I'm doing a house and a garage at the moment. To save money:
Shop around for materials that are easy to handle and store, and that are high cost. For stuff that needs delivered quickly and can't store ahead, just get the best local and reliable price.
Buy new stuff secondhand if it's exactly what you want. I bought two of my three garage doors for less than half price from someone that had ordered the wrong size. I bought my electrical panel (Square D QO) new along with 1000 feet of wire from someone that had decided to abort their project. Saved about $250 there.
I did all the demo and cleanup to get the lot ready for building. I drew the plans myself, and got the permit as general contractor.
On the garage, did the footings/stem walls and the backfill myself. The concrete saved a bunch of money, and the backfill let me make sure the compaction was right under the slab.
I hired the framing done. Way too much work for one man, it 3 men almost 5 months to do it, with bad weather slowing things down somewhat.
I did the ice and water, synthetic underlayment, valley tin and drip edges so I was sure they were right. I contracted out the shingling.
I'll do the electrical. Save cost, and can do it the way I want. I'll do the hardwood floors. I'll do the tile floors. I'll do the painting. I'll do the interior and exterior trim. I'll probably hire out the siding. Cheap enough to not pay well, and a lot of time for me.
Subcontracted the heating and the plumbing. I have more than enough to do just keeping up with them on framing mods, sealing and vapor barrier, sheet rock, insulation to complement their work. Plus, it gets done in 2 weeks and it would take me 3 months to do both trades by myself.
I'll contract out the drywall on the house, but probably do it myself in the garage. The house is complex, and the bid cost was reasonable for it. The garage bid was at the same hung square foot cost as the house, and it's less than half the labor because of the large, linear spaces.
I'll contract out the concrete garage slab. Too much work for me, and I don't have the requisite skill. I will do the grading, compaction, insulation, rebar and hydronic piping.
I will do the driveway myself, with paver.
Overall, I save about 20 to 30% of the overall house cost by doing some myself and acting as general contractor. I buy high quality materials, so the savings aren't as much as if I was building a spec house. What I save in careful buying of materials offsets the higher end materials I tend to use.
The savings on the garage are probably less. The labor in a garage is a lot less than in a house, and contractors that just do that kind of work get quite fast at it, and keep the labor costs down. Where you can save there is in doing the electrical and maybe the trim and doors yourself. And, by careful sourcing of your materials, particularly higher cost items like doors, windows, electrical, plumbing, hydronics, insulation. Harder to save much on framing lumber. If you have the time and skill, the footings and foundation may pay well.
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