MBE / HUB-Certified Texas MEP

Texas Construction Cost Estimator

Quick budgetary $/sf and total construction cost for Texas commercial and residential projects. Pick building use, project mode, quality tier, square footage, and major city — we return hard cost plus typical permit fees. Use it to size early before you have a real GC number.

Dictates the base $/sf range from typical TX 2026 cost data.

Tenant finish-out building uses already account for TI; pick "new" in that case.

Drives where in the $/sf range we land (low / typical / high).

Heated/cooled gross floor area.

Applies a cost-of-construction multiplier (Houston = 1.00 baseline).
Construction cost (hard cost)
$1.50M
Cost per sq ft$300
Range (low – high)$1.10M – $2.00M
Permit + plan-review$15K – $30K
Basis: 5,000 sf x $300/sf typical x Houston multiplier 1.00 = $1.50M (mid). Range reflects basic vs high-end finish.
Hard cost only

This is the construction contract value (concrete to keys). It does not include land, FF&E, owner contingency (typical 5-10%), site civil beyond the building footprint, or impact fees. Add 12-18% on top of hard cost to budget all-in.

Compare to recent Texas project costs

Public bid data for similar Texas projects – good for sanity-checking the number above against real awards.

TxDOT Bid TabulationsAwarded unit-price data for Texas DOT vertical & civil projects (state-let). View at txdot.gov
School District Bond ProjectsAISD, HISD, DISD bond program reports list awarded GMP per school (often $/sf). Search "[district] bond progress report".
City of Austin CIPOpen data for awarded municipal building contracts, fire stations, libraries. austintexas.gov/CIP
ENR Construction Cost IndexEngineering News-Record monthly cost index by metro – useful to time-adjust older comps. enr.com/economics
RSMeans (Gordian)Industry-standard $/sf reference; subscription, but local libraries and AIA chapters often have access.
Texas Comptroller eGrants & BidnetAwarded contract values for state-funded construction. Filter by NAICS 2362xx.

Ready for a hard number on your project?

Pyra Engineering produces sealed MEP design and provides budgetary cost letters for lender, GC, or owner pre-construction. Quote in 1 business day.

Get a quote

How we built this. Base $/sf ranges reflect typical Texas commercial construction in 2025-2026 (post-COVID material costs settled, labor still tight). City multipliers approximate RSMeans City Cost Index. Remodel-light = 0.45x of new for that type, remodel-heavy = 0.85x (heavy remodels can exceed new build because of demo, asbestos, code-trigger upgrades). Numbers are budgetary – your actual contract depends on site, schedule, and bid market. Not a substitute for a real estimator or GC bid.