We are owner-building, and getting together that materials list was a daunting task. A very good place to start is at your building materials store - I used Lowe's. Leave your plan with a commercial sales rep and they will work you up a materials list with prices. After that my DH did lots of thinking, sketching and planning to come up with some quantities. Mentally walk through your house making note of light fixtures, flooring, ectera. If you're doing this yourself, there will inevitably be something you forget (mine was nails, and we're buying a ton of them!), but you can get relatively close and leave some padding in your budget for extras.

I would feel kinda guilty taking the plan to Lowe's for a list right now since I any Lowe's near us won't be one we are likely to buy from. It is also tricky since we are doing post and beam, straw bale.

Search the forum. This is a commonly discussed issues.

Try this web site and download their Excel spreadsheet

Here is a link that might be useful: Excel cost estimate format

Thanks for your responses. I didn't find quite what I was looking for when I searched last time but I will try again, merging lists and different search terms. Are there many out that that are more specific (ie nails/screws/12-2 wire vs plumbing/wiring)?

An owner's construction cost estimate should not be calculated from the size and length of each run of wire or pipe. You are trying to predict what subs will ask for the work so it is best to use unit prices for each fixture and outlet just as they do, unless, of course, you plan to build the house yourself.

You buy a residential cost book from RS Means or others and it will give you every possible category of material with its unit material and labor cost with a modification factor for your location.

If you want it in all on a spreadsheet it will cost quite a bit more. No one does this kind of work for free.

Are you saying your house is gonna be built with straw bails? If so, I don't know where you would find an estimate on that because it's very unusual. You would need to find a GC that has done several to get a good estimate.

The walls will be made with straw bales (and posts and beams) but we will be building it ourselves, because you mentioned it is unusual and few builders have any experience with it. I am just looking for suggestions on how to estimate the cost of materials only, not labor. I suspect I will just have to gradually make a list as I go about researching and learning how houses are built.

I'll second meldy's "rant". We paid $2,000 for a Str Eng to draw up a framing plan, and it was money well spent. Makes sure we transfer loads from top to bottom and keep stiff floors... and it can be part of your contract with a framer to guarantee that it's done correctly.

I'll also second that most (but not all) of the folks in the home building line of work don't accept new construction techniques well. Spray Foam, SIPs, Straw Bales, HVAC zoning, Tankless Water, etc. Most just don't want to mess with the unfamiliar.

meldy-thanks for the input. I hadn't heard of the 15%/5% study before. I think I may have read the book by the anti bale guy you mention. I know when I first heard of it I thought "what a bad idea.
We will definitely be getting an engineer for the post and beam part of the structure. I don't have the time or desire to learn all I would need to know to be sure the house doesn't fall down on our heads.

WTH is this post on the first page????????

please note that this forum has a policy of:

Does anybody realize this is a 5 yld thread?? That's why I was wondering HITH did it get on the FIRST page??

Another spammer showed up the other day, but his post was deleted.