27,442 Exceptional & Unique House Plans at the Lowest Price.
Monster Cost-to-Build is a
new home construction cost estimating service provided
exclusively by MonsterHousePlans.com for the 24,000+ house
plans available in its online catalog. Monster Instant Cost-to-Build allows you to
get a complete cost estimate of the house plan you are interested in just a few
clicks and in less than 5 minutes. Your cost estimate is available online where you
can interactively change the quality
levels of materials and construction and see cost changes in real time.
Instant Cost-to-Build reports are available online in your account for 90 days.
No, complete house plans are not
required. Monster Cost-to-Build is unique in its ability to
accurately estimate a home's cost from the plan images and
data provided on MonsterHousePlans.com.
Monster Cost-to-Build does not use
typical take-off estimating techniques. Even if you have no
particular design developed you can still estimate the
Cost-to-Build based on the design parameters and criteria
you establish for the home design.
Monster Cost-to-Build has a cost database for the continental US, Alaska and Canada.
Local costs are determined by using a 5-digit zip code or postal code which provides
over 40,000 unique locations and targeted regional accuracy. Costs for Hawaii are
not in our database.
Yes, it includes costs for site work such as site clearing, driveway, walkways, access
road, decks, patios, landscaping, irrigation, retaining walls, utility extensions, well,
septic and more.
Yes, all appliances needed in your home are available in Monster Cost-to-Build including
options for stoves, ovens, cook-tops, exhaust hoods, dishwashers, refrigerators,
freezers, microwaves, trash compactors, wine coolers, washer and dryers, warming ovens
and more.
Yes, sales tax is included and is determined by your project zip code.
MonsterHousePlans.com provides a 90 day 100% money back guarantee that Monster Cost-to-Build's
calculated construction value will be in a cost range established by 3 licensed contractor bids. We
require you get contractor bids of the same house design, scope and quality level of materials and
contractor markup used in the design you estimated with Monster Cost-to-Build. Please see our Terms
of Use for more information.
If you give the exact same plans and specs to 3 different builders you will get back 3 different
prices. That's why we require multiple bids and guarantee Monster Cost-to-Build's calculated
construction to be in a cost range established by 3 licensed contractor bids.
If you have a budget problem, remember that it is common for a client to have selected different
scope of work or material quality than what their builder assumed in the quote. This is often the
reason why a contractor's quote is not consistent with a client's design selections.
Evaluate your contractor's bid detail for adequacy of all allowances and the possibility of
different scope or assumptions inconsistent with the choices you made in your Monster Cost-to-Build
estimate.
Monster Instant Cost-to-Build data is saved during your subscription period. Once your Instant
Cost-to-Build subscription is canceled or expires then your cost estimate data is no longer
available.
If you have a Monster Instant Cost-to-Build account, then your project data is unavailable once your
subscription expires.
You cannot add more time before your subscription expires.
No, MonsterHousePlans.com does not retain any credit card information.
Yes, access to your personal Monster
Instant Cost-to-Build account is available at
MonsterHousePlans.com/YourAccount. Access allows you to
manage your account for these features:
"Cost per SF" for cost estimating is fundamentally unreliable and can be an estimating trap since it only
applies the "Cost per Square Foot" against Finished SF of the home.
"Cost per SF" estimates also do not consider varying quality levels within an individual home design and
often omit costs for site work, excavation and appliances.
Construction cost however is determined by the Constructed SF of a home and the quality level of materials
and finishes, not just Finished SF.
Although "Cost per SF" budgeting may seem quick and easy, it is unfortunately also incorrect.
Finished SF only includes livable areas such as bedrooms, kitchen, great rooms, etc.
Constructed Square Feet includes all areas that are being constructed whether livable or not such as an
unfinished basement or crawl space, garage, bonus rooms, enclosed porches, etc.
An "Assembly" is a grouping of construction components against which a cost of the components can be
assigned.
For example, cost for a "sink assembly" in Monster Cost-to-Build includes the sink, faucet, waste and vent
line, hot and cold water lines, labor and sales tax.
A "window assembly" includes the window unit, finished casing and trim, labor and sales tax.
An "exterior wall framing assembly" is priced at a cost per square foot of wall area and includes costs for
the wall framing, insulation, sheathing and vapor barrier, labor and sales tax.
