Landen Home Building and Renovation Pricing Calgary AB

We get asked all the time “how much do you charge per square foot to build a home“.  The short answer is that no builder or contractor charges by the square foot and if you find one that would may not be the best choice of contractor.  However we can give you a “general idea of average per square foot cost” but this can vary widely depending on final plans, scope of work, and the clients wish-list for specifications and final finishes.  (See also our XL format “Ball Park New Home Cost Calculator”)

To give you a ball park idea of local Calgary and area “per square foot” building cost the industry average custom home starting price tends to start at $190.00 per square foot up to say $225.00 this for a basic specification.  A basic “estate specification” tends to average between $230.00 to $280.00 per square foot, with upper-end custom up to $300.00+.  It should be noted that this average pricing does not include any site preparation such as may be need for acreage construction.

This is why we at Landen generally work through a “building budget process”.  What we mean by this is we first need to create very detailed “Structural Tendering Plans” (See also Architectural Design Service) in order to quote you a firm building price.  With these detailed plans in place we can then create an accurate and very detailed building budget.  To arrive at an accurate budget we fist need to do a combination of in-house estimating and tendering process based on finalized plans.  To start with we do a very detailed estimating take-off using our in-house data-base developed over many years of cost-data collecting experience.  Then we go through a full tendering process once all design and structural plans are in place.  It should be noted that we can also create a rough building budget at the preliminary planning stage with this rough construction budget being based on a filled-in client “wish list form”. (available as a down load).

We do have a standard fee for this estimating and tendering service of $1,200.00, which is fully credited back to our client if Landen is also given the go-ahead from our client to build / renovate the their project.

Once we have a detailed building budget in place we then determine with our client which “build formula” they wish to use, such cost-plus, fixed fee Project Management, or a fixed contract to build, (Each method of contracting has its pros and cons), which we fully walk you through the ins and outs of each option at our initial design meeting.  At this point you would have a very good understanding of price/cost budget “before” anything is done, or any contract is entered into. (See also types of building contracts, “fixed price”, “Cost-plus” or “Fixed price project management” also available as a PDF download)

Refund / Credit of Design fees

• At Landen we also offer a full design credit for Clients that end-up building with us, meaning that any of our “design Clients’ that decide to work with us in either a “project management” formula with a “fix management fee” or wish to work with us under a “fix contract price formula”, we then credit back our full Architectural design fees back to our client.
• If for any reason you are not happy with our architectural design process up until we have completed the “preliminary plans” (this does not include full structural plans) we will give you a full refund of any preliminary planning fees, however you should note that the preliminary plans to this point are the property of Landen Design and cannot be used by another designer to finish them off.