What's a fair price for a new shop?

Hey Everyone,
I am new here and have spent many hours looking at many of your shops. I live in Grand Junction, CO and am budgeting for building a workshop on my 2 acres out here. I've gotten a few quotes on doing a 30x50 with 12' walls and two or three garage doors. This includes labor and a 5" concrete slab but no electrical insulation or heat as I'll do that myself. The quotes have ranged from $39,250 up to $70,000! From what I've seen on here these just seem high. I'm thinking of doing stick frame with lap siding and a shingle roof to match the house. This shop will sit on the front of our property so it's important to the Mrs. that it looks nice. Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I spent about 55K 3 years ago on mine. It's 2560 sq.ft of heated, insulated space and 1920 sq.ft of unheated space. That's about $12.30/ sq.ft average. I did the labor. It's in northern Colorado.

High compared to what?

What is your basis?

Denver here, $28 sq' finished with concrete, electric, insulated, heated 14' ceilings. See profile for more info.

bczygan said:

High compared to what?

What is your basis?

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High compared to other builds of similar stature and specs on here. Jomobco's shop for instance is $28 sq ft finished, heated and electrical. The cheapest I've found out here is $26 sq ft for the shell and concrete. I understand that material prices fluctuate drastically. I just need input to make sure I'm not spending too much. I've never undertaken anything like this and have to hire it out as I don't have the time to do it myself. Thanks for your help guys.

I've been getting quotes in VA.
Not the cheapest but the one I'll probally go with is 29' 4" x 44 block building with 12' side walls, 4" pad, troweled on died mortar finish (kind of like stucco), sill plate anchors and sill plate installed, and foam flled block cores for right at $16K. That does include grading as I'm about 38-40" out of level, digging and pouring the footers and compacted crushed stone under the pad. It does not include man door, garage doors or any kind of roof. I've already bought the man door for him to install when the block are laid, garage door people will handle the bay doors and a differant contractor will be setting the attic trusses that I'm quoting out.
I'm hoping to be less than $25K when all is finished.

I'm around $5.34/sq. right now, but I still need to do electrical, insulation, a little plumbing, and wall covering. Shop is 26' x 36'.

I'm just finishing my 2500 SF completely finished garage with heated floor and bathroom for $35/SF in Denver. I was the general contractor though and worked pretty hard to keep the numbers where they are.

I was quoted anywhere between $150k and $200k to have it built by others...

I was about $30 sq ft 3 years ago, and I did most of the finishing work inside myself. Yours is bigger than mine so $/sq ft should come down a bit. Also depends on how many extras you add and what type of construction you do.

I think your estimates are in the ballpark, but you don't give much detail what you are having them quote.

Rodbolt said:

High compared to other builds of similar stature and specs on here. Jomobco's shop for instance is $28 sq ft finished, heated and electrical. The cheapest I've found out here is $26 sq ft for the shell and concrete. I understand that material prices fluctuate drastically. I just need input to make sure I'm not spending too much. I've never undertaken anything like this and have to hire it out as I don't have the time to do it myself. Thanks for your help guys.

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Heated is a pellet stove however with the insulation it works great. Very comfortable in the winter. Mine is post and frame though. Concrete was done by a neighbor in the biz. My builder simply ordered a building to my spec from Menards in North Platte, NE and shipped it out and built it. Not rocket science but it's a good building and exactly what I wanted. I wouldn't use the same GC though. His crew was good but the GC was a *****.

I wanted a 24X38 shop and the cheapest estimate I received was $45,000 plus finance fees. It was just too much money. I decided to join Habitat for Humanity to gain the needed building skills, and save the money up and build it myself, which I did for $14,000. I worked on it every day thru the week after work for 2 hours, and 8 hours on Saturday. It took me 9 months to build it but I saved tens of thousands of dollars, and I enjoy it more because I built it myself. Everything inside the garage including the height of the work bench is custom made for me. If you do hire a contractor do an in depth investigation or you may be sorry latter on. To plan it out drive stakes in the ground and run strings around the stakes to get an idea of the size and placement of things. This will avoid the I wish I built it bigger syndrome, and I wish I had put my compressor in this corner instead of that one. The more planning you do the better.

Rodbolt said:

High compared to other builds of similar stature and specs on here. Jomobco's shop for instance is $28 sq ft finished, heated and electrical. The cheapest I've found out here is $26 sq ft for the shell and concrete. I understand that material prices fluctuate drastically. I just need input to make sure I'm not spending too much. I've never undertaken anything like this and have to hire it out as I don't have the time to do it myself. Thanks for your help guys.

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OK,

I'm an estimator. I can price your project down to 1% accuracy, or better. You can do that too. But to do that, you need a combination of things working for you.

First, you need a detailed set of construction documents. This includes plans, specs, and selections.

This gives you something to give bidders to base their prices on.

Then you need at least 3 qualified bidders in your local area. Bids or prices elsewhere don't do much good.

Qualified, means they can do the work on schedule and to the quality level you expect.

Now, you need these bidders to give you itemized bids, not lump sum. Completely broken down, with labor, material, quantities, selections etc.

The purpose of this is to make sure they are all bidding on the same job. Apples to apples.

Many bidders won't do this unless they are into doing construction management contracts.

Now, you compare and adjust each bid so they are all bidding the same detail. You should end up with most bids bunched up around the same number. This is the real cost in your locale at this point in time.

The other method is to take those same documents and do a materials takeoff yourself, and then price materials and get bids for the labor for each trade. Don't forget taxes, insurance, permits, fees and OH&P.

Everything else is a wild *** guess.

But most people won't want to go to this much trouble to know exactly where they stand. So you will be at the mercy of your builder. And builders with fixed price contracts and fuzzy or not well detailed construction documents (Which are part of the contract) have a million places to make a profit (And reduce the quality of your build) in a contract.

The best contractors are not afraid of full disclosure. Look for one of those guys.

What's a fair price?

One where the contractor makes enough profit to operate. This means a smooth running job. A sophisticated and knowledgeable owner who works hand in glove with the contractor helps make this so.

Also one where the owner gets exactly what he expects in the job because everything was spelled out in detail beforehand in the contract documents. A smooth, quick job is important here too.

Bill

Thanks for all the great advice! Admittedly I'm a bit unorganized and still learning this process. I don't have detailed plans yet but I'm getting closer. I didn't want to spend money on a lot of planning till I determined whether or not I can even afford to do the project. Hence trying to get some quotes. I've talked to a good friend who owned his carpentry business prior to going into law enforcement and I think I can bribe him into framing it for me with my help for some side money. He's working on plans and a lumber list for me. I've talked to other recommended subs and I think I can easily be my own GC on this and save some money. I might as well since I'll be babysitting the project either way. I feel like I'm being a tight wad but it may mean being able to build a bigger shop on my budget. Now the hardest part, getting the wife to agree with me on my plans and budget.....