Design decisions that quietly cut your build cost
From the people who price hundreds of custom plans a year. Three of these are specific enough that most homeowners never hear them until it is too late to use them.
Our estimating team runs takeoffs on hundreds of custom home plans every year, across every style, size and level of complexity that comes through the door.
They notice which design decisions drive the cost up and which keep it down, and the pattern is consistent enough to be worth writing down. Most of these have to be decided at the drawing stage. After that they are expensive or impossible to change.
Six decisions, biggest impact first
Scissor trusses instead of parachord
The one most people never hearVaulted ceilings add something real to a house and they can add a great deal to the budget too. How you achieve the vault matters more than whether you have one.
Scissor trusses cost only a minimal increase over common flat bottom trusses, and considerably less than parachord trusses, while still giving you the vault. Where the design allows it, this is among the largest single savings available at the drawing stage.
Ask about it specifically. A designer who is not pricing the truss package may not raise it.
Put upper floor decks over living space
One structure, two jobsIf the plan has an upper floor deck, site it above living space below wherever possible. You are building the deck regardless, and putting it there means that area below does not need a roof of its own.
One structure doing two jobs. It costs nothing to decide at the drawing stage and cannot be recovered afterwards.
Fewer windows that open
Invisible in the finished houseWindow function moves the price more than most people expect, and it is the operation rather than the count that does it. Reducing how many windows open, and choosing sliding operations rather than casement or awning, brings the budget down.
None of this changes how the house looks. The glass and the openings stay exactly as drawn; only the mechanism behind them changes. It is one of the few savings that costs the design nothing at all.
Open up the main living space
With a real caveatRemoving walls and doors between kitchen, living, great room and dining creates better space and often costs less than partitioning it.
Decide everything before anything starts
Time is the costLack of information and inattention to detail create lag, and lag costs money in two directions at once: loan interest accruing while nothing happens, and labour standing around waiting for a decision.
Detailed planning up front removes guesswork from the build. This is the least glamorous item on the list and probably the most expensive one to ignore.
Spend on the envelope, not on making up for it
Long termEverything above is about the build cost. This one is about the thirty years afterwards. A better envelope means thermal efficiency, airtightness, better indoor air quality and less sound transmission, and it reduces the mechanical equipment the house needs to run.
The SmartWall assembly is measured by RDH Building Science at effective R-21.1, R-27.1 and R-33.9 depending on wall depth, against roughly R-13 for a conventional 2x6 batt wall.
The largest cost risk is not a design decision.
It is the price moving after you have committed. Lumber markets do what they do, and on a site build that exposure sits with you for the whole framing period.
A package is quoted once and honoured. You get the custom house with its custom features at a price fixed before construction begins, which takes the largest variable out of the budget entirely. How the costs break down.
Cost questions
Use scissor trusses rather than parachord trusses where the design allows. Scissor trusses are only a minimal increase over common flat bottom trusses and considerably cheaper than parachord, while still giving you the vault. This is one of the largest single savings available at the design stage and most people never hear about it.
More than most people expect, and it is the function rather than the number that drives it. Reducing how many windows open, and choosing sliding operations rather than casement or awning, brings the budget down without changing how the house looks. The glass and the openings stay; only the mechanism changes.
Over living space below, wherever the plan allows it. You are building the deck anyway, and siting it above living space means that area does not need a roof, so one structure does two jobs. It is free money at the drawing stage and impossible to recover later.
It can, but with a real qualification. Removing walls and doors between kitchen, living, great room and dining does cost less as well as creating better space, but the saving depends on the floor and truss spans above and typically applies to smaller footprint designs. On a larger house the spans required can cancel the saving out.
Bring us the plan and we will price the alternatives.
Trusses, window schedule, deck placement. A Build Specialist can tell you what each option does to the number before anything is committed, and estimating is included in the package rather than billed separately.