If the land you purchased isn’t already set up for electric, water, gas, and septic, you’ll need to budget for these utilities and services.

The more remote your cabin location-and the more complex the terrain-the more expensive your site prep costs will be when building a log cabin. Project bids usually reflect cubic yards of dirt moved, roughly $50–$200 per cubic yard. In general, this requires clearing and excavating the land.Ĭlearing land costs $3,200 on average, or roughly $250–$1,000 per acre.Įxcavating land costs around $3,500, but this can vary greatly depending on the project size. Site PrepĪfter you’ve purchased the land and obtained all the proper permits, the first task in building a log cabin is preparing the site. Because the price of land varies so much by city and state, our log cabin cost guide assumes you've already purchased land and are in the design and building phases.īelow, we break down the costs of prepping the site, installing utilities and services, construction, and finishes.

You can calculate the cost to build a cabin the same way you calculate the cost to build a house. Find hiring guides, material costs, expert advice, how-to's and more.

Building a log cabin on a budget