# Avg man hours to build an 1800sf home



## TigerFan

Hello all - I've been digging around on the .net and can't find a good answer to the following question:

For a typical builder in a typical market, what is the typical average number of man hours required to build an 1800sf home?

This is total man hours for all trades - foundation, framing, mechanicals, walls, windows, doors, finishings - the whole nut.

Can anyone here give a rough idea? Can be off by a few hundred hours.

Thanks!

tf


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## Joasis

And how many guys are on the site? A crew of 3 can do it, but what if you have a mega crew of 5 framers? And what about the little things? A ranch style 1800 sq/ft will go lots faster then a cut up roofline with 12/12 pitch....coifered ceilings, trays, 10 foot walls....on a slab or crawl space....lots to know to even have a clue.


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## Bob Kovacs

I'm thinkin' the better question is "who cares"? 

As joasis said, there's no way to define "typical", and I doubt very highly that anyone has ever counted the manhours put into a house by all of his in-house people and his subs' employees anyway- it's just too irrelevant to deserve the time and effort to do so.

Is this just a curiousity thing, or is there some purpose to your question?

Bob


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## K2

TigerFan said:


> Hello all - I've been digging around on the .net and can't find a good answer to the following question:
> 
> For a typical builder in a typical market, what is the typical average number of man hours required to build an 1800sf home?
> 
> This is total man hours for all trades - foundation, framing, mechanicals, walls, windows, doors, finishings - the whole nut.
> 
> Can anyone here give a rough idea? Can be off by a few hundred hours.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> tf


I did a simple 1200 ft sq. ranch on a slab one time by myself just to see if i could. I could and it took right at 4 months working about 55 hrs per week. That = about 900 hrs or about about .75 hrs. per ft.

I don't recomend building this way. It was just a personal challenge. I don't recomend trying to do all the above mentioned trades with one crew either. That would be more of a challenge.


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## Peladu

"Back in the day' the Carpenters were given 200 hours to complete the shell, including exterior doors and windows, and have it backed-out.
This was a two story unit. Very seldom did the three of us go over the 200 hours.


....but yea, your question is a little odd.


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## TigerFan

Thanks for the replies - I'm trying to make a ridiculous point with some people on my staff about generalities in our industry.

I have a project that has kicked my a$$ financially - the primary cause of which is overruns in budgeted time to complete the project.

The end result is that I made some hard course corrections in how I staff the project - and of course the ones who were soaking time on the project turned tail and went home.

It has been a hard lesson to learn, from a whole lot of levels.

tf


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## Gordo

TigerFan said:


> Thanks for the replies - I'm trying to make a ridiculous point with some people on my staff about generalities in our industry.
> 
> I have a project that has kicked my a$$ financially - the primary cause of which is overruns in budgeted time to complete the project.
> 
> The end result is that I made some hard course corrections in how I staff the project - and of course the ones who were soaking time on the project turned tail and went home.
> 
> It has been a hard lesson to learn, from a whole lot of levels.
> 
> tf



Sorry to hear that Tiger. From your past posts I thought you would have already known the answer to your question.

I almost posted a smart-ass response. Glad I didn't.

Hope you recover.


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## TigerFan

Many thanks, Gordo. We'll recover - we have alot on the books right now to complete.

BTW, I can handle the smart ass comments - so send em on!:surrender: 

I got myself into this mix and I know who to blame for them - my wife! Doh! :w00t: 

tf


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