This isn’t mine. It is being done near where I am building, and I am just quoting the foundation for the guy doing it.
The pic is for a Superior Walls precast panel foundation, but try to rough out a number in a formed-and-poured model based on these figures: 142 lf 9/0 wall, 19 lf 8/0 wall, 192 lf 4/0 wall, 33 corners, at least 2 footing steps, 5 piers done as tubes over pads, 2377 sf 4″ slab with at least 7 cy of slab thickening for bearings.
The house is to be done from some plans purchased from Donald A. Gardner Inc., a big plans-selling house that markets coast to coast. Plan number 780-D.
Replies
Based on your description, $49,741.00 in the heartland. When do I start?
WAHD
The reason I posted this thread is to see if our local prices for poured walls are artificially low or not.
As a poured job, there are a net 69 cy or so in the walls and footings, and another 42 cy (gross) in the slabs, piers, pads, and slab thickenings. At a total yardage of 111, some around here would apply a quick and dirty $150 per, and come up with a price a little under $17K. We can't touch that with a precast quote.
The plant is charging about $75 a yard for 3000 psi mix, delivered. That means the guy doing this for a cheap $150 per cy is getting only about $8700 to cover all his rebar, mesh, miscellaneous forms that can't be done with the panels, tubeforms, footings forms, labor, taxes, insurance, and most of all overhead and profit.
If you are a foundation builder, take a closer look and tell us about how many manhours of labor you see in this to form, pour, and strip.
Ok, I'll rebid. Thought maybe I could catch you sleeping. I am a concrete subcontractor. $32,450.00 is my bid.
WAHD
My guess this am after reading and not posting was 50k.
I might not be far off!
Dylan, you work for Superior?
Eric
Nope, not a Superior employee. They do business with franchised manufacturers (precasters) selling to a network of dealer/installers. I moonlight a little for my local dealer/installer, reengineering foundation plans to adapt to a Superior system, then put together the quotes.
I would say that 45-50k would be reasonable for a high-quality job. I've not done much estimating in my few years of concrete, but I can say with certainty that the difference between a high bidder and a low bidder can be amazing. One of the things that has always surprised me about concrete construction is that anyone with a tape measure thinks that he is as good as a professional. It takes more than a few nails to make sure that what you've got at the top of your forms is the same as what you layed out, if you even did that correctly. It drives me crazy that hacks out there will charge half of what other guys will because they think they can throw together a couple of pieces of 3/4 in a day and a half and call it good. But worse than that is the GC who prides himself on quality work and has a crummy foundation subcontractor.
WAHD, where do you do work?
If you've worked around superior walls, I'm curious what you think of them.
I've only seen one of their foundations. Didn't get much of a chance to look it over, though.If the universe is everything, and scientists say that the universe is expanding, what is it expanding into?
I'd also to interested in any experience with superior walls as well as a cost comparison.Tom
Douglasville, GA
I'd take a wild guess of about 35K here. But it's nothing more than a wild guess, based on other foundation prices I've heard.
Man, I HATE those Donald Gardner plans. One of the worst "canned plan" companies out there.
There may be some things better than sex, and some things worse than sex. But there is nothing exactly like it.
You are right, Boss. The plans are garbage. Whether we do the foundation for this guy or not, I'll be stopping by to chat from time to time, and will be anxious to see what the framers think.
Whoever came up with this hallucination has no concept of what it takes to actually build a house. All done up for the latest whims of "craftsman" style, but having a very garbled roofline. Take a look at it on the Gardner website by searching for plan number 780-D.
No thanks -
I see enough of his plans. I can't bring myself to INTENTIONALLY look at one if I don't have to. (-:You cannot produce a baby in one month by impregnating nine women.
Bossman, I am very impressed with your "off the cuff" estimating. I did run Bobs takeoff numbers past my multipliers to calculate my second number. Who would of thought that a trussman would have a keen eye for the grey matter. Uhhh....no pun intended.
WAHD
"Bossman, I am very impressed with your "off the cuff" estimating."
Sometimes you're good.
Sometimes you're lucky.
Sometimes you good 'n lucky.
(-:Can someone be a closet claustrophobic?
THAT! is suppose to be craftsmans style????????????
I think it is called "mountain craftsman" by the plans selling outfit. Go figure.
17G ??
No way.
My concrete guy just quoted $5,000 to pour 25 yards flat on the ground with a perimeter 1x4 form for the patio and garage apron and 64lf of footing (with 2 #5 cont.) 12" deep x 16" wide. Total materials cost would be about $2,000.
The problem we have in these parts is that most of the work done by the poured wall guys has been pretty simple, and they price their work accordingly. They try to apply the same units then to the occasional biggie with a lot of corners and steps, and fail to allow for the kind of attention to layout, detail and work, that is required to get everything right.
A guy we know, who used to do GC work and do his own foundation stuff, is now doing only design and architecture. His work is huge, done for the rich and famous, and he hates the schlock work done on the poured walls jobs going under his great camp masterpieces. He has threatened to get back into doing the foundations, saying they should be done for more like $300 per yard, and guaranteed as near to perfect as can be done.
At that kind of number, this one would be a $36K job, ready to deck out and start, without hassles.
$49,694.00
For you a deal.... 50K
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming....
WOW!!! What a Ride!
New Standard Home pricing from our sub southeast PA
10" x 8' walls $140 yd
10" x 9' walls $150 yd
8" x 20" footers $140 yd
#4 rebar $0.45 lineal ft
4" slab 1200sf min $1.85 sf inludes poly and zip strip
It is a good guide, but yours would need to be quoted with 33 corners and 2 footing steps.
33 corners........yikes !
carpenter in transition
Poured foundation work must be awfully competitive where you are, Tim. Go to my post that started the thread, open up the pic, right click the pic and print it, then show it to your sub.
Ask him to come up with a ballpark, but tell him his price needs to be high enough that every piece of line and grade is on the money. No busts, anywhere. Thirty-three corners takes a lot of work to get it right.