Budget to Build a Home or Cottage | Classic Muskoka Homes

THREE (3) SIMPLE STEPS TO PLAN YOUR BUDGET TO BUILD IN MUSKOKA

Are you ready to allocate a budget for your home or cottage building project in Muskoka?

Use the resources on this page to:

Select an appropriate Construction Quality
Calculate your House Floor Area
Combine quality & building area to set a budget using our construction cost calculators:

Decisions that you make during planning & design for your project will determine the cost of the design & construction services required to deliver your building ready for use.

Classic Muskoka Homes will provide valuable guidance to you during planning, design, cost estimating & construction phases to validate your expectations and ensure the success of your project.

HOW CONSTRUCTION QUALITY INFLUENCES YOUR CUSTOM HOME BUDGET

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A woman sips coffee beside a woodstove in an average quality home build.

A simple, attractive average quality home is pictured with flower garden in Summer sunlight.

A stereotypical suburban home design with attached garage and paved driveway represents average quality home construction.

AVERAGE QUALITY

Cost: $275 per square foot of floor area (or more).

A couple of retirement age share laughter and coffee in the kitchen of a custom quality home.

A large contemporary home with landscape features, wood siding and large glass windows and doors represent custom quality home construction.

A home interior incorporating red brick feature walls and contemporary furnishings represents custom quality home construction.

A large formal bedroom with dark wood furniture and coffered ceilings represent custom grade home construction.

A luxurious tiled bathroom with custom vanity and stone countertop may be added to create a custom grade home.

A father and young daughter spend time together cleaning the kitchen in their custom quality home.

A home that is composed of unusual geometry and finished in high-quality materials in a traditional style is a custom quality home.

CUSTOM QUALITY

Cost: $410 per square foot of floor area (or more).

A formal and highly decorative home entry is framed by square double columns on plinth blocks and covered by a gable roof in this luxury grade home example.

A modern pavillion style home featuring floor to ceiling glass doors and windows is a luxury grade home.

A large home featuring a hip-roof in the Prairie style of architecture enjoys expansive glass windows and doors in this luxury grade home example.

A chef's kitchen featuring custom cabinets, marble countertops, commercial gas-fired range and large range hood is an example of luxury grade home construction.

A spiral staircase with wrought iron railing, marble floors and french doors opening onto a large wine cellar are features of a luxury quality home.

Vaulted ceilings in natural wood with a stone fireplace and large window glass for views of the mountains are luxury grade home features.

A formal sitting room with fireplace, extensive woodwork/millwork trim details, marble floors, wall-coverings and high-end furnishings are luxury grade home construction.

A luxury bathroom features extensive millwork/woodwork trim details, drapery, freestanding bathing tub, custom vanity cabinet and stone countertop in this luxury grade home.

A large wine cellar to house an extensive/expensive wine collection including oak barrels for aging are luxury grade home construction features.

LUXURY QUALITY

Cost: $645 per square foot of floor area (or more).

CONSTRUCTION GRADES: THE EFFECT OF CRAFTSMANSHIP & MATERIAL QUALITY ON BUDGET

Your expectations for the quality of the home or cottage that you are planning may have a large impact on your home construction cost.

Building construction projects are commonly classified into Construction Grade categories based on quality criteria including:

Exterior finish quality & durability
Workmanship, installation procedures & acceptable tolerances
Material storage & handling practices for products specified
Interior finish, fixture & equipment characteristics: quality, functionality & durability

The minimum quality of construction for new homes in Ontario is set by the Construction Performance Guidelines of the Tarion Warranty Corp.

The building industry uses a system of classifying buildings called “Construction Grade” that separates projects into categories based on finished construction quality.

The construction grades that are used to classify home, cottage, garage & boathouse building projects are:

“Average” Construction Quality
“Custom” Construction Quality
“Luxury” Construction Quality

The minimum quality of construction required by the Tarion Warranty Construction Performance Guidelines is most representative of “Average” Construction Grade/Quality.

