Owner Builders -This is the real cost in building a new home.

Today , I want to talk about where the real cost of your home is too often .

We get hung up on granite countertops or a very expensive flooring .

And we think that that's going to make a huge difference in our cost today .

I want to help you think a little differently .

The real cost of your home is right here between the outside and the inside of your home .

On the outside .

You have five different subcontractors typically who will help create the outside wall of your home .

The first one is your framer .

Of course , the second one is the exterior Facia installer .

It could be Stucco , it could be brick , it could be bat and board whatever you put on the outside .

That's another subcontractor .

By the way , if it's a , if it's a Stucco subcontractor , we're talking about a lot more steps typically than simple bat and board .

Anyway , framing exterior installer , then your interior insulator who's going to come in and insulate your home , then you're going to come in and have your , your , your gypsum board , your , your dry wall installed , then we're talking tape and texture on top of all that .

After that's all done , which again is another subcontractor .

Then we're talking about your primer and paint , another contractor all in total , roughly about five different subcontractors to stand in the same place and do something in this section of the home .

That's where the main cost of your home is with your concrete slab .

It's one contractor .

Maybe your excavator helped prep the land , but typically one contractor with your roof , your framer , of course , and then your roofer , two contractors , your real cost is right here .

And what a lot of owner builders don't realize is how to save on the exterior of their home .

They typically go 12 13 14 ft ceilings and go real high , not realizing that it's adding an enormous amount of cost .

I was just talking with a person who is looking to build their own home and they wanted to go 12 ft ceilings throughout the entire home .

And I had to explain to them how much that's going to cost .

Imagine going 12 ft up .

You now have to put a lot of scaffolding on the outside and that increases a huge cost .

You have to put a lot of scaffolding sometimes on the inside for your dry wall to get access to that .

It adds to the cost .

One way I've been able to save on this here is to look for new technologies .

In addition , designing the home a little differently .

I typically like to go to a 10 ft ceiling I don't like to go higher than that .

A lot of your sheeting comes in 10 ft lengths .

You don't have to cut that .

You don't have to tape and texture .

The extra two ft on a 12 ft sheeting on the exterior of the home .

I try to avoid gable ends .

I always try to go with a hipped end .

So if you have a gable end , imagine having to put scaffolding to go all the way to the top , especially if you're not putting a second story .

Why put a gable end when you can just cut that short with some hip ends and drop your entire exterior to one floor ?

Only .

The other thing is a lot of people use attic trusses , but they go for a full second story of a home rather than using attic trusses , it can bring that cost down again , your roofing is going to be cheaper than this entire wall .

So if you can use your roofing design to accommodate for more exterior rather than the wall , you can save on your home .

These are a lot of things that a lot of owner builders and a lot of even builders don't consider they just build things without considering this square footage rather than this square footage .

This is the linear square footage , the up and down horizontal square footage that really makes up the cost of a home .

How much you add to this is going to increase more ?

So than your square footage right here has something to think about .

The other thing to think about is new technologies .

I'm always on the lookout for new technologies that actually eliminate one of the subcontractors in the creation of this wall .

This is a technology I found looking to hopefully have it come out in my local market .

But imagine putting up a wall that's actually stronger than this two by six wall that has the installation ready to go .

At the same time , you're basically eliminating a subcontractor .

At the same time , your installation subcontractor , it's not needed .

It's all done right .

At the same time , here's an example of that frame that has the structure inside it .

It's actually stronger than a regular two by six frame because it actually accommodates for that .

If you're interested , just go ahead and message me and I will reply where I found this .

There's other block technology .

There's another c insulated concrete form technology .

A lot of technology is trying to move in the direction of eliminating one of those subcontractors .

That's where some of your savings is going to be .

You may have an increase in cost , but you're also saving on a total subcontractor .

So it kind of washes out on the savings side .

So you can look for new technologies .

Cabins are a good example of that putting up a simple log cabin here or a CNC cut log , putting that up there .

It's acting as the whole unit as itself .

It's not very a good insulator because we know that wood is not a good insulator , but you eliminate a huge number of costs .

All they wanted to do is just help you understand where the real cost of your home is .

It's not so much in the foundation , it's not so much in the roof .

It's really in the exterior of your home on the wall .

Find out how much square footage you can cut on that .

Not so much on this .

You'll think a little more differently in your design and you're actually going to save quite a bit of money .

I hope that helps .

This is Keith Kelch with how to build your own home .