one thing I would like to ask you. I have always found it difficult to accept the idea of running the utility lines under the concrete (especially footings and other sensitive areas). Have you considered running the lines in a way that would allow them to be buried deep and insulated and enter the sides of the house in locations where they are needed, but at the same time allow access if something goes wrong? Or is that something that building codes prohibit, do you know?
The square ones were very expensive, I do remember looking around a little before coming across the inexpensive round ones and they did a great job for a fraction of the cost. Some commercial jobs require the square ones
Good job on keeping excellent records. One day your grandchildren will look back at this and marvel at your work. Seriously, you are doing fantastic and your beautiful helper ain’t bad either. I mean Elaina, not Georgie, by the way.
That will be pretty cool that all this could be out in the interwebs well past our lifetimes. We couldn't be doing this project without the help of each other!! I forgot to mention it in the video but Elaina has put in just as much of her time and energy! -Alex
@@MasonDixonAcres You make a great team. I’m sure Elaina knows that you appreciate her. Just a piece of advice from an old lady…we like to hear it sometimes. 😉
@ling51 not much cheaper at all, definitely worth doing a full basement. It was only like $3500 cheaper to do a crawlspace, so we decided to just pay the extra $3500 for a full basement and get an extra 1,020 square feet out of it, it was kind of a no brainer for us
@@NotTelling51 I mean even then, the cost increase to go from a slab to a full basement definitely seems worth it. Every person I talked to with a slab wishes they had just gone with a full basement from the get go. We took that into consideration and didn't wanna be in that same situation 20 years from now
Thought about it, decided to go the more traditional route for my first ever project of this scale. It may also have complicated some utility entrances for my specific layout. There are probably a couple other reasons I am blanking on, but overall it certainly could have been done to save a couple grand on footers and block.
60 bucks am hour x 30 hours x 12 weeks = $21,600 + $24,700 = $46,300 for a 1440 square feet slab on grade with 8 x 16 footing and 40" block CMU wall over 12 weeks is $32 a square foot foundation job. My contractor wants $22 a square foot (labor and material) to do a walkout basement on sloped land with 9 feet tall block wall with usable space 2000 square feet foundation to including grading the driveway all the way to the entrance with backfill, my family said: "no too expensive." I am not sure what to think any more
Lowes! HD actually had them listed for like $1.30 a block but it must have been a mistake in their system bc the pro desk wasn’t able to order them. They still printed me off a valid quote however, and i took it right over to Lowe’s where they have a price match policy and they were forced to match it. And got free delivery! I should also note that both of these particular stores get their block from York Building Products who has a block plant directly next to them, so that majorly cuts their shipping costs.
Nice video but like u said 30 hours a week over 12 weeks. If you average that at 40 dollars an hour you adding about 14,500 extra in labor. People need to not base prices from contractors or this video
This is nuts. Every contractor I've talked to in my area wants to charge $80K plus for a 2100sqft home. At that rate, I'm losing equity. These contractors are bullshit, trying to get their half a year's salary on one job.
That will be included in a future cost breakdown for all the tools we bought, and that machine has played a role in basically every step of the build so I’m not attributing it only to foundation cost
Wowee. I will say i was very choosy with every vendor for each line item, searching to find the best price on materials. Doing a good bit of the labor ourselves certainly helped
Some of these prices may have gone up but some are actually lower now because this was still in the worst of the post-covid material spike. I was really selective about the suppliers for everything, researching multiple for each item and only purchasing the lowest priced. My price for CMU was pretty lucky, HD had it listed on their site for like $1.65/block but out of stock (likely an error), I took that price to Lowes who had to match it for their block which was like $2.15. A complete package from a supply house would have been much more, found that for lumber as well
@Eric Fraser Because it’s not worth cutting the concrete with heat pipes unless you stop trying to be so cheap and pour an extra inch to help insure the pipes don’t get cut. Those pipes will float when pouring.
Wow, another homeowner who thinks he’s a plumber, concrete, Hvac guy. And gips the concrete guys out of their money after dealing with this guy for a labor only job. Yay, great savings. Quit your day job,now your a contractor!
Yeah and people used to build their own homes all the time. Hell you used to be able to order a home from Sears. My grandfather and grandmother built their first home back in the 50's which was this size. A self built homeowner doesn't have to be as good as the best in all trades. They need to understand what needs to happen and hire out accordingly. The issue is that he should have paid a little more for the slab pour. That extra money would have gone towards the concrete guys relationship with the plant to guarantee prompt delivery. I just hope he took core samples of the concrete. He ordered 4000 psi? who knows what came in those trucks...
