new construction costs?

[carriagehouse]

I'm curious if anyone has had to build their shop from scratch? I mean the bar, shelving, sinks, storage space, etc. I have a fantastic location, but it requires me to build all those things, and I have a feeling it's going to be really pricy.

 

[ontrees]

Building from scratch

Hi there,

I've built two shops from scratch, and watched another. The things you listed, assuming you can do some of it yourself, might actually be a minor cost compared to the rest of it. The plumbing and electrical can cost far more than building a cabinet. If you live a state relaxed about licensing, you might be able to hire a cheaper residential plumber/electrician to do the job, or you might even have friends or family that do it! Just make sure it is done right and up to commercial code.

Cabinets and storage areas can be made out of simple wooden boxes connected together, with a counter placed on top and some nice finish grade plywood or even 1/4 inch board over low grade plywood for the exterior. As long as it is sturdy and cleanable, it will do the job. So, cabinet cost can be anywhere from a few hundred using salvage/used materials to $10,000 plus using a cabinet maker.

Sinks can be pretty cheap to put it in if you find a used or smaller one. Find out from your health department what they require and build in some room for growth in the sink in case you decide to do some baking or other food later with larger pans etc.

Other costs to watch out for - water/sewer mains, backflow prevention device, amount of electrical in building, heating/AC system, and bathroom requirements. This stuff can get out of hand really quickly and might make a great location unreachable if you don't have the capital or can't negoiate with the landlord to have them pay for changes to the building.

Have fun!

 

[freetodream]

Boy - ontrees hit on the head. We just opened on Friday after renovating a 100 yr. old building......we did the majority of the work ourselves, but you just don't realize how much lumber you need - and how it adds up QUICKLY. We had to rewire the building and replumb everything - this we could not do ourselves - and it set us back an additional $4,000 on top of all the lumber......

It does add up super fast - but hopefully it will be worth it in the end.

Hope things work out for you.....

 

[Sojrn]

Hey freetodream,

Where is your shop located? We live on the Gulf coast.

 

[bdepew]

what a chore...

I rented a shop right smack dab in the middle of a popular downtown city in NV, Condos going up all over the place it had to be a great location. We are a internet cafe/martini bar and a coffee house, we have over 1800sqft of space, when I got the place in Sept 2005 it was a big empty white space, with 1 bathroom that was so far out of code it was inbelievable. I got it, sanded all floors, did my layout, had a bar built, tiled the floors that were going to be tiled, carpeted where carpet was going, then started building the new bathrooms and food prep area and around stairs to basement. plumbing we did about 80% of ourself, licenses plumber did rest, licenses electrician did on the side about 10% and we did the rest. gave home depot about $15000 and another $5000 to a plumbing place and $2500 to electrician, $10,000 to bar builder, $10,000 to Dell for Plasma TV and computers and laser printers. I got my initial inspection and failed with a couple minor things, then got passed, now I am working on my final inspectiong from the health dept, fire dept, and building dept, all should be pretty easy, have a list of things i need to do, nothing big, stainless steel under counter bar fridges were given to me, along with a mano ice machine (got lucky) and another large commercial upright beverage cooler, then pepsi gave me a new one. bought the espresso machine for $5000 the grinders for $1000 all misc stuff.
we did all shelving, painting and things like that our selves. looks very nice, if you guys get a chance check this out, not very updated but you can get the picture... its a slide show from yahoo that i have.
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/slidesh....yahoo.com/bdepew_97/album/576460762310294405

let me know what you think, more pictures to come.

 

[bdepew]

also...

I forgot to mention something, something that snuck up on me. the city sewer fee's.
Where I am they started to tell me it was $17000 to hook up the items i needed/wanted to. I got the mayor involved and was able to get rid of 2 sinks out of the 8 sinks that they were saying was required. got it down to $4500. gotta watch out for that, they will get you.