My wife and I are contemplating an addition to the back of our brick rowhouse. It is very modest in size, only 150 sq. ft. spread out over three floors (50 sq ft per floor, 5'x10'). The addition will house a full bath on the upper level, half bath on the main level and just storage space on the lower level. There is no need to upgrade house HVAC system or electrical and tie in to the sewer is very accessible.

We had two two contractors come by today to look at the project. The first, a well regarded full service construction company, spent an hour and a half with us and measuring and examining the property. They will work on a full budget but indicated that they expect the job to come in between $20k and $45k depending on quality of finishes. This range was exactly in line with what we were expecting.

The second individual who came by is a remodeler I found on the internet. He spent about 5 minutes looking at the job and told me it would cost in excess of $100k. And warned me that anyone who said otherwise was lying and just out to scam me.

Needless to say, I am somewhat biased against the second contractor, but he was just so insistent. Of course there are a lot of factors that go into an addition and none of you can give an estimate sight unseen, but any thoughts? Does the second contractor seem as unreasonable to you as he does to me? His quote is approximately per square foot, whereas the first contractor was between $150 and 300/square foot.

Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.

I think the first contractor took the time to measure and talk about with you.

I know 20,00 is way to low with a generic bathroom and 3 floors. $ 45,000 would be the starting gage here.

The other reason is that since its so small in Sq ft, that actually makes it more expensive simply because there is not a lot of room to work or stock any materials. Which really drives up the labor in cramped conditions

The rule of thumb in basic re hap is the 1/3 2/3 rule. What every the materials cost time that times two for labor on renovations/additions

Example $10,000.00 in materials and $20,000.00 in labor.

In New construction is usually 50/50 for materials and Labor.

The bathroom here would be the kicker in price differences.

You can add and extra $5,000.00 or a lot more on top of the shell price for a fancy bathroom also if there is a brick façade involved


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