It depends…
You’ve decided to embark on the journey of creating your perfect, just for you and yours, custom home and now the question of “how much will it cost?” is right on your front door step. The answer isn’t as straightforward as it can be made out to be; “it depends” is the most accurate and honest response when asked.
What does it depend on?
Custom Home Design (and we don’t mean finishes)
The design, the bones, the systems, of your ideal custom home can have an outsized, but often not thoroughly considered effect on the overall cost of your custom home build. It’s not just the material costs that can swing with a design, it’s the labour involved in the execution.
For example, a modern style home with huge windows, tonnes of steel to achieve the airy open spaces we all love requires a completely different approach from the beginning than a traditional home with primarily engineered and dimensional lumber. Modern homes with extensive steel to create the openings require extra planning up front to ensure the steel drawings and then window shop drawings are amalgamated so they work together on-site. Starting this, sometimes months long, process when final construction drawings are ready is critical.
Once all the steel and windows are accounted for and a permit is in hand, someone needs to put it all together. An integrated framing and steel crew is imperative to success, there is more labour and many more moving parts than with a traditional home design, just ask the welder!
If the overall cost is a high priority (and for most people it is), then the most important thing to do upfront is establish your comfort zone with your budget for your custom home and tailor the design to meet that number. Trying to work backward is counterproductive and can lead to costly revisions to your drawings and delay the application for a permit.
Now let’s talk finishes
The finishes selected for any project, and especially a custom home can absolutely make it what it truly should be, however, selecting finishes can also swing your budget drastically. There are always options to achieve a design intent that can be higher or lower, that’s why we need to work together to make sure you arrive comfortably where you want to be. We continually monitor and track decisions to give you a real time view of where things are at and flag any potential overage before moving ahead.
What does a custom home cost per square foot?
We build custom homes, each one is completely unique and one of a kind. The question of budget per square foot is completely subjective to your home and style. As referenced earlier, a modern home with large openings and lots of glass will be more per square foot than a traditionally styled home with simpler construction.
Your budget will also dictate the allowances for finishes that work, you can manipulate the cost per square foot significantly with those decisions; keeping within allowances or splurging on certain details.
Generally, we build custom homes that are in the low $ 500’s per square foot up to $ 800.00 per square foot. It is completely possible to achieve a lower price per square foot as well as higher ones!
How do I determine what to budget for my custom home?
Talk to us, book a meeting, let’s sit down and really get into what’s important to you and your family. Once we have the key metrics, we can offer a path that aligns us with your goals. We can provide you with thoughts and general guides for budgets based on our meeting. We’re easy to talk to and we always like meeting new people!
