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Cost of Professional Layout Design

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  • Member since
    October 2007
  • 58 posts
Cost of Professional Layout Design
Posted by Scale Hogger on Friday, February 2, 2018 8:56 AM

Is there a "ballpark" figure for professional layout design? Do designers charge by the hour? square footage? overall length?

Any comments about cost range on some basis will be appreciated.

  • Member since
    May 2010
  • From: SE. WI.
  • 8,253 posts
Posted by mbinsewi on Friday, February 2, 2018 9:09 AM

A discussion on this last fall:

http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/p/265321/2998035.aspx#top

And a Google search turns up many professional designers and builders, to get some idea.  Some have ball park figures in their web site.

From what I have read, many use the square footage of the room your going to use, to base prices.

Mike.

  • Member since
    June 2011
  • 404 posts
Posted by DavidH66 on Friday, February 2, 2018 3:49 PM

Bob Sprague, who has a lot of plans in MR has a site - https://www.bobstrackplans.com/

There's just one catch, he's got a severe backlog of over 6-8 months

  • Member since
    January 2017
  • 2,980 posts
Posted by NWP SWP on Friday, February 2, 2018 5:45 PM

I used Bob to get an early version of my railroad, my plan since changed and the plan isn't as usable and I'm a very picky person so I didn't really nitpick too much since he did it for free it's a great plan and I hope to use parts of it in my ultimate plan when I'm more experienced... 

Steve

If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough!

  • Member since
    December 2001
  • 1,190 posts
Posted by mvlandsw on Saturday, February 3, 2018 4:01 PM

  Along the same lines, how much do layout custom builders charge?

  • Member since
    November 2006
  • From: Northeast
  • 746 posts
Posted by GraniteRailroader on Saturday, February 3, 2018 6:10 PM

How much do three stones weigh after a rain storm?

The only way to know is to design and quote the project fully. Even then, there are overruns and material and labor buffers to be considered. 

This space reserved for SpaceMouse's future presidential candidacy advertisements

  • Member since
    December 2004
  • From: Pa.
  • 3,361 posts
Posted by DigitalGriffin on Saturday, February 3, 2018 8:02 PM

If you do it yourself, I've seen estimates of $100 / sq ft.

Add to it labor

Don - Specializing in layout DC->DCC conversions

Modeling C&O transition era and steel industries There's Nothing Like Big Steam!

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