Come along as we build a custom home Thread II--Construction

[Anonymous]

Could you remind me who did your foundation? I got the "bethesda-chump-fleecing" estimate of $144k for a 30x40 foundation and slab and was like, "yeah, sure, thanks."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Could you remind me who did your foundation? I got the "bethesda-chump-fleecing" estimate of $144k for a 30x40 foundation and slab and was like, "yeah, sure, thanks."

Yes, we used Green Village Concrete, http://www.villageconcrete.com/
Tell them you were referred by Chadsworth Custom Homes. I'm interested to hear if you get a more reasonable estimate. 144K for 30'x 40' is crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Could you remind me who did your foundation? I got the "bethesda-chump-fleecing" estimate of $144k for a 30x40 foundation and slab and was like, "yeah, sure, thanks."

Yes, we used Green Village Concrete, http://www.villageconcrete.com/
Tell them you were referred by Chadsworth Custom Homes. I'm interested to hear if you get a more reasonable estimate. 144K for 30'x 40' is crazy.

My quote was very broken out, and the footings, slabs, etc, were all reasonable, and then there was "walls" for $95k. I know there's about 12k worth of concrete (6 trucks) and about 3k of rebar. SO they were trying to fleece me a lot on labor and form rental. I was not buying it.
Thanks. I'll look them up. (ps: I noted your more extensive concrete and pricing and used that as a benchmark. I also had my neighbor's job who had 20 some 35' deep pylons as well as a bigger foundation and it was way less than 144k

[Anonymous]

So far, our experience has been pretty smooth, after the shenanigans of permitting. But here is a snag we hit on flooring: It was a mistake to hire one company to finish our stairs (the treads, risers & banisters) and another to install flooring. Because the interplay between stair finishing and flooring is complicated and has to be precise. I wish we had done with a single entity to ensure seamless communication. We did not know this, and thought we had a great deal on a flooring installer that isn't the usual one that our builder uses. The stair installers did the treads and the risers, and we have 2 problems: first, the risers were pine and the stairs are red oak. But our flooring is a scraped maple. So instead of using the exact same planks, we'll have to stain the red oak treads to get as close as possible to the maple--the installer thinks it will be ok and match pretty closely, but the grain won't be the exact same of course.

Second, related: the risers are done in pine, which doesn't stain that well and will never really match. So we'll either need to cover the risers with additional wood, which would be okay....but the top lip that comes down from the riser finishing has already been done, and its not quite long enough that we can use a single 5" plank. It looked like this: https://imgur.com/a/YVaC3DQ

So rather than have an inexact stain, or ripping out stairs- our alternative is to just paint the risers and go with white risers instead of wood stain risers, like this https://images.app.goo.gl/Wk5k5RDC6YZMeSpS6

I actually like white risers as a look, but see them getting scuffed and needed to be retouched a lot, given our active household. So white risers, it is.

On another note, the flooring went down really fast-- we had been told 3 weeks. Whole thing took closer to one week + a week for conditioning.

[Anonymous]

And now, a detour for the tax credits we're aware of, for home building. This list is kind of short, because the Inflation Reduction Act is trying to incentivize the upgrading of existing systems, not subsidizing new equipment, but here is what we've found so far.

1. Level 2 EV charger: this is a federal tax credit of 30% of the cost of installation, up to $1,000 (administered via your utility).

2. Solar panel installation (I know this is not strictly a construction cost, but thought I'd drop it in here). While we plan to add solar in the future, we'd like to see what our typical electricity usage is before doing this.

3. Age in Place, Accessibility Property tax credit: State of MD allows for a 50% tax credit for home modifications such as wheelchair ramps, roll in showers, etc. Each County interprets this a bit differently, but for ours, its allowed for new construction. https://dhcd.maryland.gov/Pages/ILTC/default.aspx

Any others I missed?

[Anonymous]

This thread is awesome! Thanks so much for sharing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So far, our experience has been pretty smooth, after the shenanigans of permitting. But here is a snag we hit on flooring: It was a mistake to hire one company to finish our stairs (the treads, risers & banisters) and another to install flooring. Because the interplay between stair finishing and flooring is complicated and has to be precise. I wish we had done with a single entity to ensure seamless communication. We did not know this, and thought we had a great deal on a flooring installer that isn't the usual one that our builder uses. The stair installers did the treads and the risers, and we have 2 problems: first, the risers were pine and the stairs are red oak. But our flooring is a scraped maple. So instead of using the exact same planks, we'll have to stain the red oak treads to get as close as possible to the maple--the installer thinks it will be ok and match pretty closely, but the grain won't be the exact same of course.

Second, related: the risers are done in pine, which doesn't stain that well and will never really match. So we'll either need to cover the risers with additional wood, which would be okay....but the top lip that comes down from the riser finishing has already been done, and its not quite long enough that we can use a single 5" plank. It looked like this: https://imgur.com/a/YVaC3DQ

So rather than have an inexact stain, or ripping out stairs- our alternative is to just paint the risers and go with white risers instead of wood stain risers, like this https://images.app.goo.gl/Wk5k5RDC6YZMeSpS6

I actually like white risers as a look, but see them getting scuffed and needed to be retouched a lot, given our active household. So white risers, it is.

On another note, the flooring went down really fast-- we had been told 3 weeks. Whole thing took closer to one week + a week for conditioning.

I’d rip out and match the rest of your flooring. Cost is negligible when building a house but it’ll stick out like a sore thumb.

[Anonymous]

I’d rip out and match the rest of your flooring. Cost is negligible when building a house but it’ll stick out like a sore thumb.

They’re going to try the sand + stain on a couple of the treads and we will see what it looks like. One good thing, we went with a fairly dark flooring. But yeah, if it looks bad we’ll redo stairs.

[Anonymous]

Work has now started on the back deck. We went as simple as we could here. Overall size is 15' x 25'. Its accessible from the back doors, runs about half the length of the house and within those dimensions is a 3' wide ramp that goes down to ground level and connects to the screened in porch. It has a railing that runs around it, no additional lighting other than the two exterior light fixtures at the door. Although there is room for seating, its main purpose is to hold the grill, which can be reached via a set of sliding windows from the kitchen. I see us getting way more use from the porch, given weather and mosquito realities. Its not very high off of the ground--probably about 2 feet or so.

We used a basic line of Trex--the 'enhance' line. We did have solid material extend all the way to the ground around the perimeter to thwart critters and wasps from getting underneath. Total cost is 22K, including both materials and labor.

[Anonymous]

Still following along and appreciate the play by play.

[Anonymous]

We are very close now- the only really outstanding costs that we’re waiting for are estimated for porch screening, driveway and mainly exterior things. I think I can safely say that for pure construction costs (excluding cost of the lot, permitting, site prep, architectural plans) we will be at around $239/sq foot.

[Anonymous]

Does the screened porch have a skylight? I am curious because I love having screened porch on the back of my house but it makes the kitchen get very little indoor light. If I built a new house I would put some skylights on the the covered back porch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does the screened porch have a skylight? I am curious because I love having screened porch on the back of my house but it makes the kitchen get very little indoor light. If I built a new house I would put some skylights on the the covered back porch.

No skylight on our screened porch (its on the upper right hand corner of this link https://imgur.com/IdEYmvK. Our porch is oriented so it faces both North and West. So we have a long western facing wall for the kitchen/eating/family room area. Hopefully that will be enough light, but since the screened porch is to the side of the kitchen, along a mostly solid wall except the doorway, I don't think that a skylight would help much. Hoping the porch isn't too cold for a good part of the year, given its orientation. We do have a fireplace to help with that.