Determining The Turnkey Cost of Your Custom-Built Home
“Turnkey” costs, not to be confused with “kit” pricing, include all the labor and materials to complete the construction of your new log home, timber frame home, or hybrid home – ready to move in – excluding variable costs such as land and land specific site work including utilities, excavating, well, septic, landscaping, etc.
Square foot pricing to determine a turnkey estimate can be very misleading as there are numerous ways to calculate the square footage of a home. Amenity and option selections range from builder grade to high-end finishes, so be sure to always ask what is included! We’ve found the best way to calculate the estimated costs for a build is to work one-on-one with a client to learn about how they envision finishing their home. Do you want a gourmet chef’s kitchen? Custom cabinetry throughout? How about your flooring and window choices? Floor-to-ceiling wood-burning fireplace with natural stone? Walkout basement? Turnkey costs vary based on your decisions on all of those options, so a broad approach to pricing is not very accurate.
In general, log cabin homes, timber frame homes, and hybrid homes are typically niche areas of construction and tend to cost somewhat more (generally 10% and up) than a comparable, high quality, custom “stick-built” home with the same level of finishes, amenities, and design complexities.
The Details Make a Difference in Budgeting For Your Home
Before you can confidently estimate the “turnkey” cost of your custom-built home, many decisions have to be made. Beaver Mountain Log & Cedar Homes creates personalized designer log homes and timber homes that are created for your building site. Our homes are not standardized materials “kits” and therefore do not have a price list.
With over 40 years of experience, and after working with thousands of homeowners, our professional Building Consultants and architectural designers will assist you with planning, design, and material selection to create a custom-built home to meet your lifestyle, wants, needs, and budget.
Let's Talk About Your Custom-Built Home!
Here at Beaver Mountain, we are very proud of the quality of materials, the craftsmanship, and the level of customer service we provide.
Our goal is to work alongside clients to create a personalized design and build the best one-of-a-kind homes that will be a reflection of their personality and style. We are not in the market to mass-produce cookie-cutter homes. There will always be cheaper alternatives, but the price is often a reflection of the quality and services delivered. We pride ourselves on providing a high-end product with a high-quality level of service and expertise.
During your design consultation, our professional and knowledgeable Building Consultants will review your ideas, needs, wants, timeline, budget, etc., and will work with you to develop a ballpark estimated “turnkey” range to help in the planning and design of your personalized log home, timber home, or hybrid home.
We understand you’re busy! Call us at 607-467-2700 for a feasibility conversation or to schedule an in-person or Zoom design consultation with one of our professional Building Consultants. Prefer email? contact us at info@beavermtn.com
Things That Affect the Turnkey Cost of Your Custom-Built Home
The Geographical Location of Where You Intend to Build
- Labor rates for contractors and sub-contractors vary greatly between locations.
- Each building site has its own characteristics that may affect excavation, driveway length, the engineered sewage system, well depth, utilities, and foundation type (just to name a few). These can increase costs.
- Construction and engineering codes, permits, and local variances differ
House Style and Design
- Roof lines, roof pitch, valleys, dormers, and gables
- Footprint of the house, simple lines or angles, jogs and bump-outs
- Window and door configurations, amounts, and sizes
- Cathedral ceilings or full second floor area
- Walkout basement, full underground basement, crawl space, or slab
- Covered porch and deck areas
- Quantity and design of bathrooms
- Kitchen design and size
Materials Used in the Home’s Exterior
- Exterior finish (solid log, log siding, cedar, composite, brick, stone, vinyl)
- Roofing materials (shingles, slate, wood shake, tile, metal)
- Overhang length, gable style, dormer quantity, style, and size
- Timber Frame construction, accents, and size
- Railing styles, decking, posts, etc.
- Trim work, facia and soffit finish materials and style
- Many other details that are not visible, but affect the construction cost
Materials Used on the Interior (Finishes)
- Type of flooring covering and wall coverings, etc.
- Grade of cabinets, countertops, and appliances
- Plumbing fixtures, lighting fixtures, etc.
- Type of heating systems used – forced hot air, radiant floor, baseboard hot water, geothermal
- Air conditioning – single wall units, central air, separate system for heat, air exchanger/ purifier, solar, geothermal, or wind power
- Amenities such as fireplaces, portico, soaking tubs, saunas, wet bars, etc.
Luxury Log, Timber Frame, and Hybrid Homes Custom-Crafted with The Finest Materials, Expert Workmanship, and Outstanding Customer Service.
“After researching and visiting 10 log home companies, we found ourselves feeling confused and not at all confident about the project that we were about to start. We felt resigned to the fact that this was just the way it worked when a good friend suggested that we keep our previously scheduled meeting with Chris Weyer at Beaver Mountain Log Homes. I said “Why bother? They are all the same!” and he said “No they’re not!”. So, we ventured to Hancock, NY and within 10 minutes of our arrival I knew my friend was right.
Unlike the other firms we visited that were happy to give us a design, a price, contract and delivery date within an hour of our arrival, Chris spent almost 2 hours with us asking about why we were building our log home, how long we might own it, how we intended to use it and who else would be involved. He asked lots of questions about what kind of features and looks were important to us before we ever even looked at any of their beautiful model homes and pictures of others they designed. We finally met John Lanner who would ultimately take all this information and designed our dream log home. They described a process where they would do whatever it took to design our perfect home, suggest and vet several qualified builders, lead them through the bidding process and then work closely with our selected builder and us from day 1 to the day we were handed the keys to our new log home. We left our first visit thankful that we didn’t give up and confident that we had found the team to help us make our dream a reality.
We now spend as much time as possible at our beautiful log “cabin” that could not be any more perfect. Beaver Mountain and Mike Klein at Dutcher Construction, that they introduced us to, did everything that they promised and more. The attention to every detail and their ability to make us feel comfortable with an inherently difficult process was second to none. Jackie and I would not hesitate for a moment to strongly recommend that anyone considering designing and building a log home work with this team. They are the best!”
John & Jackie – Wayne County, PA.