HOW BUILDING SIZE AFFECTS YOUR HOME CONSTRUCTION BUDGET

The floor area of the living space that you require for your home will be determined by:

Lifestyle: the way that you will use the home
Occupants: how many people will be accomodated in the home on a regular basis
Architecture: design style will influence the volume of common & private rooms (floor area x ceiling height)

Use our house floor area calculator to determine the recommended floor area for your house, based on a room count & recommended room sizes. (If you prefer larger rooms than our pre-filled/recommended room areas, you can enter your preferred room area in the calculator.)

Large homes cost more to build than small homes, in terms of total cost.

However, when measured on the basis of their cost per square foot (cost per s.f.), small homes cost more to build than larger homes.

HOW BUILDING SHAPE CAN IMPACT A COTTAGE CONSTRUCTION BUDGET

Cottages formed in complex geometric shapes will always cost more to build than those composed of simple building forms. This is a result of a higher ratio of enclosing building assemblies (floors, walls & roofs) relative to the cottage's enclosed floor area.

Consider what happens to perimeter wall length as floor area approaches zero:

For a 10,000 square foot (s.f.) cottage, you need 4 exterior walls x 100 linear feet (l.f.) per wall to enclose the building with a total of 400 (l.f.) of exterior wall. (100 l.f. x 100 l.f. = 10,000 s.f.)
For a 100 s.f. bunkie/sleeping cabin, you need 4 exterior walls x 10 l.f. per wall to enclose the building with a total of 40 l.f. of exterior wall. (10 l.f. x 10 l.f. = 100 s.f.)

Comparing the two buildings above, when floor area is decreased by a factor of 100 (10,000 s.f. cottage floor area divided by 100 s.f. bunkie/cabin floor area) the exterior wall length is only decreased by a factor of 10. (The cottage's 400 l.f. of exterior wall divided by the bunkie's 40 l.f. of exterior wall.)

If we assume a construction cost of $400 per square foot, then the 10,000 s.f. cottage will cost $4,000,000 to build.

Dividing the 10,000 s.f. cottage's construction cost ($4,000,000) by its enclosing wall length (400 l.f.) yields a unit construction cost of $10,000 per l.f. of exterior wall.

Applying this same unit construction cost ($10,000 per l.f. of exterior wall), the 100 s.f. bunkie/sleeping cabin will cost $400,000 to build. (40 l.f. of exterior wall x $10,000 per l.f.)

This translates to a construction cost of $4,000 per s.f. of floor area to build the 100 s.f. bunkie/sleeping cabin!!! ($400,000 bunkie/cabin construction cost divided by 100 s.f. bunkie/cabin floor area.)

Clearly, the 100 s.f. sleeping cabin will cost more to build per square foot of enclosed floor area than the 10,000 s.f. cottage.

For this reason, you can save money and gain a better return on your investment by designing a home or cottage addition that will add sleeping rooms and other living spaces to an existing year-round or seasonal home, rather than building a separate bunkie or sleeping cabin.

The real estate value of an existing cottage will be enhanced by an addition or renovation, whereas a bunkie or sleeping cabin added to the property will not add or retain value as a real estate asset.

CONSTRUCTION BUDGET CALCULATORS FOR MUSKOKA & LAKE OF BAYS, ONTARIO

HOME, COTTAGE, GARAGE & BOATHOUSE CONSTRUCTION BUDGET CALCULATORS

Calculate your complete building project budget, including all design and construction costs, with our construction cost calculators:

Contact us directly for renovation planning, design & budget guidance.

Note: The math in our construction cost calculators cannot account for the unknowns that are commonly encountered when renovating existing buildings.

QUALITY, COST & SPEED: THE BUDGET IMPACT OF CONSTRUCTION PROCESS

Established construction industry wisdom holds that your builder will only ever be able to optimize two out of the three fundamental construction process characteristics:

Quality, Cost & Speed.

By choosing Classic Muskoka Homes to build your custom home, you can expect high-quality design & construction services delivered with diligent & energetic work intensity at a price that reflects the quality of finished construction that you expect.

Classic Muskoka Homes can accelerate the construction phase of your project if you are willing to pay for fast construction delivery.

We will not compromise the finished outcome of your custom home building project by reducing the quality of workmanship that we deliver.

Classic Muskoka Homes will commit our full resources to your project at its starting-point and will continue to serve you faithfully right through to full completion and your move-in date.