I am years off from building a pole barn, but would be interested to hear any guesses of what this might cost to build now.
The kit from menards is just under 50k. I would want concrete and electric as well.
A guess on concrete might be $8 a square foot? So that would be about 22k.
Is there a general rule of if the materials kit is $X then the labor to put it up would be $Y?
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As you probably know, material costs are pretty volatile these days. Along with that, labor costs vary greatly depending on where you live. What this means is it's difficult to come up with a rule of thumb for what a building will cost. The building in the picture you included is pretty elaborate too, so it will be quite a bit more expensive than a basic pole barn
84FSP
UberDork
8/12/22 12:20 p.m.
Typically I use a 2X materials to estimate labor costs. The rest of it looks reasonable. Electrical is a bogie as that requires a lot of detail on what service level you have to work with, how much you want to have, and all the various length of runs.
pheller
UltimaDork
8/12/22 12:36 p.m.
I just talked with a former coworker who is up to $60k for 1500sq metal building with $17k in interior framing and a $10k slab. He's hoping by the time it's livable he's at $120k total for water, electric, heat, and 2 acres of property in Taylor, AZ.
nocones
PowerDork
8/12/22 12:38 p.m.
I have had 4 construction things contracted. A 1000sq-ft garage, a 800 sq-ft addition, a roof, and siding. They all worked out to where labor costs where within 5% = to material costs. So the finished cost was 2X Materials.
I don't believe this is a rule of thumb because as an example the concrete work was only ~50% of the material cost for the concrete labor. But in the end the overall JOB worked out to Labor = Materials.
This was in the Midwest with licensed, insured contractors. This work was 5-9 years ago. Your results may vary. A LOT.
STM317
PowerDork
8/12/22 12:53 p.m.
Trying to estimate the exact price years in advance, over the internet is a fool's errand because there are too many variables. But my experience mirrors nocones'. I built a 32 x 48 x 10 in 2017 in the Midwest. Labor was essentially equal to material cost, so total price was basically double the material price.
That included the shell, 4" slab, electrical panel (with the minimum single switched light fixture), and a couple of tri axle loads of gravel for the drive.
I probably spent another $10-12k to do lights/outlets, framing/insulating/sheathing/painting the walls, and DIY polyurea coating for the floor all myself.
Thanks for all the input. Sounds like 2xmaterials is a decent wild guess. Which is what I was looking for.
Mathematically I guess 2 X materials is the same as labor = materials, but the first time I read it my mind heard " labor is twice the materials "
and I was thinking, man, that's high! But yea, used to be a good guesstimate
SV reX
MegaDork
6/19/24 6:41 a.m.
[spammer] said:
Estimating costs for a pole barn: Menards kit at $50k, concrete at $8/sq ft (~$22k). Using the 2X materials rule for labor, expect $100k. Electrical varies greatly based on service level and setup. Consult [spammy link] for high-quality metal buildings, pole barns with carports, garages in Florida.
That Sir, is an ad. Our hosts make their living selling ads. The problem is you are not willing to pay for that ad. That's theft.
We don't walk into your store and steal your product. Don't come here and steal from our hosts.
Spammer is a kind word. You are a thief.
I'm a contractor, and I buy a lot of materials. I won't be buying from Keen's Buildings.
So like my wife says it will never be cheaper than it is right now to do anything. My 24 x 34 x 11 building cost me $15k with concrete, it has scissor trusses, hip roof with 2' overhangs, siding, a lift, many years ago. It looks stick built from the outside but is a pole barn. My township required an inverted T foundation for stick built that would cost $5k alone, for a pole construction I could do what ever I wanted for concrete, pole it is.
Basically what ever it costs today will cost more the longer you wait.
Jay_W
SuperDork
6/19/24 9:48 a.m.
Don't forget permitting and county approval BS. My 50k shop got almost 30 grand added to it because the county said I had to pay for a wetlands site survey. That was 6000, and resulted in my 30x40 shop getting turned into a 28x30 shop for "wetlands setbacks". Turns out our house wouldn't be allowed to be built where it is today cuz code changes. After the survey the county came out and inspected and said "you don't get a permit til you replace the sand filter on your septic" and I was like "wait we aren't even running water to this building" and they went "we don't care, fix your sand filter or else"...
I thought about building it sans permit, but a neighbor did that and the county got even by doubling his property tax in peretuity. So anyway, our septic setup is nice and new and I have a 2 bay shop instead of 3 but it's all done and MAN I didn't know how badly i was missing a 2 post lift til I went a couple years without access to one and now I have my *very own* which does make it easier to forget about the overruns.
We built a very basic 30x60 right before COVID. We hired out the concrete and bought the trusses, but did everything else ourselves. It was right at $10K for the building. I probably spent another $5K on electric, gas, and the garage door. My cousin down the road had a similar one built two years ago and it was about 4 times what we paid, but he hired everything out.