From the category archives:

budget

SIP Quote Update for 100K House

February 1, 2008

I am heading out the door now for a weekend getaway but have a quick update on SIP quotes for the project. I have received quotes from four of the seven companies I requested bids from. I have agreed not to disclose exact pricing from each vendor at this time so for now I will [...]

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Plans Released to SIP Manufacturers for Quote

January 21, 2008

You may recall our Preliminary SIP Mfg Evaluation in early December. After speaking with the various manufacturers about their basic process, product and market differentiators I owed them more detailed plans to give us a quote for the two homes. I just finished contacting the manufacturers and delivering the plans to each of them for [...]

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Plans Released to Builder for Rough Quote

January 18, 2008

As promised here are our updated plans from ISA for both houses that we have just released to Level 5 to give us an estimate on construction costs. ISA named the corner house next to the 100K House the “120K House” and I like it. Once they come back with budget and comments we will [...]

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New Roof Profile to Cut Costs

January 14, 2008

I got an email over the weekend from ISA suggesting a new roof design for the 100k house that would be more economical than the existing two-tiered, flat roof with windows in between the two sections. Our final plans will be sent to Level 5 for bidding tomorrow so I quickly agreed that this was [...]

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Second Radiant Heating System Quote

December 29, 2007

A few days ago we received our second quote on a radiant heating system from Don Vance at Radiantec. The quote was for an Open Direct System whereas the first quote was for a closed system that would require a bit more hardware. Radiantec came in at just over $1,200 for everything but the heat [...]

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First Radiant Heating System Quote Came in Today

December 20, 2007

We received our first quote today from Steve Haldi at Hannel RadiantDirect.com. Steve quoted pretty much everything needed for a closed system using an electric water heater. The entire package came in at just under $2,500 and included the following items: 1 – PaceMaker E3R electric water heater) 1 Trim Kit 2 Loop Supply and [...]

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Radiant Heat is Affordable! – Who Knew?

December 17, 2007

I mentioned in our last design meeting, we had decided that radiant heating was definitely a necessity and no longer a want. Well, I did a bit of research last week on various radiant heating systems and just received my first call back from a company called Radiantec who confirmed that radiant systems can in [...]

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Can traditional builder methods to reduce cost translate to modern and green?

December 6, 2007

This weekend I was hosting an open house as part of my realtor duties when the builder/developer of the property stopped in. It was cold, rainy and the Eagles were playing so no one else was there and we had some time to chat about building and development. The developer was actually a builder who [...]

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Random Cost Reduction Ideas From a Day at Barnes & Nobles

November 27, 2007

[...]

  1. The best way to reduce cost/complexity/time is to eliminate common features or steps altogether (this is from my Industrial Engineering days).
    • Walls & Doors – an open layout eliminates a lot of walls and doors
    • Drywall – Do we really always need drywall? How about exposed concrete block, SIPs or ICFs?
    • Open Shelves vs. Full Upper Cabinets
    • Angle Stock vs. Square Stock

[...]

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