[hl0m4n]

my parents are thinking about demolishing our home and rebuilding within the next <15 years. i like the idea myself, but what are the costs to such a project?

how much does it take to demolish the current house, prep land, and build the new house? i know the home blue prints are on me but just to demolish and prep the land does that cost a fortune?

anyone know exact process and cost guide to such a project? how long does a typical home take to be built?

the reason why we don't want to buy a new house is our area is amazing, priviate and we don't want to leave it. give it take next 20-30 years once all our neighbors either move out, sell, remodel, etc our neighborhood would become a much upscale one. everyone loves our current spot so we really don't want to move to another location.

help much appreciated, thanks guys.

[CollinsE90]

more than you can afford, pal.

[hl0m4n]

Originally Posted by CollinsE90

more than you can afford, pal.

ferrari ?

[BTM]

Depending on what you're tearing down vs. what you plan on building, it's pretty expensive. Are there absolutely no renditions of an addition you would be happy with? You can add on to an existing basement/foundation a lot easier than you can demolish one and pour a new one. I guess it really comes down to what you have now, and where you want to be - but it's almost always easier/cheaper to build an addition over an entire new house.

As for how fast it can get done, this again depends on whether you're actually demolishing or building an addition. I take it since you're considering a demolition you won't need to be inhabiting the house while construction takes place - this can greatly speed up the building process.

FWIW I am not personally a contractor but work for a construction related business and am drawing off experiences when my dad was remodeling our house and nearly doubling the sq footage. You'd be surprised at what can be done with additions given a competent architect

[hl0m4n]

^ yea i saw alot of episodes on hgtv where they redid the outside of their house and made additions to match and doubled their sq footage.

but if i took that route, wouldn't the plumbing, heating, etc in the house be the same and we just renivated the outside, took some walls down, and made extension/additions on the outside to match thus only the extenstions are new while the original house is still the same just with a renivated exterior?

compared to completely demolishing the old house, blue printing a new one and build a new eco friendly home?

[BTM]

Originally Posted by hl0m4n

but if i took that route, wouldn't the plumbing, heating, etc in the house be the same and we just renivated the outside, took some walls down, and made extension/additions on the outside to match thus only the extenstions are new while the original house is still the same just with a renivated exterior?

compared to completely demolishing the old house, blue printing a new one and build a new eco friendly home?

Your plumbing, HVAC, etc, would not necessarily remain constant. This is one of the things the architect does - incorporates what you have into what you want. For my particular case, we added a furnace (so we have 2 total) and changed out the AC and added on ducting so one unit can handle everything.

Again, you'd be amazed at where you can end up with what you're starting with - if I were you I'd pursue this route until you knew for sure you couldn't accomplish the final result you're looking for.

[Couch]

Is that suppose to be 1.5 years?

Thinking about something like this 15 years in advance is pretty crazy because your parents minds will probably change.

There's a family in the neighborhood I grew up in that demolished their home (slab and all) and built a new one. Not sure the costs, but I believe it was something like $25K+ for the demo and removal.

[angrybaker]

it takes 1 day. Extreme home makeover.....every week they do it in one hour.

[gtrokin330]

Contractors charge about $125.00 per square foot to build a normal house. (Demo of old house to finish of new house.) $150.00 per square if you want something pretty nice and $200.00 for something much nicer.

[NJ65]

If you include cost and time of getting approved blueprints, licensing, demo, and rebuild, the $200/sqft is probably the best estimate to go by. And i would set aside 4 months for every 1000/sqft in terms of timeline, unless you really got the dough to get a commitment from the GC to keep his people there at your jobsite, not hoping around.

[vexx786]

It cost us around 2 million (excluding the price of the land.) We bought land, demolished the previous house, and built a new house on top. It's a 5000 sq ft house, the land size I'm unsure about.

[gonzo]

In 1.5 years or 15, both are a ways out, it should be the same action as today.

Get 3 bids. Interview contractor check on refs. Make decision.

Don't rely on crap like the BBB as a strong indicator of their worth/exp. Ask for refs with phone #'s. They are who you want to talk with not his/hers credentials.

[gtrokin330]

Originally Posted by NJ65

If you include cost and time of getting approved blueprints, licensing, demo, and rebuild, the $200/sqft is probably the best estimate to go by. And i would set aside 4 months for every 1000/sqft in terms of timeline, unless you really got the dough to get a commitment from the GC to keep his people there at your jobsite, not hoping around.

My numbers didnt include licensing and blueprints so yeah, $200 per sq foot is good.

We just started a 4000 sqft home, its costing the homeowner about $600k (licensing,demo,rebuild but not furnishing) and should be complete in about 6-7 months. This house is getting nothing but the best of building materials aswell.

[nferber]

If you are looking at demolishing the house, contact your local fire department and see if they want to burn it for training. Our family did that for our last house that we built.

The fire department was more then willing to do a controlled burn on the house and use it for training (for free). And after the training, torched the rest of the house. We got a huge tax write off for 'donating' the house to the fire department, and it also saved a lot on demolition/removal since the house was mostly a pile of ash.

Something to think about, with the tax write off and the saving on demo/removal it could save you a lot of money. But then again it depends on where you live and if the fire dept. is willing.

[NJ65]

nferber, that is plain full of awesome, never would have thought of that myself. Will keep that in mind, thanks! But as I'm in Cali, will prolly have to get something stupid like a CARB sticker, heh.

[BTM]

Originally Posted by nferber

If you are looking at demolishing the house, contact your local fire department...

Wow never heard of this before...certainly cool and worked out for the best

[Feyd]

Originally Posted by BTM

Wow never heard of this before...certainly cool and worked out for the best

Rest assured they won't do it in a heavily populated area because of the risk of burning down other houses/pissing off tax payers. I'm from the sticks and I've known people who'll do this... of course the next house might be a mile away.

My dad owns some farm ground that he's let grow up with tall grasses, etc. Part of some kind of land managment program through the government where he actually gets paid to have it grown up. In return all he has to do is mow it down every year, but I know for several years running (when I was younger) they'd bring the new fire department recruits out and start controlled brush fires for training..

[nferber]

Yeah, this was 20 some years ago. And it was also on 20 acres of land out in the sticks, so no close neighbors.

It was really fun to watch as a kid. I think they brought in 3-4 neighboring fire departments and ran training for 4-5 hours, then lit the whole place up and let it burn. Really fascinating as a kid to watch firefighters in action. And the tax write off was also really nice for my parents.

[hl0m4n]

wow good info . yea it is 15 years, it along way but i want to just get an aspect of going through the project in terms of procedure, etc.

the current house is paid off and per sq ft it costing us $325 on avg. so once we find the right contractor, architecht, etc the contractor takes care of demo and rebuild?

so from what i got so far is...
demo & clean: $50k
blue print, permit, etc: ?
land prep: ?
house: $325 sq ft
time: 6-7 months

if only it were the home makeover guys building the house less than a week .

[Couch]

Originally Posted by hl0m4n

wow good info . yea it is 15 years, it along way but i want to just get an aspect of going through the project in terms of procedure, etc.

the current house is paid off and per sq ft it costing us $325 on avg. so once we find the right contractor, architecht, etc the contractor takes care of demo and rebuild?

so from what i got so far is...
demo & clean: $50k
blue print, permit, etc: ?
land prep: ?
house: $325 sq ft
time: 6-7 months

if only it were the home makeover guys building the house less than a week .

In 15 years those prices are going to change quite a bit though.