Can I build a log home (turnkey) in the $100,000. price range?

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Permalink Reply by tom brodeur on November 24, 2008 at 2:57am

Al,

I have considered being my own GC and have done some reading on it. I think the hardest part is the scheduling of contractors. I know there are a lot of things I could do but I am handicapped by living 250 miles from my building site. My property is not far from Walloon Lake if you know where that is. Where is the strip mall? I was always under the impression building up was cheaper than building out.

Tom

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Permalink Reply by John Petrey on February 9, 2009 at 7:35am

Dear Al, and anyone else with great wisdom,

complete newbie here. I have so many questions, but will start with

1. Are there some reputable Log home package dealers/sellers out there that are fair and honest in materials, product, pricing, and not priced just for Millionaires.

2, in response to your note above. How do you go about finding log mills that do not advertise? and how do you know if the logs are really in fact GREAT?

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Permalink Reply by MishyP on November 30, 2008 at 2:58pm

Tom best thing going is you will build two homes and learn alot from the first. It might be tough to hit 100K turnkey without alot of hands on. We built our log home as our primary residence within 1 hour of Townsend in the last two years. I often think about how much we could save building another home with our experience from the first still using subs. The primary savings being the cost of a package vs. going to a mill/other direct supplier and getting all the material on our own. Since I had the complete material list from our project I went online and priced just about every material in the package from one of the log home companies who advertise in the large magazines. Wow we could have paid retail prices to others and still came in about 50% of our material package cost of about 90K. I have plenty of facts and figures and our home was less than 2K sq ft, 1K sqft wrap around covered porch farmhouse style with the exposed beam roof system. There is some definite savings if you leave the comfort zone of dealing with a big company, especially in East TN/Western NC where there are many suppliers/experienced constructors. Good Luck.

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Permalink Reply by tom brodeur on December 1, 2008 at 1:33am

MishyP,

My hopes is to build 2 log homes. One in northern Michigan and the other in Townsend. The home I build in Townsend will be the more elaborate and will be considered our main residence. Your home description sounds similar to what we would be looking to build in Tennessee. I find it intriguing, you are saying if I buy the materials myself I can save a considerable sum? By the time I get ready to build in Townsend I may be in a better position to do more hands on. Thanks for the comments.

Tom

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Permalink Reply by MishyP on December 2, 2008 at 6:46pm

Yes if you don't buy a full package and buy the pieces seperately. If you stay with a straight forward design like ours more reason. You might be able to find a package for much less. You will have costs for things like plans, not sure about warranty, you would have to cut out windows/doors (vs. numbered pieces cut to spec) but all this to me is worth a big savings especially if you want to stay under 100K.

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Permalink Reply by tom brodeur on December 3, 2008 at 2:13am

MishyP,

Who did you work with and what style of log did you choose ( saddle, butt and pass, dovetail, full log, D shape ...)? In that area what type of wood is used? Did you do any of the work yourself? Did you attend any seminars? Sorry for all the questions. I think this dialogue can only help any others who are following this string.

Thanks,
Tom

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Permalink Reply by Dave on December 3, 2008 at 10:57am

I second all those questions...we love the look of the full log, but our company advised us that the cost will increase a little due to the increased difficulty by the contractor for connecting walls, etc. D shape is apparently easier. I think we are settled on the saddle logs also. Good luck!

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Permalink Reply by MishyP on December 3, 2008 at 7:55pm

Tom here are the answers I am willing to share extreme details but I will remain somewhat vague in this public forum on the company name so as not to the overly bias you and others. I think their product was good just better/cheaper ways to do it Log home magazines etc are great but seem to not address the lower tier market/suppliers below the big boys. We got the bug and moved kind of quickly and probably paid a higher price. I think diligence is the answer and with 100K budget you seem willing to do the work I wasn't.
1. company is HQ within 100 mi of knoxville
2. log style 8x8 D with dovetail corners(dovetail looks great glad I listened to hubby)
3.white pine logs, doug fir for all heavy structural roof flooring components(some companys in the radius or smaller/cheaper versions use all white pine )
4. We did some small amounts ourselves but used the company to GC us through mechanical complete and the GC even kept helping us get subs after officially being done. I will say the turnkey estimate the log home company gave us so we could get our loan turned out to be real close to our final cost even with us doing some ourselves. My husband was on site every day keeping things moving.
5. I attended a seminar by this company and it was excellent on details. Especially for a do it yourselfer, no buying pressure, and even folks not buying their product were there soaking up the details on how to build themselves.

Keep asking I'll keep answering.

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Permalink Reply by Shelley Martinez on December 3, 2008 at 11:29am

Hi Tom,
You might want to give Randy Rich / Rich Construction a call. 989-350-1327. He's located in Gaylord. He can answer some pricing questions and he was able to keep us under budget. He has been around a while and has great connections w/ the flooring, roofing,custom cabinetry and the tongue & groove wood we used in our cabin. (I think I told you we just got the shell and had him get the other items to save $) I think on our next one we will GC it ourselves to save more dollars and we would buy more of the materials direct.

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Permalink Reply by tom brodeur on December 3, 2008 at 3:25pm

Thanks Shelley,

I still want to get up to see your place. It looks like it won't be for awhile though (probably spring). I can't get to my property now with the 20 inches of snow that got dumped this past week. Is Randy a GC?
I have seen in the LHG magazine some packages that seem very low priced (20 to 40 thousand) and have been told a general rule of thumb is to triple the package price for a full cost estimate. I know a lot of this depends on the materials used to finish the home but would you say that rule is ballpark?

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Permalink Reply by Shelley Martinez on December 3, 2008 at 6:01pm

Hi Tom - Randy Gc'd our project - but he's willing to let someone else GC as well.
In regards to pricing the packages - there are just too many variables involved to use a set formula of tripling the price of the package to get your cost estimate. Variables such as if you are going to have a basement, covered porch, the design, finishes like you mentioned and also what the package includes. You have to compare all the log home manufacturers and what's included in their package - it's not necessarily apples to apples. One mfgr might seem initially cheaper on price but then you might find you have to buy more materials which makes it higher than the next guy. I would suggest putting together an excel spread sheet. Also, it boils down to what you like - and the quality of the logs you are comparing. You want something price competitive - but I advise also looking for quality. Also - talk to several log home builders - they should be able to help you nail down the cost.
All the best!

Shelley

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Permalink Reply by Randy Esposito on December 3, 2008 at 6:20pm

Shelley is right, throw all that triple or double the package price stuff out the window. There are so many variables in building in a house that it's impossible to price constructing a home that way. I've many "salesmen" use that technique to try and get the lead hooked and put down a deposit before they do their due diligence on actual construction cost.

If you know the general footprint of the home you can narrow down a good chunk of the price of building a home without even looking at building packages. You can find out your sitework (driveway, septic, excavating) costs, well, foundation right off. I know here in CT just those items alone you are looking at usually around $40K right from the start. But that figure varies all over the country.

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