Cost Estimating Spreadsheet

From: B.E.M.

"My spread sheet (the byoh one) has about 36 rows for info--I’ll need about 50 rows. How do I add rows? Incidentally, I’m about 3/5th’s through and I am having a surprisingly good time, much in part to your book, although building in south Louisiana is different than in north Louisiana"

Sorry B., you can’t add rows to the byoh.com spreadsheet. The software was developed for me based on the excel version that is also on byoh.com. The excel version is also limited to 36 rows. The reason for row limitation is that the spreadsheets were designed for lenders as well as builders. Lenders want to see you have your costs covered, they just don’t want to see the excruciating minutia that goes into cost estimating.

Here is what I suggest in Chapter 3 of my ebook, “Build or Remodel Your Own House” :

"You can make as many spread sheets for subcategories within the line items as you need. For example: Foundation costs may be made up of several costs such as sand, fill dirt, steel reinforcing, forms, etc. Simply start a new spreadsheet, label it "Foundation," and change the list of costs by typing in what you need. The pre-typed ones can be overwritten. Do a new one for each "Main" category as needed. It's fun!"
Spreadsheet.pdf">Here's a PDF of the excel version from www.byoh.com

Of course, you could format your own excel spreadsheet with as many rows as you want.

Thanks for writing.
Good luck,
Carl

Remember: By being the General Contractor (GC), determining building costs & hiring professionals (subcontractors) to do the actual work (That’s what a GC does), YOU can be your own General Contractor for ANY type of construction: New homebuilding to build your “Dream House”), room additions, renovation, remodeling older homes; Build log homes, kit homes, ICF Homes, even renovate foreclosures. Since you are the “Boss”, YOU can chose your own house plans or home plans, YOU can design your kitchen, YOU can decide to build “Green”, build with Solar, Wind, geothermal heat pumps, water saving appliances & fixtures, ENERGY STAR-qualified windows, or anything else YOU desire, and YOU can do it for a lot LESS! Think about it!