How Much Does It Cost to Build a House in Maine?

The cost to build a house in Maine right now is about $290 to $330 per square foot for a basic house in central, northern or western Maine. The same house in southern or coastal Maine runs about $350 to $380 per square foot.

Those are turnkey numbers, which means everything but the land. Nicer finishes push both numbers higher, and we lay out every tier below.

Seth made a video walking through these numbers and the five things that move them. Watch it above, or read on for the written version.

We match homeowners with vetted house builders across Maine, including contractors who build around Portland. Our service is free for homeowners, and you never have to hire anyone we introduce.

What is the cost to build a house in Maine per square foot?

The cost to build a house in Maine per square foot runs from about $290 for a basic house inland to $700 for a premium house on the coast. Two things decide where you land: the region you build in and the finishes you pick.

Every figure is per square foot of living space, turnkey, with the land left out. Here's what each finish level actually buys you:

• Builder grade is your typical 1,500 square foot cookie-cutter ranch: vinyl click flooring, vinyl windows, a shingle roof, laminate countertops, and drywall and paint. It isn't fancy, but it's a house that's livable and enjoyable to be in.
• Mid-grade is the middle of the road. You want some nicer things without paying for the most expensive version of everything, and the range is wide because there's a long list of finishes to splurge on.
• Premium is the nicest of everything, for the homeowner with the most expensive taste in the world. Seth has worked with builders who only build this kind of house, and the craftsmanship in every detail is remarkable.

These ranges are the averages we've seen across hundreds of quotes from dozens of builders around the state. Some builders come in under them and some blow right past them, so use them to check your budget, not as a quote.

Seth came up through the trades from laborer to project manager, and three and a half of those years were on the estimating and sales side. He has seen hundreds of Maine building quotes and interviewed the contractors behind them to learn what goes into every build.

What does a 1,000 to 2,000 square foot house cost?

A 1,000 to 2,000 square foot house costs about $290,000 to $660,000 at builder grade in central, northern or western Maine, and about $350,000 to $760,000 in southern or coastal Maine. Premium finishes on a 2,000 square foot house can top $1 million in either region.

These totals are the per-square-foot ranges above, multiplied by the size of the house.

Central, northern and western Maine

Southern and coastal Maine

Put the two tables side by side and you can see that where you build matters a lot. A builder-grade 2,000 square foot house on the coast costs about what a mid-grade one costs inland.

Do the math on your own square footage before you go any further. It's the fastest way to find out whether the house you're picturing and the budget you have are the same project.

If you want a second set of numbers to read beside ours, Newman Homes, a builder based in Augusta, publishes its own Maine figures.

What does turnkey include when you build a house?

Turnkey includes everything it takes to build a finished house except the land. A turnkey number covers three parts of the job:

• The site: pre-construction planning, excavation, drilling the well and installing the septic.
• The structure: the foundation and the whole frame-to-finish build.
• The systems: the electrical, the plumbing and the heating.

The well and septic are the part a lot of people don't realize is included. A quote that leaves them out can't be compared to one that includes them, and on a rural Maine lot those two add up fast.

A turnkey number still leaves out a few costs you'll want to plan for:

• The land itself, which is usually your biggest separate line if you're still buying.
• A drawing set, plus a survey where your town requires one. We cover what house plans cost in Maine in its own guide.
• Driveways, landscaping, utility hookups and construction-loan interest, unless your builder quoted them in.

Why does building on the Maine coast cost more?

Building on the Maine coast costs more because living there costs more, and builders have to charge enough to make a living where they live. That goes for all of southern and coastal Maine, from Westbrook and Portland up to greater Camden and Bar Harbor.

Look at what houses sell for. In the video, Seth puts the median home price at:

• Camden: $779,000 to $830,000
• Portland: $590,000 to $600,000
• Augusta, the state capital in Kennebec County: $275,000 to $315,000

A builder living around Augusta can charge less and still make the same living. A crew based on the coast has to charge more to afford living there, and you're the one who pays it.

Labor cost is the biggest reason southern and coastal Maine cost what they do. Building near the water adds rules on top of that: Maine's shoreland zoning controls how close you can build to the water and how much you can clear, and working within those limits adds time to the job.

