D 1.0
What it costs, and what the number contains
Most builders decline to publish a figure. We publish ours on one condition — that you read the boundary printed around it, because an unbounded number is the thing that actually misleads.
Builders avoid publishing prices for three reasons, and only one of the three is defensible.
The unreasonable ones first. A number invites comparison, and comparison is uncomfortable when you cannot control what the other proposal contains. A number also removes the advantage of finding out someone's budget before quoting it. Neither of those is a good reason to keep you guessing until you have spent three evenings in meetings.
The reasonable one is real: a house is not a product with a price, it is an assembly of several hundred decisions on a piece of ground nobody has looked at yet. A single figure will always be wrong for somebody. So the answer is not to withhold the number. It is to publish the range and publish the boundary around it, which is what this page does.
D 2.0 · The house
Three bands, per square foot
Named for how much of the house has to be drawn before it can be priced. The band you land in is decided by the plan and the level of finish, not by how much land you own.
Measured
$185–$225 / sq ft
A straightforward plan on a lot that does not fight back. Production-grade windows and cabinetry, a conventional slab, and finishes chosen from a defined selection list.
Suits Level or gently sloping subdivision lots with municipal water and sewer at the street.
Surveyed
$225–$290 / sq ft
Where most of our work sits. Open plans that need engineered spans, a considered envelope with blower-door verification, custom cabinetry and a specification written line by line rather than picked from a sheet.
Suits Most infill and acreage parcels, including moderate slope and engineered foundations.
Sounded
$290–$420 / sq ft
Architect-led work, difficult ground, or a level of finish that has to be drawn before it can be priced. Steel, long spans, deep porches, millwork detailed for the house it sits in.
Suits Ridge and hillside parcels, rock excavation, stepped or pier foundations, unusual geometry.
Ranges are USD, stated per square foot of heated and cooled area, and exclude the land, the parcel costs listed separately and any applicable tax. They are planning ranges for a first conversation, not an offer and not a quotation. Reviewed January 2026; your own number comes from your specification. See the disclaimer.
D 3.0 · The parcel
Costs that belong to the ground, quoted separately
None of these scale with floor area, so folding them into a per-square-foot figure is exactly how two builders end up with numbers that cannot be compared. They are listed on their own for that reason.
Lot evaluation and written report
Flat fee, credited in full against the contract if you build with us.
$1,500
Design and construction documents
Scales with drawing complexity. Lower on a revised stock plan, higher on a fully bespoke set.
4–7% of construction cost
Geotechnical investigation
Paid to an independent firm. Number of borings and depth to refusal drive it.
$2,200–$4,800
Site work, clearing and grading
Slope, tree cover, cut and fill volume, and whether structural fill needs testing.
$12,000–$68,000
Foundation above the band
Nil on a level lot. Rock excavation, stepped footings or a pier system carry the top of this range.
$0–$55,000
Driveway, 300 feet
Base depth, grade, drainage structures and whether it is gravel or concrete.
$14,000–$42,000
Well and pressure system
Depth to water. Only where there is no rural water connection.
$12,000–$28,000
On-site wastewater system
Set by the soil evaluation. A conventional field is the low end, an engineered system the high one.
$9,000–$24,000
Storm shelter or safe room
In-slab shelter at the low end, reinforced above-grade room built to the federal criteria at the high end.
$8,500–$19,500
On a serviced subdivision lot the total of the list above is often modest. On a wooded hillside parcel with no municipal connections it can exceed the cost of a room, which is why the first thing we do is walk the ground. What that visit finds is written up before any design work begins.
D 4.0 · Reading it
What these numbers are not
A range is not a quotation. Nothing on this page is an offer, and no figure here creates an obligation on either side. Your number comes from a specification written for your plan on your parcel, and until that document exists any figure is a planning aid.
A range is also not a promise about the top of the range. If your selections sit above the band you were priced in, the price follows the selections. That is what the allowance schedule is for, and it is why we would rather resolve the expensive selections before you sign than afterwards.
Finally, a range is not a comparison. Before you set our figure beside anybody else's, check what each one divides by and what each one leaves out, because two per-foot numbers are almost never measuring the same house.
Included in every band
- Construction management and site supervision throughout
- Permit preparation and submittal to the authority with jurisdiction
- Foundation as designed for the ground on your parcel
- Full mechanical, electrical and plumbing installation
- Air sealing with blower-door verification before drywall
- Termite soil treatment and clearance detailing
- Final cleaning, walkthrough, punch list and closeout package
Excluded from every band: the land itself, the parcel costs listed above, landscaping beyond final grade and seeding, window coverings, furniture, and utility connection fees charged by the provider.
D 5.0 · Paying
When the money actually moves
Nothing is due at the enquiry stage. The lot evaluation is the first paid item, it is a flat fee, and it is credited back in full if you go on to build with us.
After that, payment attaches to completed and inspected stages rather than to dates, which is set out on the draw schedule page. What is refundable, what is not, and how to stop are all written down in the payment and refund policy rather than left to be discovered.
Kestrel Ridge Builders, LLC
3208 Sawmill Ridge Road Little Rock, AR 72223- Phone
- (501) 555-0147
- info@sjoop.com
- Hours
- Mon–Fri 08:00–17:00 America/Chicago
- Trade
- New Single-Family Housing Construction
Find out which band your project sits in
Send the parcel and roughly what you have in mind. We will tell you which band it falls into and what the ground is likely to add, before anybody spends money on drawings.
Kestrel Ridge Builders, LLC · 3208 Sawmill Ridge Road, Little Rock, AR 72223