The houses shown in this bulletin may, with slight changes, be built of wood, stone, concrete, brick, tile, earth, steel, or other materials. The choice depends largely on owner's preference, local availability and price, and the skill of local builders in using one or another. Many new materials for various purposes such as roofing, flooring, and insulation are on the market and deserve consideration.
The practice common among farmers of hauling their own stone or concrete materials, cutting their own logs where possible, having their lumber sawed at local mills, and doing part of the actual construction work, aid in reducing the cash outlay and in making possible a better house for the same money expenditure. This is especially true where lumber is sawed long enough before building starts to allow thorough seasoning. This seasoning of lumber is important and is too often disregarded.
[COSTS]
The most satisfactory way to learn the probable cost of a house is to obtain estimates from one or more local builders. Approximate costs may, of course, be obtained by comparing the proposed house with one built recently in the same community, or rough estimates may be based on the size of the house and typical unit costs for the locality.
Unit costs based on prices and wages prevailing in the spring of 1934 for houses suitable for the localities were obtained for about 300 counties by the Farm Housing Survey, A summary of the figures is as follows:
CELLARS
Costs for ordinary cellars were reported for most sections as varying from 50 cents to $1 per square foot of floor space. The cost per square foot is, of course, less for a large than for a small cellar, other things being equal. Easy excavation and low-cost materials also make for low unit cost. Costs of nearly $2 per square foot were reported in some sections where the ground-water level is high and cellar walls and floor must be carefully waterproofed. In sections where cellars are not ordinarily used the cost of the foundation was reported as part of the cost of the house superstructure.
SUPERSTRUCTURES AND PORCHES
Reported costs of one-story frame superstructures, including heating, plumbing, and lighting equipment ordinarily used in the locality, ranged from $1.25 to $2.25 per square foot of floor space in the South, from $2.25 to $3.50 in the West and Southwest, from $2.50 to $4 in the North, and from $3 to $4.50 in New England. Costs in Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia and in a narrow belt along the east coast, including Florida, were reported from $2 to $3.25, and in the timber-producing sections of the Northwest at about $2 per square foot. Costs in any locality are influenced by local factors, generally being relatively high near cities and in thickly settled sections and relatively low in places where there are local supplies of lumber or other materials.