Question concerning construction costs

[Nat]

Bryan, I live about 50 miles from you and can tell you that the cost per foot is a huge varible according to wheter you are the contractor, or turn it over to a contractor, and how it is built. For instance a base home on a crawlspace, w/out a garage, single story, vinyl siding, sheetrock, builders grade cabinets and flooring can be as little as 40.00 per ft. where-as 2 story, w basement, 2 car garage, brick, lots of roof angles, custon cabinets, hardwoods, bay windows/arched top windows etc. can run over 100.00
There are lots of variables, so it's hard to even give you a ballpark. I believe you followed the thread I posted on building our house and I can't remember how much I have in it per sq ft. but I'll refigure it and will get back to you, but keep in mind that I did all the framing and finish work myself, so there wasn't any labor to pay except the piper for all the sore bones and joints. Later, Nat

[Nat]

Bryan, I figured it just now and I have 61.00 per sq ft in it and I did nearly all the labor myself. That includes the basement and a single car carport, and 272 sq ft of covered porch. I have tile floors everywhere and pretty good stuff everywhere. HTH, Nat

[rpeter]

I would like to continue this thread by asking how you calculate the square footage of the house to use in the calculation? Here is what I mean....... If I have a house with a first floor of 1000 sq. ft. and underneath it I have a full finished basement, for the calculation of cost per sq. ft. do I divide the cost by 1000 or 2000 square feet?

[twstanley]

I would think it is per square foot of living space, so you would add your basement to the main floor square footage as that basement space needs finishing as well which costs money to do..

So ranches cost more ( per square foot ) as they have more foundation and roof per square foot as compared to 2 and 3 story homes which put more usable square footage between foundation and roof line.

Of course, I love ranch houses, I like not having steps to go up and down except when I need to do something downstairs ( which can be less than once a week now that the laundry is upstairs ).

[Nat]

I guess it is different in different places, but here in NC we figure finished basements as "finished basement" not living space. We have a lot of split-levels homes here and a realtor, or a contractor will figure it as " X" square feet of living space an " X " square feet of finished basement. I don't think it matters as long as we are happy with what we have.
I sold my last house last year and it had 2 different areas in the basement that were finished, one was a den and the other was an exersize room. the den had a 1/2 bath, but the appraiser only figured the upstairs part as living space and a finished basement. Later, Nat