How far are you in the install of the drywall and framing/studs?

Sounds steep to me ... How many total lineal diffusers?

Ask the builder "What is involved for that price? What makes it cost so much?" For that much money you want answers not guesses that you will receive here.

That's obscene. We put in 4 four foot linear diffusers and it was an additional $1200.

Problem one: Your BUILDER said. YOU should pick your own HVAC company and get bids or tell your builder to take a hike. We told every builder we interviewed, we will select our own HVAC installer and if it's a problem, you won't be building our house. Builder had no issues.

When, as is the case here, there seems to be an order of magnitude discrepancy in the pricing, it's likely there is some sort of misunderstanding. I would just clarify with the builder.

As to Pens Pl, many, maybe most, builders won't let you use your own subs for a variety of (mainly good) reasons. Also, an outside sub is rarely cheaper - at least from my own experience, particularly for HVAC work.

Many builders "favor"'their own subs. They get better deals and install the deal of the day. I've done a lot of research on companies and equipment. I'm the guy paying the bills down the road and I'm the guy paying for repairs. Typical tract builders, you are right. Custom home, well like I said I'm selecting my HVAC company or, you're not building my house. As they say, you want cheap or good?

We interviewed 5 builders, none of them had a problem with it. I don't want some low end budget garbage equipment someone is trying to unload because they got a deal on it.

Thanks for all the feedback. I have no yet begun construction. Still an empty lot. The price is for 20 linear vents (approx 60 linear feet). They claim cost is not just for vents but extra costs associated with framing and drywall. Asked for a breakdown of these specific expenses. My building contact does specify he must get at least 2 bids. Just horrified and now I'm worried I've picked the wrong builder when he was very defensive with my designer who suggested she'd been told that price should be more like $100 a linear foot installed. So cost should be more like an additional $6000.

Did you sign contracts with this guy already?

Our linear vents I believe were 4' each, so 16' for $1200.

Time to find a new builder. As JC said, framing is cheap.

I do have a signed contract. Getting my ducks in a row so I can have an informed discussion with the builder next Tuesday. Getting a HVAC quote on my own and getting a framing and dry wall number as well. Not sure how easy it would be to be to have contract broken? So disappointed I haven't even started and there's already an issue

I've been planning our house now for 2 years since we started to look for land and interview builders. I will tell you there are a lot of unscrupulous people in the business. For example, a good friend is a builder and he gave me a lead on a reputable window supplier. I got a bid emailed to me. Within the past 4 days, for grins I called a couple of local suppliers and asked for bids. They provided his on windows (36) and 3 sets of French doors. The quality was not as good as my first bid. But the prices I get were over $10K more for the same number of doors and windows that were not as good! If you don't do your homework, you can get burned.

We have a great contractor and he has no problem in us doing shopping and getting the best prices on the best components. We interviewed 5 builders. We are doing the same with HVAC, insulation and providing our own appliances. We priced out our electrical and plumbing fixtures and gave the builder a total for those, so no BS low allowances. The industry is full of con men and scam artists but, there are also good ones. YOU have to sort through the bunch of them and keep them on the straight and narrow. If not, BEND OVER.

Well now there's a visual. Thanks for the words of wisdom. Hope we can come to an understanding?

What part of FL?

Jupiter

Get your own bids and prices, ASK a lot of questions from the companies you are getting your numbers from. Then meet with your builder and start to ask him the hard questions, in other words "tell it like it is". If he squirms a bit like he's on the hot seat, so be it. You've got a right to have sold straight info and no nonsense. Like you said, you want to start off on the right foot and you don't want these issues starting before you even break ground. This is why it has taken us the time it has, I've done a lot of reading and asking a lot of questions and then we started to interview builders and each interview lasted 2 hours. With some luck if plans and engineering is done, we should break ground by years end.

Well...let's get back to linear diffusers. We don't know the design of your house or the placement of the diffusers. But think about this: linear diffusers are...linear! That means they align in a straight and unbroken line. Above the diffusers and the ceiling, the supply duct(s) must connect to the diffusers for supply air. If your design is simple, that's not much of a construction problem and the costs are largely that of the diffusers and connections.

On the other hand, if your design and/or structural framing plan are complex, and were done not considering linear diffusers, then the costs for materials and labor may not be simple.

Before you shoot yourself in the foot trying to hire your own HVAC sub, you need to do some analysis and inspection of your own particular and unique situation.

Good luck!

Slot diffusers + grille are like $80 upcharge. $36,000 in many areas will frame you entire 5,000 - 6,000 sq ft house. I do not know how many little soffits they have to build, in addition sometimes soffits are built on opposite side to keep the symmetry. Price seems steep.

So to be fair on Virgil's point - if the spec has the diffuser running across all your ceiling joists and you have to engineer a steel beam to do that - then yes, the cost is possible. However, I would think that working with HVAC folks to change the direction of the diffuser to run parallel to the joists would be a simpler answer. ;-)

So yes - do ask what's driving the cost and what could be done to mitigate it.