Texas Fishing Forum

Steel building homes, who has one?

Posted By: WeaponOfBassDestruction

Steel building homes, who has one? - 04/26/20 01:11 AM

My wife and I are looking into the possibility of having a home built and were intrigued by the idea of a steel building home. We currently own our home and are trying to keep the total cost of the new home, including land under $300k preferably in the $250k range.
We would like a home with a minimum of 2,000 sq ft and 4 bedrooms on at least an acre of land. If you would, please share your experiences or any other information/advice you may have it would be greatly appreciated. A rough price guesstimate for what I described would be nice.
Thank you!
Posted By: steveiam

Re: Steel building homes, who has one? - 04/26/20 01:24 AM

We thought about a similar thing-
I found unless you do a lot of the work yourself it may be more expensive and more trouble than getting a custom home builder-
I’m not that guy that would have done a lot construction wise-
We were also hearing getting insured was more involved than a site built home-
But that was my experience I know there are some guys on here that have had it done and have some great Looking houses, hopefully one will help you-
Good luck!
Posted By: WeaponOfBassDestruction

Re: Steel building homes, who has one? - 04/26/20 01:35 AM

Originally Posted by steveiam
We thought about a similar thing-
I found unless you do a lot of the work yourself it may be more expensive and more trouble than getting a custom home builder-
I’m not that guy that would have done a lot construction wise-
We were also hearing getting insured was more involved than a site built home-
But that was my experience I know there are some guys on here that have had it done and have some great Looking houses, hopefully one will help you-
Good luck!

Thanks, from what I read it is cheaper to insure due to the home being made of steel as opposed to wood which is a plus and can't be affected by termites and such. I too wouldn't be building any of it myself, however I've always heard it's overall cheaper to build. I can't find much information online so I'm really hoping someone on here can give me some helpful insight. Thanks for your input.
Posted By: kennerdude

Re: Steel building homes, who has one? - 04/26/20 01:38 AM

Don’t know what prices are in N. Tx but around Llano/Gillespie Counties price is north of $130.00/sqft and I’ve called 4 different contractors.
Posted By: patriot07

Re: Steel building homes, who has one? - 04/26/20 02:06 AM

You aren't going to be saving anything unless you're doing a lot of the steel work yourself. Otherwise, it's just a different building material - not a cheaper one.
Posted By: patriot07

Re: Steel building homes, who has one? - 04/26/20 02:10 AM

I think you'll have a very difficult time keeping the cost of the building alone under $250k. Land varies significantly by location. Building rates are around $130/sf and 2000 sf is $260,000, and that's with very limited outside space and a normal 2-car garage. If you start adding a large shop area, big porch, etc., then it's going to increase quickly from there.
Posted By: donothin

Re: Steel building homes, who has one? - 04/26/20 02:26 AM

We built a steel framed home in 2001. Love it. At that time, Classic homes built precut bolt together homes. They had plans or would custom design for you. At the time I had a guy building a boat/storage shed for me, so I asked if he would put it together for me if I bought on of the kits. He said he would but said he could build do a weld up that would probably be cheaper. Anyway, he was local and built it. I took just the floor plan from Classic Homes and had an engineer/architect do plans as I wanted to be sure we put in the right metal. He probably over designed it, but we stuck with the plan. We have a metal roof, which definitely decreased the cost of insurance. None of the walls are load bearing except the exterior walls. All exterior walls are 6" thick with blown in insulation. I was interested in low maintenance and energy efficient. The only wood in the house is the cabinets and the decking on the second floor. You would never guess it is metal framed just looking at it.

I knew at the time it would cost more than a conventional construction but not much more. Soon after I built mine, metal prices skyrocketed so probably would have been out of the question then.

The foundation is most critical because the load is all on piers rather than be distributed on the foundation as a traditional would be. I see houses that are pretty much like a metal storage building but finished out with a siding. Some of the barndominiums look really nice and practical.

Feel free to contact me if you have questions. I have no idea of current prices. It takes more time to construct as all of the metal studs are screwed to the beams and the sheetrock and siding is screwed on also. The one problem I found was the difficulty in getting bids as so few had any idea of the cost so they padded it to be sure they were covered. I ended up having it done on a cost plus basis.
Posted By: Dave-0

Re: Steel building homes, who has one? - 04/26/20 02:35 AM

Location is going to be a big thing too. I've seen lots of new home sites up for sale west of the metromess, but they are deep in the boonies. Been talking to a gent on FB (couple years ago) and it seems the barndominium life style has been the coming rage and I know that's what I would like to retire to. Would like to know what you find out.
Posted By: WeaponOfBassDestruction

Re: Steel building homes, who has one? - 04/26/20 02:40 AM

Thanks for the help guys.
Posted By: Bee'z

Re: Steel building homes, who has one? - 04/26/20 03:56 AM

Where is the acre of land?
Posted By: slim 285

Re: Steel building homes, who has one? - 04/26/20 04:35 AM

And we you get done you have a metal building that will require to find the person that wants to live in a metal when you are ready to sale .

A conventional house is a better investment.
Posted By: slim 285

Re: Steel building homes, who has one? - 04/26/20 04:37 AM

I helped remodel a 15 year old metal building house to get away from the metal building look. And yes it was the original owner . Said he got tired of looking at the fading metal .
Posted By: CCTX

Re: Steel building homes, who has one? - 04/26/20 11:42 AM

An entire house out of stainless steel would be cool. Might get hot in the summer though.
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