How Much Does It Cost to Build a Loft Bed?
So you have decided to build a loft bed. You have your tools all laid out and you have purchased a set of loft plans from campusloftbeds.com. Now what?
Now all you have to do is head to the local hardware store to buy all your parts. As a test, I wanted to see how much it would cost to buy all of the materials needed to build a loft bed. I see loft bed kits offered online for $100’s, surely it cannot cost that much. For my experiment I used the twin loft bed plans and headed to a local Lowe’s hardware to do a little research.
The parts list found on the first page of the loft plans made shopping a breeze. I found all of the parts in probably less than 20 minutes. So how much did everything cost?
| Item | Qty | Cost/Item | Total |
| 2×6x8 | 7 | $4.26 | $29.82 |
| 2×4x8 | 4 | $2.19 | $8.76 |
| 1×2x8 | 2 | $0.97 | $1.94 |
| 2×2x8 | 5 | $1.77 | $8.85 |
| Box 2 1/2″ Wood Screws | 1 | $5.94 | $5.94 |
| 1 1/4″ Wood Screws | 8 | $0.16 | $1.28 |
| 3/8″x3 1/2″ Carriage Bolt | 8 | $0.43 | $3.44 |
| 3/8″x5″ Carriage Bolt | 4 | $0.61 | $2.44 |
| 3/8″ Washer | 12 | $0.11 | $1.32 |
| 3/8″ Nut | 12 | $0.14 | $1.68 |
| Small Bottle of Wood Glue | 1 | $2.57 | $2.57 |
| 1/2″x4×8 Sheet of Plywood | 1 | $28.37 | $28.37 |
| Total = | $96.41 |
So for just under $100 you can build your own loft. The price above also includes the cost of a sheet of plywood. Most of the loft bed kits that are available online do not include this cost.
Filed under: Loft Bed Construction on September 15th, 2008
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