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
233 in total, page 6 of 24.
Selling a house with foundation problems$5,000 to $30,000per projectA house with visible foundation problems sells 10 to 25% below comparable properties. Buyers deduct two to three times the repair cost, because they are pricing the uncertainty as well as the work.
Deck cost by state$30 to $65per sq ftA pressure-treated deck costs $38 a square foot in Arkansas and $53 in Illinois. On a 300 square foot deck that is $11,400 against $15,900 for identical work.
Deck repair cost$500 to $3,000per projectRepairing a deck costs $500 to $3,000, typically $1,400. The question is not the boards. It is the ledger where the deck meets the house, which is where nearly every deck failure begins.
Deck staining cost$1.50 to $4.50per sq ftStaining a deck costs $1.50 to $4.00 a square foot, putting a 300 square foot deck at $450 to $1,200. The cost is not the stain; it is the preparation, and skipping it is why finishes fail in a year.
Deck railing cost$30 to $150per linear ftDeck railing costs $30 to $150 a linear foot installed. It is frequently a third of the cost of a small deck, because a small deck has almost as much perimeter as a large one.
Concrete patio cost$8 to $26per sq ftA concrete patio costs $8 to $26 a square foot installed. It is the cheapest hard surface per square foot and the one where the base under it decides whether it lasts twenty years or cracks in three.
Asphalt driveway cost$7 to $13per sq ftAn asphalt driveway costs $7 to $13 a square foot installed. Concrete costs a little more and lasts longer; asphalt is cheaper up front and needs sealing. The choice depends more on climate than preference.
Gravel driveway cost$2 to $6per sq ftA gravel driveway costs $2 to $6 a square foot installed. It is a third the price of asphalt and it is not maintenance free: regrading every year or two and topping up every three to five.
Driveway repair cost$300 to $3,000per projectRepairing a driveway costs $300 to $3,000, typically $900. What decides which repair you are doing is not the surface. It is whether the base underneath is still there.
Sod installation cost$1.00 to $2.50per sq ftSod costs $1.00 to $2.50 a square foot installed against $0.10 to $0.30 for seed. Sod is an instant lawn at ten times the price, and whether that is worth it depends on erosion and timing.