Define your Construction Budget

Construction costs, like most notable industries, are influenced by many factors including location, tariffs, political atmosphere, and labor costs, just to name a few.  All of these factors tug at the sleeves of the construction industry, pulling them this way and that. That said, the average consumer has far less understanding of construction costs than necessary to deem any importance to those factors besides LOCATION which we will get to further on.

Consumers are constantly misguided and misdirected when it comes to construction costs.  Many times that misguidance will come from a realtor, a blog, a TV series, or fly-by-night contractors. This will all lead into another article about how misguidance and the DIY Network in particular is degrading the construction industry.  That’s not our objective with this article, so we will side-step and continue, leaving it at the fact that the average consumer has very little understanding of the costs of construction.

I’ve taken it upon myself, admittedly selfishly, to provide a cheat sheet for construction costing.  You see, I have found that a large portion of my week goes to educating potential clients on this very subject.  I would show up to a potential addition, remodel or new garage without first discussing a budget with the potential client (1st mistake). I would drive across town, and meet for an hour only to discover that this person was only willing to pay $10k for an oversize two car garage, or $15k to swap their kitchen and dining room.  A lot has changed since then in the way I screen potential clients but I still feel that I would like to do my part to educate people and help them learn and understand the costs of construction.

So, without further adieu, I give you the “River North Contractors 2019 Residential Construction Budget Sheet.”  Wow! That’s quite a mouthful.