Cost per square foot of your layout

[Anonymous]

Yea, I hafta agree.... it's not wise to even think about this. Otherwise, I might never have started it.

[Anonymous]

There's no way I'm gonna do that calculation. Not even gonna THINK of it. No way do I want my wife to have access to that info, so it ain't gonna get written down.

Not that I've got all that much invested right now...

Tony

[Big_Boy_4005]

For me, this one is going to be difficult to determine. I am using a lot of materials from previous layouts. I have to add only a small amount of new stuff, so my cost will be unusually low.[:D]

[Roger Bielen]

I don't want to know. And I especially don't want my wife to even think about it. [:)]

[FJ and G]

SF Kent,

After you write up your calculations, be sure to burn the document so that your wife or significant other (or both) don't see your "real" spendings.

Dave Vergun

[Anonymous]

David, you gotta start working on a larger layout so you don't have so much time for this analysis! It did get me looking at how much I'm spending on my 4 by 8 layout, about a thousand Dollars by the time it's done (lots of operating stuff)! Wow, didn't realize how much you can dump into a small layout..... By the way, that's very close to your 30 Dollars a square foot!

[FJ and G]

What is the cost per square foot of your layout?

To determine mine, I took the square footage of my half-built layout (approx 4X25=100 sq ft) and divided that into the total amount spend on trains, benchwork, etc, approx $3,000, to arrive at a nice round figure of $30 per square foot.

Of course, that did NOT include the labor costs (incl. research time), which would probably make that same square foot cost at least $150 per square foot.

Then, to make this analysis even more exciting, I took the total square footage of my house (approx 5,000) and divided that into what my house is valued at (approx $400,000, a modest price for the area I live in), to find the cost per square foot of house equalling $80 per sq ft.

Thusly, my train layout per square foot is nearly twice as expensive as the cost of the house per sq ft.

David Vergun