It’s been a while since I updated expenses. Note that the rocket mass heater expenses included approximately $1,500.00 for CSA approved chimney materials. There’s a bit of debate about whether insulated pipe is required for the exit flue, since temperatures are ususally no more than 200 degrees F. However, as previously mentioned by Chris, we wanted to make the design as easy as possible and to meet with as little resistance as we could. The time for innovation may be on the next one! 🙂 Also note that we were charged for a permit. It was actually $150, but I messed up and wrote the cheque from the Christmas account instead of the earthship account…boing! I don’t do that very often….
We are now about $6,000 over our anticipated budget as we weren’t budgeting for a rocket mass heater. We are not too worried about this as our contingency fund is fairly healthy. I expect that as we get into more of the systems (Chris and the electrician have started that component and we are next moving into plumbing) that our budget will continue to experience over runs, simply because we haven’t anticipated every detail. C’est la vie!
| PERMITS | ||
| HPO Homeowner Exemption Permit | $425.00 | |
| Building Permit | $1,504.00 | |
| Septic Approval | $157.50 | |
| Solid fuel burning permit | $165.00 | |
| $2,251.50 | ||
| PREP COSTS | ||
| Excavation | $6,365.00 | |
| $6,365.00 | ||
| MATERIALS | ||
| Tire Walls (inc. poly, Metal Lath + portland cement) | $573.04 | |
| Perimeter drain (inc. PVC pipe and fittings, filter cloth) | $528.46 | |
| Thermal Wrap (inc. poly, rigid insulation, tuck tape) | $3,781.10 | |
| Nails/other fasteners | $28.09 | |
| Tires | $0.00 | |
| Dirt | $0.00 | |
| Tire press | $0.00 | |
| Cardboard | $0.00 | |
| Portland cement for bond beam & pop can form | $341.71 | |
| Plumbing general | $78.10 | |
| Rebar bond beam | $180.35 | |
| Sill gasket – bond beam | $68.99 | |
| Misc plumbing for rough septic/greywater overflow | $91.91 | |
| Framing materials | $44.46 | |
| Wood stain | $1,059.69 | |
| Electrical | $1,125.65 | |
| Misc | $618.91 | |
| Roof | $13,376.16 | |
| End walls | $217.16 | |
| South wall | $14,391.06 | |
| Equipment | $156.28 | |
| Rocket Heater | $1,919.41 | |
| $38,580.53 | ||
| Total | $47,197.03 |
So hard to predict expenses. Very interesting nonetheless. For anyone considering building their own earthship this is a great component of the website.
One number that jumps out at me is Equipment expenses. Since you have been in the construction business for a while, naturally, you already own a lot of the tools required. Maybe you have posted about this already and I missed it but I wonder if you have an estimate on the amount that a new builder would have to spend on equipment to be able to get this project up and rolling? What equipment do you feel is absolutely necessary and what equipment isn’t?
Thanks
Hmmm. When I think of all the equipment we’ve used it’s mind boggling. I thought in the beginning I would make a list of all of it, but you know….time and all that. We made use of even small specialty tools, like the angle reader (sorry, forget what it’s called) and it was $25 new.
For excavation and tire walls: Chainsaw, chalklines, shovels, wheelbarrows, tire press, tamper, hammers, cement mixer, electrical cords, cordless drills (3), corded impact drills (2), jig saw, angle grinder, sawsall, pliers, safety equipment (lots of gloves), tractor, forklift, dumptruck, pick up truck and trailer, spirit levels, transit, 7″ circular saw, 10″ compound mitre saw, 12″ compound mitre saw, hoses and nozzles, tin snips, exacto knives, plumb pop, scissors.
I’ll try to make a list of the bond beam/roof in the next few days…a lot of the cost depends on if you can borrow or buy used.
Hello I found your site on the Earthship forums and am interested in the costs involved. So is this total a running total? Or just a certain period?
And I don’t see a cost of the land either. I’m assuming that is not included here?
It’s a running total to date…we already owned the land so we didn’t include that cost. We live on our industrial-zoned land, so the cost would be disproportionate… We haven’t inlcluded our labour at all and a lot of the items we scrounged or had already. At some point I will fill in those costs that we haven’t actually paid, for those who might not be able to find the things we did. Mind you, the premise of an earthship is that you should be able to reuse or recycle things to get them for free. And implied in the process is that there is some owner sweat equity.
I was just wondering if you are planing or have bought the POM or WOM from Biotecture?
I doubt it…we tend to come up with our own solutions and we are using a slightly different design of house…but like always when we get to planning those parts in more detail we will probably look at them!