What typically costs more to build - 2 story or 1 story? (Portland: houses, crawl space)

[Jeremy Gibson]

I've been thinking of getting some land around the Portland or Freeport area and building a house. I'd like approx 2500 sq feet with at least a master bedroom on the ground floor or an entirely single story home. Are there thoughts from folks here if it's typically more expensive to build a single story versus a 2 story house or visa versa?

[Maineah]

It stands to reason that the bigger the house the more it will cost. Heating in Maine is always part of a building plan. Most houses in Maine have a concrete cellar into which the central heating unit and oil tank is installed. Not a lot of Natural Gas heat around here. Houses on slabs will usually have a utility room for the central heating or a large closet type of setup. This will figure into the livable square footage you end up with in a single story home on a slab foundation. You could certainly build a large one story house on a slab, many have, but if you put in a cellar as most do making the cellar somewhat smaller than 2500 sq. ft. and going up another story to get yopur 2500 sq.ft. might be cheaper in the long run.

[Submariner]

When we were in the design phase of our home, we read and noticed that adding a basement can double the usable square footage but often the expense might only be adding 10% or less to the total of what the house will cost.

Adding upward is more expensive.

If you already have a 5 foot deep foundation and footer, going to 8 foot is not a huge change. As it turned out with the foundation contractor that we used, a 5 foot foundation or a 8 foot foundation either way would have been the same price.

Opening the trench took the site-work crew one day. The second crew took a day to setup forms and rebar. The third crew took a day to pour the concrete. The fourth crew took a day to tear down the forms, and the site-work crew took a day to backfill. One crew was here 2 days, the other crews were each here for 1 day, they were all are pretty much set expenses. The cost of the concrete is a very minor fee in comparison to having four crews and their equipment on site working.

We were planning on having a full basement with our house when they hit ledge. They were not able to go as deep as needed. So our house does not have a full basement.

To do it all over again, I would have set the level of the house up six feet. To allow for a full basement on top of the ledge. But I would have needed the foreknowledge of knowing that ledge existed right there, and the contractors would have needed to have planned their work crews differently.

Over all it only took five days start to finish and the foundation was done. Which I thought was pretty fast.

[Jeremy Gibson]

Thanks for the responses. I should have been clearer about what I have in my head.

Full unfinished basement with 2500 sq ft of finished living space either in one level or two. I had a slab when I lived in Texas and didn't like it and have a crawl space now that is also unusable. I like the utilities in a basement with space to perhaps finish later, add a wine cellar, etc.

If building up is more expensive, then I assume a basement with living on one level above is less expensive than a basement with two living levels above.

[ExAirForce]

Just having finished building a 1 story 3600 square foot house I can't speak to building cost of one vs two story buut what we did notice was the property tax. If we had done a finished cellar our property tax would have been higher. Our house is larger with equal or higher items of that of a friend just a couple miles away also in a developement and our property taxes are lower. Going over the breakout of how they assessed it, I could really only notice the cellar being the big difference. Might be wrong but it is what we have observed.

[JC3]

I was in same boat as to what to do. I am going one floor, full basement, 2300 Sq Ft. ,open concept, don't want to climb stairs as we get older and will not be having a finished basement.

Now, the issue on additional costs really are simple. You put 1150 Sq Ft on top of each other instead of having it all on one floor, the costs just in foundation work will be a lot less expensive. Your footprint will be reduced greatly. Depending on how you want the structure for one floor could add to costs for beam support, roof pitch..etc.

My friend who is a builder and who designed my plans, presented the differences to me so I would know it would be more costly to go one floor and then I made the choice. In our case, the extra cost out weighs issues we could see in the future. If you are having a home built, build what you want and don't regret spending a little more now to make it comply with your needs and desires.

[kellysmith]

I don't think it would even be close to get the same square footage. Two story would cut your foundation costs almost in half. Half as much roofing material for the same square footage...half the roof rafters, half the ceiling insulation. Somewhat more labor doing two story because of staging, but that would be offset by material savings. Heat rises, so all that heat that would be escaping from the first floor is warming the second. To me the style to go with is a saltbox with Southern exposure. That way you can have an open ceiling in the living room area to get that spacious feeling. I don't like the looks of the log cabin, but here's a link to a floor plan I like.

The Milroy Cape Shed Log Home by ABC Modular Log Homes, LLC

Here's another floorplan I like. This one is from the company that did the Extreme Home Makeover down in the Porland area.

http://www.katahdincedarloghomes.com...ail.cfm?id=903

[Northern Maine Land Man]

A 2 story house is much less expensive to build, heat and maintain for the same square footage. As mentioned above, a walk-out basement is very economical living space too.

[SportFury59]

Check out a tri-level design home. I've had mine for years and would build same if I were to do it again. Basement is divided into 2 sections. Half of it is approx 6' below grade to give standard depth and ceiling height and the other half the floor is 44" higher connected by 6 stair treads. "Upper" basement has walkout rear patio door because my land slopes slightly from front to rear so this makes upper basement area very useful. I have my wood stove in this area - easy to bring in wood with wheelbarrow and take out ashes, etc. And heat is directed upward. Upstairs living area basically same. Kitchen, dining room, living room, laundry room are are main level with bedrooms, bath on upper level connected by only 6 stair treads.
Counting attached garage floor it is actually 5 levels. IMO you gain added living area with that "upper" basement area and still have a "deep" basement.

[BacktoNE]

Building up has always been less expensive than building out. As mentioned previously, your foundation and roof (BIG ticket items) are half the size.