If you're building inland and getting quoted coastal prices, ask the builder why. A crew driving in from the coast may be pricing your house at their cost of living, and builders based around Augusta may price the same plans for less.

How much does your land add to the cost of building?

Your land can add a lot to the cost of building, because excavation and land prep are among the biggest costs in the whole construction process. The ground decides how much of that you pay.

A perfectly flat, open lot with builder-grade finishes puts you at the low end of the per-square-foot range. A lot with a slope, rugged terrain or a lot of clearing where the house goes pushes you up.

Then there's ledge. Granite ledge is very common in Maine, and if you want a full basement over it, the excavator can't just dig.

The crew has to blast the rock with dynamite to make room for the basement, and that gets expensive very quickly. Seth puts it plainly in the video: a complicated lot "could totally drive up the cost and blow your budget out of the water."

Nobody can price rock they haven't dug yet. Ask every builder what their quote assumes about ledge, and what happens to the number if they hit it.

The soil matters too. On a lot with no town sewer, a site evaluator tests the soil to design the septic, and where the system can go often decides where the house can sit.

Should you hire a general contractor or an in-house crew?

You should hire a general contractor who subs out to specialists when quality and speed matter most, and a builder with an in-house crew when price matters most. Seth counts the type of builder you choose as one of the five biggest cost factors on a Maine house.

The first kind is what Seth calls the briefcase contractor. He subs the work out to specialists he knows well, and because they're specialists, they cost more for their phase of the job.

A master tiler, for example, can run 30 to 50 percent more than a run-of-the-mill jack-of-all-trades who does pretty decent tile but not perfect tile. You can see that difference in the finished house.

The briefcase contractor can usually finish sooner, too, because he can line everybody up quicker. You pay for that quality and that speed.

The second kind does most of the work in-house. He might run a four-man crew or an eight-man crew, and each guy has his own specialty, but they're all well-rounded and can put out a good product for less money.

Those are patterns, not hard rules. Some in-house builders are exceptional and turn out phenomenal work on their own, and there are mediocre coordinators out there too.

Ask every bidder which trades are their own people and which are subbed, and what their markup on the subs is. A builder who answers that plainly is telling you how your job will actually run.

How does changing your mind raise the cost of a house?

Changing your mind in the middle of a build raises the cost of a house through change orders, and Seth counts you, the customer, as one of the five biggest cost factors. Builders size up customers by how easy they are to work with.

In pre-construction planning, you lay out your vision and the builder prices the finishes and the methods to match it. Stick to that plan and the builder can stick to the price, and if something goes wrong, everybody knows whose responsibility it is.

Now picture a customer who scrolls Pinterest and changes their mind 14 times in the middle of the project: move this over there, put that over here, maybe a different color in the kitchen. Every one of those small changes slows the builder down.

Each change comes back to you as more cost, more time or both. You end up with change order after change order after change order.

"There's nothing wrong with that," Seth says in the video. "Just be aware that you're going to end up paying more for it."

Settle the plan before the build starts, then be the customer who sticks to it. Our guide to reading a builder's estimate shows how to pin down the change order markup before you sign.

Why does a simple house shape cost less to build?

A simple house shape costs less to build because every extra corner, bump-out and roof line adds labor and material. The simpler the build, the lower it lands in the per-square-foot range.

The cheapest shape is a basic square plopped on the ground, with no bump-ins, no bump-outs and no extra corners. Put a simple gable roof on it, the basic triangle roof you've seen a thousand times driving down the road, and you have a house that goes up efficiently.

Now compare a two-story with a fancy bump-out entryway, cut-ins in the foundation and a complicated roof line. It looks snazzier, but it takes longer to frame, roof and finish, and you pay for every one of those hours.

Unconventional architectural features work the same way. They can look great, and they cost more to build than a plain rectangle.

How do material choices change the price per square foot?

Material choices change the price per square foot more than almost any other decision you make, and most of the difference is labor, not the material itself. Seth lists materials last of his five factors, but he says they probably have the biggest impact of all.

Labor is the most expensive part of any build. For a crew member to take home decent money, $30 to $40 an hour, the builder has to charge you $60 to $80 an hour for that guy.

That gap covers insurance, workers' comp, tools and the upkeep of the business. So a material that goes in faster saves you money on labor, even when the material itself costs about the same.