Unlike take-off estimation, "Assembly" based estimating can be used at a conceptual level for early stage
costing or at a detailed design level for final blueprint stage estimates.
Assemblies carry costs for their components and the unit of measure that makes sense for that assembly. For
example, wall framing is measured in "wall square feet" not board feet of lumber. As quantity of an assembly
goes up or down, costs for all the corresponding components are always included and cannot be accidentally
forgotten or omitted as with take-off estimates.
No, Monster Cost-to-Build is only designed to accurately estimate a freestanding single family
residence.
First of all don't panic. Over 95% of home projects are initially over budget. With Monster Cost-to-Build
however you now have the power to evaluate your design decisions and vary the quality level and scope of
your home's design to meet a realistic budget.
You are over budget for one or more reasons including:
You may have selected expensive construction materials or finishes. Go back and reconsider all your
construction material quality levels. Make sure you have selected the most economical construction
selections and quality levels except where you absolutely needed the increased quality.
If you still are over budget, your home design may be too large and the scope of construction needs to be
reduced. Look at ways to reduce the home size and amount of finished square feet and constructed square
feet.
If you have gone back and reduced the quality of materials in all acceptable areas and reduced the home size
and are still over budget, you may have had an unrealistic budget in mind to start with. Monster
Cost-to-Build will allow you to model and simulate the costs of various designs and materials of
construction until you are in budget. It is easier to fix a budget problem on paper than while a home is
being built.
One last option exists, although we do not recommend it unless you have the experience and time, is to be an
Owner-Builder. This is where the Owner does not hire a General Contractor but rather directly hires the
multiple subcontractors and manages their scheduling and work. This can save between 10% to 20% of your
home's construction cost if well managed, but you will add at least that much to your costs if handled
incompetently. If you choose the route of an Owner / Builder, be careful and do the research needed to fully
understand your responsibilities.
Yes it can. All projects have three interrelated variables that must be balanced. They are Quality, Cost and
Size. You can pick any two and the third is determined by your selections. For example if you know your
budget (cost) and you know how big your house is (size) that will drive the quality levels of what you can
afford. Monster Cost-to-Build allows you to vary your home's Quality levels and Scope (or size) until your
budget is in balance.
In an over-budget situation improper Quality and/or Size decisions have created an out of balance condition
with Cost. The solution in an over-budget circumstance is determining how to vary the Quality or Size
variables to meet a predetermined Cost.
The power of Monster Cost-to-Build is that you will be able to model and change any of these variables to
see the impact on the other two, until you get things in balance.
Monster Cost-to-Build process puts you in control of modeling "what-if?" options to building materials,
design characteristics and home size, until you are satisfied and within budget.
Monster Cost-to-Build provides very detailed cost reports but they are based on construction "assemblies"
and not organized in an obsolete quantity take-off format.
Quantities used for measurement in take-off estimating are often somewhat obscure such as "board feet" of
lumber or "cubic yards" of concrete.
Monster Cost-to-Build's patented estimating engine develops costs using construction "assemblies".
Assemblies carry costs for their components and the unit of measure that makes sense for that assembly. For
example, wall framing is measured in "wall square feet" not board feet of lumber. As quantity of an assembly
goes up or down, costs for all the corresponding components are always included and cannot be accidentally
forgotten or omitted as with take-off estimates.
Take-off quantity estimating can only be done after a design is completed and is labor intensive and prone
to errors due to missed items and incorrect quality level assumptions.
Take-off quantity estimating also cannot provide instant cost feedback to a design change or reflect a
qualitative change.
With take-off estimating, any design change made requires that the computer drawing be revised or manually
updated to reflect the change before take-off quantities can again be recalculated.
Take-off unit quantity estimating cannot answer questions like "What if the house was a little bigger, or
smaller? Or what if it had another bathroom or an addition, or finished Bonus Space? How about granite or
quartz counters?"
These problems are all avoided by Monster Cost-to-Build and the use of assembly based estimating.
This feature is not available in Monster Instant Cost-to-Build.
These FAQs were published with the permission of Home-Cost.com. They may not be copied or reproduced in any form without the prior written consent of Home-Cost.com.