We are considering building a new home using a plan with an upstairs bonus room. To save money I would like to leavi it unfinshed and finish it myself later. Question, how do builders price rooms such as this? The going rate seems to be between $100 and $110 per sq/ft (heated). Any insight would be appreciated.

Every builder is different and it depends on how far you have them go with the construction of your bonus room.

I would suppose that approximately $20 to $30 per square foot under the going rate for finished space is what you could expect for an unfinished space. It depends on what type and quality of finishes are in the home and it depends largely on how the builder chooses to look at it - typically as a finished area with the finishes deducted and therefore you are not likely to come out too far ahead. You will need to look at comparable homes being offered and what the square foot price is.

I hope this won't discourage you about your purchase but I often recommend to people that they won't be able to do the work cheaper than the builder at the time of construction. My recommendation is to get a price from the builder for the basic drywalling and taping of the space since this is something that might be best done, and most efficiently done, by professionals at the time of the rest of the construction. Having the builder do all the insulation work and vapor barrier is quite important if there is a warranty involved to keep things nice and simple if anything goes wrong.

Doing carpet and trim yourself is more a do-it-yourself project that you can do well on.

There is a possibility that the builder really is offering a bonus room at no additional cost (this used to happen) and they would only have the bare structure in the space for you to finish it up. If that is the case then you will be quite well off to finish it yourself. Just be cautious about the insulation details and make sure you consult the builder about the proper heating/cooling of the space.



Finally, keep in mind that the workmanship in this bonus area should be up to par with the rest of the house to improve the value of your property. Taping is something that do-it-yourselfers sometimes do a horrible job on and may be best to hire that work out to keep the job looking good.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to ask.

Whatever your decision is to when you finsih this area, make sure you use an air barrier and insulation. Many contractors will frame in your knee walls and insultate the area, but they never take air penetration into consideration.

The cost to finsih out the area should be nominal. a day for a framer and drywaller. Installing the air barrier and inuslation is easy. Your should do it for next to nothing.