Three swaps show the gap:

• Siding: Cedar shingles are easily the most expensive siding to install in Maine, because the crew puts them up one piece at a time and cedar is expensive right now. Vinyl comes in 12-foot pieces that go up with a few nails, and a good crew can fly through it.
• Flooring: Vinyl click flooring goes down fast. Thin three-inch oak strips cost more in material and a lot more in labor.
• Trim: Victorian or colonial trim profiles, plus chair rail and crown molding around every room, add carpenter hours to every room they touch.

Windows take a bigger bite than most people expect. The windows themselves can account for up to 10 percent of the whole build price.

Basic double-hung vinyl windows sit at one end of that spread, and premium wood or fiberglass windows sit at the other. Floor-to-ceiling glass and big bay windows with a seat cost more again.

Kitchens and bathrooms swing the price hard too. A kitchen can go from laminate countertops and off-the-shelf particle board cabinets all the way to granite and real oak cabinets.

A bathroom can get a tub insert or a floor-to-ceiling tile shower, and a manufactured countertop or marble. The cost difference between those choices is stark, so decide early which ones matter to you.

Insulation is the upgrade people skip past. Mineral wool costs roughly twice what fiberglass does upfront, and it's the better product for a Maine winter.

How can you keep the cost of building a house down?

You keep the cost of building a house down by keeping the design simple, building on a 4-foot grid and sticking to your plan. Seth closes the video with these three tips because they save the most money:

1. Keep the design simple. Skip the complex roof lines, the bump-ins and the cutouts. Simple squares and rectangles keep the price per square foot down.
2. Think in 4-foot increments. Lumber and sheet goods come in 4, 8 and 12-foot sizes, and you pay for the full piece either way. A 32 by 36 house or a 28 by 24 room uses material the way it comes, while an 11 by 15 room or a 31 by 35 house means more cutting, more waste and more labor.
3. Stick to the plan. Set your vision before the build starts and hold onto it. Every mid-build change is a change order you pay for.

How do you compare quotes from Maine builders?

You compare quotes from Maine builders by making sure every builder is pricing the same house. Three habits keep the quotes comparable:

• Same drawings, same day. Send every builder the same drawing set at the same time, and confirm each quote is turnkey on the definition above.
• Matched allowances. Set the same allowances for flooring, cabinets, countertops, tile and fixtures, and ask each builder to list in writing what's excluded.
• A written contract. Maine requires a signed written contract on any home construction job over $3,000 in materials or labor (10 M.R.S. §1487). The Maine Attorney General's home construction page has a model contract and a model change order you're free to use.

Maine does not license general contractors or builders. Plumbers and electricians hold state licenses, but for the person running the biggest purchase of your life, there's no state registry to check.

So we check builders ourselves before we introduce them: we verify their insurance, call their past customers and drive by their job sites. Our guide to hiring a Maine builder without getting burned walks through the checks you can run on your own.

Frequently asked questions about building a house in Maine

How much does it cost to build a house in Maine? Building a house in Maine costs about $290 to $330 per square foot turnkey for a basic house in central, northern or western Maine, and $350 to $380 in southern or coastal Maine. Mid-grade and premium finishes run from $330 to $550 or more inland, and from $400 to $700 on the coast.

Does turnkey include the well and septic? Turnkey does include the well and septic, along with excavation, the foundation, the frame-to-finish build, and the electrical, plumbing and heating. The land is the one thing a turnkey price leaves out.

What is the cheapest way to build a house in Maine? The cheapest way to build a house in Maine is a simple rectangle on flat land in central, northern or western Maine, laid out in 4-foot increments with builder-grade finishes. After that, settle your plan before the build starts and stick to it.

How do you get a real number for your build?

You get a real number for your build by putting your land and your plans in front of builders who price houses like yours every week. Nobody can price a house from a webpage, because the two biggest variables are the ground you own and the finishes you haven't picked yet.

Our service is free for homeowners. Tell us roughly how big a house you want, where your land is and whether you have drawings yet, and we'll match you with up to three vetted builders who fit the job.

You sign with the builder you choose and pay them directly. If you don't have drawings yet, our Maine house plans give every builder the same set to price.