Cost Comparison – My DIY Faux Stone Porch Skirting vs. A Ready-Made Product

In fact, the most important price of the DIY model was my time. This was a reasonably in depth and time-consuming mission, however to me, it was value it. I do have the benefit of being a DIY blogger, so engaged on DIY tasks is actually my job. It is likely to be completely different for an individual who works one other full-time job after which has to work in these DIY tasks on evenings and weekends. However for me, my essential goal was to finish up with a porch skirting that appears prefer it was constructed with the very same stone that’s used on the remainder of our home, so spending the time to get it proper was completely value it to me. However whether or not or not that price of time is value it’s one that every individual has to make. If somebody has restricted time, it’s completely affordable to decide on a ready-made product that’s “shut sufficient”.

However so far as the precise monetary price of this mission, right here’s how the associated fee breaks down…

Making the molds:

• GE 100% All Objective Silicone Caulk – 8 tubes @ $9.48 every = $75.84
• Cornstarch – 4 18-ounce packages @ $3.33 every = $13.32
• 1″ x 4″ x 8′ PVC boards – 5 @ $19.98 every = $99.90
• Scrap plywood – available = $0.00
• #8 x 1.5″ wooden screws – 1 bundle of 100 @ $11.47 = $11.47
• Nice Stuff spray foam – 2 cans @ $4.98 every = $9.96
• WD-40 – 1 can @ $8.78 = $8.78

• 6″ x 2″ concrete margin trowel – 1 @ $14.97 every = $14.97
• Mortar bag – 1 @ $6.97 every = $6.97
• 5 gallon bucket – 1 @ $3.98 every – $3.98
• 5 quart mixing bucket – 1 @ $3.98 every = $3.98
• 1 quart container – 2 @ $2.98 every = $5.96
• Sprayer – available – $0.00

Complete Price:

As soon as I add tax to these prices, that brings the full price of my DIY fake concrete porch skirting to $480.48 if I did my math proper (which is all the time questionable 😀 ).

Value Comparability:

How does that worth examine to a ready-made product? In fact, there are a variety of merchandise on the market that I may examine my fake stone facade to, however of the entire choices I checked out, there was just one that I might have severely thought of. Most stone facade merchandise that appear like Austin stone don’t have the signature 1/2-inch mortar strains between them just like the stone on our home has, and it was essential to me to have that. Once more, my objective was to make my porch skirting match the stone on our home, and discovering a precise match to our late 1940’s/early 1950’s Austin stone was inconceivable.

However there was one which got here shut, and that was this EverStone polyurethane faux stone panel product within the Citadel Rock sample.

Not one of the colours that had accessible would have labored for me, so I might have needed to paint it to match. However I had to try this anyway with my DIY model, in order that didn’t deter me in any respect.

Along with the panels, I might additionally want one of the corner pieces. I had three corners to cowl, however these nook items are 48″ excessive, so I may have gotten all three corners that I wanted out of 1 piece.

I’ve to confess that the nook items have been type of a deal breaker for me. These are the nook items made to go along with these panels, however they don’t actually appear to match the panels in look. These nook items are $46.55 every. So for the panels and nook piece, plus transport and tax, the associated fee can be $579.09.

After which these panels are connected utilizing polyurethane adhesive. I estimated that I’d want about six tubes of adhesive like Loctite PL-3, that are $7.48 every. That will add $48.58 (with tax) to the associated fee, for a complete price of $627.57.

So ultimately, my DIY model ended up being cheaper than the ready-made panels. However once more, they got here at a a lot larger price of my time that I spent making the entire molds and pouring every particular person stone. Since I received precisely what I needed, I believe the time added was value it for me.