceilings, large aluminum windows) and 800 sf of covered patio so this was not going to be cheap.
The basics don’t seem out of whack but it seems padded elsewhere (especially since the client is about the architecture and doesn’t really care about fancy interiors.)
Breakdown:
Plumbing $40,000 (fixture allowance +$7,500)
Septic $22,000
Staking/Grading/Exc $20,000
Concrete Foundation $50,000 *Slab on grade
Framing $77,000
Electrical $70,000 (lighting allowance +$3,000)
Drywall $28,000
Stucco $46,000
Roofing $24,000 *Poly foam with elastometric coating (I spec’d an EPDM roof)
Insulation $9,000 *Quoted code minimum (I spec’d additional insulation in roof)
HVAC $50,000 *6 concealed duct minisplits to one condenser (I drew 4 units to 2 condensers)
Windows/patio doors $115,000 *Mostly Fleetwood (I spec’d mostly bargain brand aside from large multi-slider)
Doors $38,000
Cabinetry $117,000 *(Builder has a custom cabinet / vanity maker my client is perfectly happy with Ikea or similar)
Countertops $21,000 *120 sf of Silestone
Appliances/install $9,000
Paint (ext./int.) $27,000
Kitchen Backsplash $7,000 (include $25/sf allowance – that’s crazy)
2 showers incl tile $22,000
Tile Floors (1600sf) $40,000 (includes $8.50/sf allowance – note: client wanted polished concrete floors)
Cedar Porch/Carport Ceiling $45,000
Low-Voltage $45,000 (what???)
Gen. Material/Labor $18,000
LANDSCAPE
Staking & Testing $7,000
Grading & Site Prep $13,000 *Is he double-counting this?
Concrete Flatwork $71,000 *Carport and patio combined is about 1400 square feet but should this be more than the actual foundation?
Pool $100,000 *Ok so the pool is obviously not going to happen…
BBQ-Island 6 feet $15,000
Landscape $55,000 *A lot of unwanted plants, irrigation, lighting and 95 tons of aggregate! Client wants to keep natural landscape.
Solar $19,000 *only 5 KW and NO batteries!
GENERAL CONTRACTOR
Permits, Fees $16,000
Site Toilet, storage $9,000
Dumpster $12,000
Cleaning $12,000
GC Overhead (11%) $138,000
GC Margin (10%) $139,000
Replies
Ridiculous. I wish I weren't retired. "paid for a bid". That's when you know you've been screwed. I suggest you get a copy of the National Construction Estimator and work with that. There's a page in the back that gives you a simple budget tool. You'll be able to see how far out of line this is. Then do some more detailed work with the specific costs. Get some more bids. Get bids from sub contractors. PS I've been working is So Cal for 50 years. I'll keep watching this thread.
Detailed preconstruction bids are not totally crazy, but yeah we feel a little miffed that he just grabbed (mostly inflated) bids from his usual team. The site is 3 hours from me so I can't rely on my usual network unfortunately. Would appreciate any names for folks in the Inland Empire and/or High Desert areas!
The cabinetry line item doesn't give any detail, but........ WHAT??? $117,000?!? A 1,600SF house can't possibly fit $117,000 worth of cabinets.
I thought so too! So apparently custom kitchen cabs, vanity and media center come in at about 50K, Euro-style built-in wardrobes at 22K, the rest is for trim and the porch ceiling. As a Fine Homebuilding subscriber, I appreciate craft, but some of this should be stock cabinets, or IKEA hacks at the client's stated budget.
Looks like the builder just threw numbers on the line items. I used to charge for a thorough cost budget. It had 40+ line items. For instance, the foundation would include separate lines for form work labor, reinforcing steel, concrete, insulation (if any) and waterproofing. Each would be backed up by quantities or proposals from subcontractor.
For the most accurate price we needed the designer to provide details needed for pricing: Plumbing schedule product list, electric product list, electric plan, cabinet layout and cabinet selection, countertop selection, window schedule and so on.
We also provided 'value engineering' for elements where we saw cost savings opportunities.
The challenge is finding a builder who is capable and willing to offer such a detailed outline of costs.
This is an excellent point. The breakdown between labor and materials is never clear, which would help a lot. I gave the builder a DD/BID set and the (rather beautiful) Chief Architect model. I met with an engineer but the builder convinced us to do the BID with him before we spent more money. Of course, now he says that framing and foundation are just estimates and will need to be rebid after the engineering, without even giving us the assumptions they made re: lumber sizes and quantities. The engineer and i agreed on things like I-joist sizes and spacing and I don't think its too much to ask for the bid to clearly state this and state what kind of upsizing would push the price higher.