Cost Home Book is written and edited by the Cost Home Book editorial team. The team builds the site's cost models from publicly available US wage statistics, supplier price lists and permit data, and updates each guide as those sources change. It has no affiliation with any contractor, manufacturer or lead-generation service. Figures on this site are estimates for reading a quote, not quotes.
How the figures are built
Every cost band starts as a national figure with a date on it. Where a guide is priced from published data, the labor leg follows the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey for the trade that does the work, and the materials leg follows a Producer Price Index series for what it is made of. Once a guide's sources section is published, both are named and linked at its foot, with the release they were read from.
The one number no dataset supplies is how much of a job is labor and how much is materials. That split is a judgement, it is stated on the page, and it is the difference between a roof price that moves with roofers' wages and one that moves with asphalt. How we calculate costs sets out the arithmetic, and the editorial policy is explicit about which figures are derived and which are estimates.
Independence
We have no affiliation with any contractor, manufacturer, marketplace or lead-generation service. The site is funded by display advertising and nothing else — no referral fees, no commissions, no paid placements. No advertiser sees a figure before a reader does. How the site is funded.
Corrections and contact
If a figure here does not match what you were quoted, that is worth knowing and we would rather hear it. Send the page, the figure and what you were actually quoted to corrections@costhomebook.com, or see the corrections policy for what happens next. Anything else: hello@costhomebook.com.
Guides by the Cost Home Book editorial team
243 in total, page 20 of 25.
Bowing basement wall repair cost$5,000 to $15,000per projectRepairing a bowing basement wall costs $5,000 to $15,000. A horizontal crack along a block course is the one crack in a house that deserves a phone call today.
Basement waterproofing cost$3,000 to $10,000per projectBasement waterproofing costs $3,000 to $10,000, averaging $5,000. Interior drain tile is $50 to $120 per foot and exterior excavation $100 to $220. Do the cheap things first.
French drain cost$10 to $90per linear ftA French drain costs $10 to $90 per linear foot depending on depth and placement. Slope and an outlet decide whether it works, and both are invisible once the trench is filled.
Crawl space encapsulation cost$300 to $1,000per sq ftEncapsulating a crawl space costs $3 to $10 per square foot, averaging $5,500. In humid climates the vents code once required are actively delivering water into the space.
Deck cost$30 to $100per sq ftBuilding a deck costs $30 to $100 per square foot, so a 300 square foot deck is $9,000 to $30,000. The boards are the part everyone shops for and the smallest part of the price.
Composite deck cost$40 to $100per sq ftA composite deck costs $40 to $100 per square foot installed, typically $60. Re-decking a sound existing frame is $20 to $45, less than half the cost of building new.
Fence installation cost$15 to $65per linear ftA fence costs $15 to $65 per linear foot installed. A 150 foot run is $2,250 in chain link and $7,200 in vinyl. Find your property line before anyone digs a post hole.
Paver patio cost$12 to $30per sq ftA paver patio costs $12 to $30 per square foot installed, typically $20. Everything that goes wrong with a paver patio is the base, and the base is invisible once it is finished.
Concrete driveway cost$8 to $15per sq ftA concrete driveway costs $8 to $15 per square foot, so a two-car driveway is $4,000 to $9,000. Concrete cracks by nature; control joints decide where.
Retaining wall cost$20 to $55per sq ftA retaining wall costs $20 to $55 per square foot of exposed face, typically $35. It is priced by length times height, not length, which is the measurement most people get wrong.