I am looking to build a ~1600 sf home, and a ~1200 sf garage. I originally was looking at site built versus pre-fab. I seemed to find that the pre-fab cost about 75%-80% of the site built. However, I like the design opportunities of a site built home versus a pre-fab.

This got me to thinking of ways to save cost on a site built home. I think I would feel comfortable serving as the GC, and even doing some if not most of the work, being handy with tools, comfortable with wiring (plumbing being another story…), and not particularly in a hurry. This is when I started looking at all the tightly packed trees, and wondering if I couldn’t save some materials cost by using my own wood.

I have read that both TF and SIP are more expensive than homes built with dimensional lumber. I was hoping though, that I could get some of your opinions on the potential for cost saving with TF and/or SIP construction, by doing some of the work myself, using my own wood, etc. Also, is the potential for an owner builder to do the work themselves less in a TF or SIP home compared to a home built of dimensional lumber.

I am thinking of doing as much of the design as I can, even the working drawings, and just have an architect and engineer review them instead of doing the drawing turnkey. Would this save me any money?

Working with the county to get all the permits and such, should save me some money rather than paying a GC to do that for me, right?

I wouldn’t touch the foundation work, but is it common to find any contractors that would let me help out? Would this save me any money? I know my father did that on his own house with the framing a such, and saved a lot of money.

How about the wood? Would using my own trees save me a lot of money? How about cutting the timbers myself with a chainsaw jig, is this feasible for the buildings I am planning? I have time, but would this be unreasonably slow?

I am pretty handy with a chisel and a saw, and am willing to take some classes to learn how to cut the joints, how much would this save me? Would the cost savings be enough to cover the cost of the classes? Are the TFers out there that would travel to my site to cut the joints?

While I am experienced running large projects, none of my projects concerned life threatening situations, so I would prefer someone else run the raising. Is this ever done, where a TF company would raise a frame built be someone else?

In short, I guess I am asking how much design/drawing, wood, milling, cutting joints, electrical/plumbing/HVAC, raising, contribute to the cost of a home.

Any input would be appreciated.
Thanks
Jim