Opportunities to expand your church design or construct a new church building are impacted by many factors. We’ve seen this happen with buildings of all types during the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether it’s inflation or everchanging building codes, there can be a large opportunity cost when it comes to putting off your church building project.
How Inflation Impacts Your Church Design
Construction inflation is always higher than general inflation rates across the US. We’ll specifically address, in-depth, rising church building costs in a coming article.
Suffice it to say that prior to the pandemic, construction inflation was running between 2–4% per year. In mid-2022, general inflation has risen to 8%, while construction inflation has gone up more than 20% over the past two years. This photo, as an example, demonstrates what $1000 could buy in lumber in January 2020 vs. June 2021.
Obviously, this means the overall cost of any church design is going to increase as well. Even if you’re just beginning to think about new church building construction or remodeling an existing church facility, there’s an opportunity cost to waiting, as we don’t expect inflation rates to reverse direction anytime soon.
Supply and Demand Also Impact Your Church Building Project
Inflation isn’t the only challenge facing the church design and construction process. Manufacturing is at its highest rate in history, which means there are more demands for materials, energy, and workers in various industries than ever before. Consequently, your church building contractor is competing with other industries for the resources they need to complete your church building project. We’ve seen this impact the timeline for our own church building projects. Anytime there is a delay, that can also drive-up prices.
The Cost of Building Code Changes
Code changes always make buildings more expensive. In residential construction, about 40% of the price increase of a typical home were dictated by building code changes. A church building lies in the middle between residential and commercial buildings in terms of code requirements, but specific ministry opportunities can significantly impact the cost of your church design. For example, if you’re looking to start a daycare facility on your church property, there are many building codes you’ll need to follow that you wouldn’t need to implement for a church nursery.
Plainly, there’s an opportunity cost to putting off your church building project even in the best of times. If you’re looking to implement a church vision for ministry in your community that involves a new church design or remodeling an existing church building, delay could be costly.
To learn more about various aspects of church design and construction, sign up for the next installments in our free i3 webinar series. There are other opportunities to consider with your church building that we’ll address in an upcoming post. Next week, we’ll provide an in-depth look at rising church building costs with our annual cost of construction update.