Jay seems to have found the elusive price per square foot for timber frame work! Care to share some insight? I tend to compare it to pricing cabinetry by the same measure!
Hi Mo, et al,
Found might not be what I have done...
But I have gotten enough splitters now to have a good handle on it over all...
Additionally, going back perhaps 30 years now, it is a "kind'a hobby" with checking not only regional but global pricing metrics for everything from "cubic metre" pricing for stone and masonry to the same thing for volumes of cabinetry and on to esoteric things as well...Studying old historic records as well is very informative for us History Buffs and Academics, where we see barns (where I started) priced by the "board foot" which still averages about $5 up to $10.
It is always a "red flag" (at least to me) when a GC throughs around that only "T&M" is the best way to go and "nobody can actually give fixed pricing." Understanding (thoroughly) not only a region's "pricing matrix" but a professions, is paramount to being a professional in a trade. Even a Plastic Surgeon uses a pricing matrix for their "art" even though bone and flesh...Professionals know their craft...either learning the "hard way" by bidding too low (we have all done that) or bidding too high and losing work.
...I must say I'm pretty dubious about the existence of any per sq. ft. TF price. At least not without so many qualifiers as to make it meaningless.
If someone is asking a "pricing field" for timber frames (on average) cost to cost...I give them just that...from lowest which is currently $9.50 wood included to over $600...
As for "meaningless," I would totally agree when just bantered out of context or point of reference. I (nor do most professionals doing this for any length of time...or any profession for that matter) have any issue taking some very basic information from a potential consumer and providing them some very realistic numbers to gage whether they want to pursue something...be it shaker kitchen cabinets (starting at 4/bdft) a dry laid stone wall (starting at $375 a linear meter for 1 metre high wall...good stone on site), mosaic (starting at $250/metre squared plus materials), tadelakt plastered bathroom (about average at $270 per metre squared) or a timber frame...with a national average of $25 to $45 per foot squared if all are pooled together and a mean is taken...
