Well we had $20k on clearing and grading. $16k for windows. $600k build of 4000 sq with smaller porches and garage but a unifinished basement.

As soon as you build typical house on typical land in a typical style you can assign percentages to typical costs.

Here's how our percentage broke down, the land was not included, and all of our miscellaneous equipment rentals and trips to the store fell under Framing. So many trips would've fallen into multiple buckets and I didn't have time to seperate the receipt.

Sorry, the spacing and formatting is not sticking...

Estimate Actual
Framing 14.8% 15.4%
Structured Wiring 0.9% 0.6%
Windows and Doors 10.0% 9.0%
Countertops 2.0% 2.0%
Finish Work 7.2% 8.7%
Plumbing Fixtures 2.3% 2.9%
Site Prep 5.9% 7.1%
Flooring 2.6% 2.7%
HVAC 4.0% 3.7%
Tile 3.5% 3.9%
Drywall 3.4% 1.7%
Insulation 2.7% 3.4%
Appliances 4.9% 4.6%
Lighting Fixtures 2.5% 1.6%
Cabinets 6.1% 6.8%
Electrical 2.2% 2.9%
Foundation 8.9% 7.6%
Plumbing 2.1% 1.5%
Exterior 12.2% 11.1%
Landscaping 1.6% 2.8%
Total 10.8%

bd_peck, did you use a GC or do it yourself? How would you classify your home "finish", i.e. higher-end? I seem to remember that your home sounded very nicely finished but I could be confusing you with someone else - I've read a lot of forum posts!
Nan

thank you 'bdpeck-charlotte'

bdpeck-charlotte, if you're in the Charlotte, NC area, I'd love to find out who you used for plumbing & electric and maybe a few other subs. Our plumbing & electric bids are coming in way over budget. Would you mind shooting me an email @ lroberts72@triad.rr.com?

aupatrick- What brand & type of windows are you going with? Where are you in the south?

See the link below. This is a survey of members of the National Association of Homebuilders. It provides average costs by category.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1427119}}

Nanj, we did GC ourselves. I haven't met a single custom builder down here. They build unique plans with their personal specs, and don't stray much from those customer to customer. To me, that's not custom, it's an expensive tract home.

I think our finishes are high end:
Brick and Stone exterior
Tiled Deck
Finished in place hardwood throughout (the only carpet is the theater room in the basement)
Travertine and Slate tile for showers and tub surrounds.
Heated floor in master bath.
Multi-nozzle shower in master.
Clawfoot jetted tub in master
Granite countertops throughout all baths and kitchen. (Marble in the laundry room, we won't be using marble again, scratches too easy)
Solid core doors (not your standard 6 or 2 panel either)
Mahogany exterior french doors
Tankless water heater
Whole house water filter
Zoned 16 SEER HVAC, with ERV and HEPA filter
Closed Cell Spray Foam insulation
Climate Controlled Wine Cellar
Home Theater (100 inch screen)
Whole House Audio

We probably could have done more elaborate trim, but we're already one of the nicest houses in the subdivision and we have lots of the extras others don't. Gonna be a long time before we could break even if we had to sell.

bdpeck - I am pretty surprised about your comment about custom home builders. Only because there are a ton around here (Raleigh). And by custom, I do mean individual floor plans designed by a designer or architect. I know I've seen truly custom homes near my inlaws near Lake Norman - in fact on their (modest) street is a home that wouldn't be allowed in any subdivision in Wake County - because it is too custom.

bdpeck...
Did you include the cost of your roof in the "Exterior" category?
Also, did you include the cost of your Whole House Audio or Home Automation System?

Thanks,
Todd

Yes, the roof is in Exterior. And I included the wiring done by contractors, myself, speakers and the audio distribution system in there.

David, I think it depends on your definition of custom home. There are hundreds of builders around here who will take a plan you picked out or had designed by an architect and build it. But that builder builds a certain way structurally (choice of trusses vs I Joists, foam vs fiberglass vs blown cellulose, stick frame roof vs truss) and really won't deviate on that. Then they have their flooring guy, cabinet guy, lighting showroom they send you to, tile company, etc... To me, a custom builder gets the floor plan from his/her client's architect, they provide a detailed list of how they normally build a house for a client, and if the client wants something different, the response should be "no problem" (unless they want a house made of gingerbread?) I got lots of hemming, hawwing, and huge price increases, and my supplier doesn't carry that, my guy doesn't install that, etc. And then, they'd quote with their specs instead of mine anyway. That's just not custom in my book.

aupatrick, where are you located in the south? We were given $425,000 by some friends that had resently built their own home and said we could build for. Well, we have bid out with 5 guys, 1 which has not responded, and all the other 4 came in at $550+. So we are back at square one thinking that we may build it ourself. Are you the GC?

How did you come up with you percentages? Is this something you can generalize from or is it specific to your build?

I would like to come up with something similar taking our budget number and working backwards.

All of my percentages were based on my particular build. I had some quotes and bids, I estimated the other Estimate percentages based on my building cost knowledge. Some of the finish costs like appliances and cabinets could be lowered on other builds, and you can spend less on insulation and items like that, but the guts of the house percentages should be a good starting point for most builds.

Thanks! I am thinking the appliance percentage may be a bit high based on the percentage of total cost - that number puts it about 10k higher than I was thinking. . . and we are planning on professional quality stuff.

Good place to start though!

mbwaldrop--- aupatrick is in the south. The budget is $420,000 total cost to build (approx. 4000 sf). That amount does not include builder's overseeing fee.

Yeah, our appliance budget was on the extravagant side... around $30,000. Two dishwashers, 36" all fridge, 36" all freezer, Trash Compactor, Beverage Center... and a crazy oven that's on all the time. So we went pretty nuts with that budget.

bdpeck-charlotte:

Do you have any photos, an online album or anything? Everything you've listed describes the home we built ourselves about 5 yrs ago!

Unfortunately, we are about to rebuild, thanks to a particularly nasty tornado that came through southern Oklahoma in Feb 09.

We aren't straying too far from many of our original choices (why fix if it wasn't broke?), but are looking to improve upon any areas we wished we'd done a bit differently. Main diff this time around: one-story instead of two. Bigger pad, more dirt-work, but the older we get the more attractive a single-story home becomes.

If you'd rather than share any photos for any reason, no worries. I'd just love to see what sounds like an absolutely gorgeous home. BTW, I completely agree w/your TRUE description of "custom" as it applies to home-building.

The GC situation in our area is similar to yours, but we found a builder who understands our standards, realizes I'm a person with VERY strong opinions, and was open to the fact that I refuse to build without two specific men who kept me sane the first time. It almost trivializes their contribution to our first home to call them "subs", not to mention the trusting relationships that developed during the previous build, but I knew I couldn't rebuild without my painter and my carpenter.

Any builder who wasn't willing to work w/them (for whatever reason - had their own guys, so on) wasn't going to be the right builder for us.