I think you'll be able to work with that allowance. We were able to get a designer wool carpet in our master bedroom for about $20/sqft. There is a picture below. Some wools can get pricier though. We chose nylon in our secondary bedrooms that were between $5 - $12 / sq ft all in. Make sure you have a correct expectation with regards to stair runners and/or area rugs. I doubt the allowance would include the latter, but it would be good to make sure.

Off topic, but what is your lighting fixture budget and how many do fixtures do you have? I ask this because this is an allowance/estimate that can be way low.

Are you in the US? Maybe you are talking Australian dollars? I am kidding but really, I didn't think you could spend that much on carpet. I am doing a basement at $1.80 - all included. I think we were at about $5 upstairs. Our hardwood - wide walnut - was about $10. This is a Subzero/wolf/emtek/11ft ceilings/8ft doors kind of house. Obviously there are far higher end houses but it isn't too shabby.

So yes - I think $18 will be enough. Wool should be about $10-$12.

david-I think the wool carpet they are referring to is woven from the fleece of golden sheep!

In all seriousness, that does sound insanely high. Even for a quality wool. I'm feeling like a real penny pincher right about now. I thought $10 was pushing it for a designer patterned carpet.

I wonder if she is talking about $18 a yard. When I looked at carpet a few years ago, some of the places priced by the square foot, others by the yard.

My apologies, the allowance is $18.00 per square yard.

This is a custom build well over $500,000.

milz50, regarding the lighting allowance this is what they sent us.
" We supply a ceiling light opening in all bedrooms and closets, second floor hall, top and
bottom of Basement stairs and keles in garage and basement.
� In the Kitchen, we supply recessed lighting around the perimeter workspace by design
(max of 5 cans).
We also provide up to 2 openings over the island for pendant lighting.
� Exterior lighting includes an outlet (GFI) in the front and rear of the home.
� We provide openings for fixtures at all exterior door openings (1 at front, 2 at garage,
and 1 at the rear of the home, builder installs 2 outlets (GFI) in basement and 2 outlets (GFI) in garage.
� You have an electrical fixture allowance for light fixtures to be used at builders designated
electrical supplier. Unless otherwise specified, the allowance is 1/2 of 1% of the contract price

What are your thoughts on 1/2 of %

Thank you kindly for your wisdom.

$18 is too little - that is just $2 a sq ft. Since I am just finishing basement, I am looking at carpet. $2 buys basic basic carpeting but that doesn't get it installed. I am putting Lowes in stock commercial grade carpet and I am just getting under $2. Now - you can beat Lowe's prices but still $2 is low. I do think we were $5 upstairs on similar price build.

1/2 of 1% is crazy low. $600k here. $8k allowance. We just about met the allowance and would have exceeded if we didn't do some internet shopping. Our local light store was our contractor's source and we got something like 55% off list. You couldn't beat that price anywhere because some lighting companies have mandatory minimum pricing. The trick to saving money was to switch manufacturers. You can't see the light in person that way but you can save another 30%. Now I will tell you that cans were not on that allowance (and it seems like they usually aren't). We had 40 cans of basic builder equipment - ie it was a specific number rather than an allowance.

What you just listed was more of an included electrical rough in rather than a lighting allowance.

Where are you located because $500+ means different things in different areas. Around here (esp today) it shouldn't mean basic builder lighting. But you might be building 2000 sq ft and then you get some decent lights. But if you are at 4000 sq ft, it might be a challenge. I don't particularly like cans and we cut a lot - but we have 8 in our kitchen so max 5 seems low to me.

The things included in the lighting allowance were a surprise to me - smoke detectors being the big one. But then things like flood lights, fluorescent lights in all closets, garage - it adds up and you aren't really picking that stuff- I mean you can but that isn't a lot of fun....And then tax gets you (this varies on contract and state)- but around here $8k was really just $7.3k. Then there was about $1k in smokes/fluor/floods. So you really only got $6k. So that is why your allowance of $3k (assuming $600) is pretty darn low. Now - you might not have sales tax, you might be getting smokes (etc) outside of allowance etc. This is where allowances get pretty frustrating. (As an aside, we were cost plus so allowances were just a guideline anyway).

Thanks David,

May I ask what you mean by "The trick to saving money was to switch manufacturers."

We are building in upstate NY. Price, not to exceed $700,000.....We hope. We'll be empty nesters soon and are down sizing to around 2,500 sq.

Is it "kosher" to negotiate with a builder about allowances?

Absolutely kosher.

Where upstate (only because Rockland county might be called upstate and that doesn't have the same economy as Buffalo suburb)?

That is a pretty high $/sq ft. Land included? I think you will be disappointed in a $3500 lighting allowance. But it isn't horrible at that square footage.

Different lighting manufacturers. Juno for instance might be sold at lighting stores and have minimum pricing rules. Lightolier may not and you can save by going with Lightolier and getting a comparable light.

I would recommend contracting for the carpet work independent from the GC and avoiding the painful allowance game altogether.

Alternatively, select the carpet now and negotiate a fair price.

Allowances should only be used for materials you can't select now.

Thank you again macv and david, you've given me some great advice.

Knowledge is power!!!

I spent over $12k on lighting for a 4000 sf house (nice, but not high end), and I still have more to buy. If you do a lot of fixtures, rather than cans, it adds up quickly.

Do yourself a favor and try to remove as many allowances as you can from the agreement...include the chosen items instead. This may be hard to do for lighting (especially if you have a lot of fixtures to pick out), but you should be able to choose the carpet. You don't have to get the exact color chosen now (but make sure to include if you are allowed multiple color choices, same as with paint), but you can choose the carpet and pad.

Speaking of smoke detectors, have them add one in the laundry room. Not required by code, but a good idea.

Also, find out if the allowance is for literally just the carpet, or does it also have to include pad and installation. Our builder gave an allowance of $24/yard to include carpet, padding, installation, and sales tax.

My aunt & uncle own a carpet store and they said for me to expect to spend about .60sf (5.40sy) on carpet labor, 2.00-4.00sf (18.00-36.00sy) on carpet (good to uppper grades - not basic and not highest end either), plus you will also have the cost of the pad, and the sales tax. For us it doesn't really matter what the allowances are because we have a cost plus with a fixed fee contract. The builder does not make any extra or any less if we go above or below our allowances. Really, the allowances just give us a target amount to shoot for (or try to come under, ha!).

We are doing cost to build, so our "allowance" is just a guideline. Our builder has figured $35 per sq. yard, which inludes padding and installation. We're in Chicago, not sure how price varies throughout country.

We are building a house in Minnesota.....Builder gave us a $22/yard allowance and were able to find a carpet we liked with highest pad for just over that. With 3 small kids we didn't want to go too overboard.

Lighting we were given $1500 w/ 6 Recessed Cans also included......we went a few weeks back and got middle of the road IMO fixtures and spent $2200.

We are building a 2-story 2200 sq ft house. Our house is costing us $235K for just the house, we already owned the land.

FYI other allowances:

$7K for Cabinets
$4K for Appliances
$5K for Landscaping