Calculating costs for Post and Beam homes is one of the services we provide as a full service log home company. While almost everyone can picture a log home a Post and Beam house is not as widely known. Any of our homes can be built in any of the five home styles we offer. So here we are going to take one of our more upscale log home plans, convert it to a Post and Beam, and then do some cost estimating.

Contrasting Handcrafted Log Home and Post and Beam Home

First let’s look at the difference between a stacked log home and a Post and Beam. Here is the Bear Creek Plan. The first photo shows a handcrafted log home.

The second sketch is based on a Round Post and Beam.

The horizontally stacked logs are replaced with here with cedar shakes. The logs are limited to between the windows, roof system, and corner supports. The Posts and Beams are the skeleton of the home. The wood siding between the logs is cedar shakes. Almost any exterior finish material can be used between the logs such as cedar shakes, stone, stucco, wood siding, channel siding, etc.

Now for the costs. The upscale plan that we are going to explore costs of is a 2,950 square foot log home plan.

This is a lovely plan with several upscale additions to it. Some of these include: all of the handcrafted trusses are scissor trusses instead of the less expensive king trusses, extra purloins built into the roof system, Post and Beam log gazebo for the dining room, rounded top windows, covered entry, and covered porches. This home is more expensive than the standard log shell because of these features.

Calculating Costs for the Dry-in of a Post and Beam Home

The first component is the Post and Beam shell. The shell would include only the log work, interior log staircase, and handcrafted log roof system. For the 2,950 plan this would be about $149,000.

Next there is the other materials needed to dry the home in. This would include things like main floor subfloor, porch and decking, upper subfloor, framing for outside walls and interior walls, roof framing, finish roofing, pine soffit and fascia, 1×6 pine tongue and groove for all interior celings, wood trim for exterior of doors and windows, and exterior siding allowance.  For this home is about $115,000 [allowances included for exterior siding and roofing].

When calculating foundation costs you work off of the total square footage of the first floor of the home. Based on an average cost of $19 per square foot the foundation costs for a full unfinished poured wall basement is about $35,000 [based on current oil prices]. **Note: Crawlspace or Cement Slab foundation would lower this cost.

And finally the dry-in labor. This includes the erection of the log shell and installation of all materials listed above (except for the 1×6 pine tongue and groove for soffits and ceilings– that is a finish cost). For the this plan would be about $115,000.

Once the dryin labor is completed the Post and Beam Home is ready for the Sub-Contractors for heating, plumbing, electric, etc.

So to sum it up the costs are as follows:

Foundation: $35,000
Post and Beam Shell: $149,000 + Delivery
Other Materials: $115,000
Dry In Labor: $115,000

Once the dryin is completed the home is not at risk to weather damage. The rest of the finish work can be finished by the owners, contracted out by the owners, or completed by another contractor.

In our next article we will take some of these costs and break them down further.

Click Here to Read “Calculating Costs For Post and Beam Homes Part 2”.

Cowboy Log Homes