Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: The "lot" development model

[Martin Tracy (mtracy]

<Martin responds to Rob's response to someone's question on cost savings 
building individually or all at once.>

Hi Rob!

The 15% savings, I recall, was Chucks figure for the savings in energy cost of 
heating a triplex vs. three individual homes.  That seems high for Sharingwood, 
or any cohousing group located in a temperate climate.

Sharingwood's resident contractor, Bob, says that there is almost no 
significant 
building materials discount building one house or many, assuming you have 
gotten 
the standard professional discount of 10 to 15%. This agrees with what we were 
told by the Claremont cohousing interviewed contractor.  Evidently, the cost of 
getting materials and equipment to the site(s) is small compared to the cost of 
building.

>>How much cost savings are forfeited by designing and building individually
>>rather than all of the units at once?

>No data, since ALL our homes have been individually designed and built 
>I have no way of knowing.  Someone once used the figure of 15% savings 
>for building a triplex over individual homes but I have no idea where 
>that number came from and can't even remember where I heard it.


-- 
Martin Tracy, Los Angeles
mtracy [at] ix.netcom.com