Approximate man hours for 1000 sf ranch style

Started by jbos333, June 22, 2017, 05:35:25 PM

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jbos333

Hi all,

I'm sure this question has been asked many times over, but does anyone have a rough guesstimate of how many man hours would it take to build/finish an average ranch style home of say, 1000 sq. ft? I'm talking on a basement foundation (I am not figuring the basement in to the man hours as I have a couple quotes for that already). And skilled labor that know what they're doing.

Thanks in advance for any wisdom/experience you may be able to offer.

akwoodchuck

Not enough info....for a simple rectangle, no garage, straight roofline, T- 111 siding, economy/ off the rack finishes/fixtures, me and my partner could probably knock that out in 500 hours, turn- key.....
....for a cut- up design with lots of corners, porches/decks, fine finishes and lots of custom work that could easily triple or quadruple....
"The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne."


jbos333

Thanks, akwoodchuck for the reply.

Yeah, I know there's lots of variables. This would be a simple rectangle, no fancy finishes, basically builder's grade stuff. No porch/decks. Maybe vinyl siding over sheathing.

Just wanted to get an idea. I would like to do a lot of the work myself, but it probably isn't realistic. I do have access to a great Amish crew for the dry-in and/or finishes if necessary. I can hire local pros for plumbing/electrical stuff.

So maybe 1000 man hours is a reasonable figure to use?


akwoodchuck

Yeah 1000 would be a reasonable expectation in my mind...and a six man crew can get a LOT more work done than two with the same amount of hours...usually. I don't know about the Amish...do they use power tools?  ;D
"The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne."

jbos333

These Amish guys will use power tools if I provide them. I had the same crew put up a pole barn for me using my circular saw, DeWalt screwguns etc.


MushCreek

1000 hours sounds awfully tight. I looked up my 1440 sq ft house on a site (I don't remember what site) that estimates cost-to-build based on zip code. At my quality and trim level, the house came in over $300K! The estimator also came up with 5000 man hours! That includes the walk-out basement, site work, etc. Working alone, it took me more like 7000 hours, but working alone is incredibly inefficient. You spend whole days rigging stuff up to do a two hour job by yourself.

Our house is a basic ranch, but there is a lot of detail. I site-built all of the kitchen cabinets, where buying and installing ready-made ones would have saved me months of work. There's also lots of stuff that I've never done before, so I spent a lot of time studying and learning where a pro would have been working.

5000 man hours sounds like a lot, but if you figure 5 people working on your house, that's only 4 months- pretty quick for a custom build like mine. I have a friend who had a modular built, and it wound up taking 6 months. They were quoted 3 months, but site work ate up a lot of time.
Jay

I'm not poor- I'm financially underpowered.

jbos333

Thanks, MushCreek!

My 1000 hours would be strictly the house portion, separate from site work, basement, septic, power, well. I have a decent handle on what those items will cost- I have already secured some estimates on those.


My purpose for trying to get an idea of man hours on the house portion itself is mainly to weigh the pros and cons of a modular vs. a stick build of the same size. The modular prices I have gotten so far have been in the $130 per sq ft range for a single story design.

SouthernTier

jbos: you still building in New Albion?   I might get started soon finally, too, a couple of towns over.  Got my CattCo septic permit (sand filter unfortunately) and will be meeting with the building inspector soon to go over the plans.

Would be interested in your arrangements with Amish folks doing some of the work.  Some friends have gotten a lot of wood from them, but haven't had any of them do any of the construction work.

jbos333

SouthernTier,

PM me and I can give you the address, although you may be too far away for this guy to travel (has to get to the job by horse and buggy- no rides from "English" folks allowed, except for estimates). I forget where you were at. He's in Leon. Even so, maybe he would know of someone equally as good that was closer.


wisconsheepgirl

The general guideline as I understood it is 1 hr per square foot. So that is for one person.  1000 sq/ft= 1000 hrs for one person. Two people--it is now 500 hrs per person per square foot, and on and on.