We get a lot of questions about our business, and here at Bird Your House, we provide full disclosure about everything from designing, pricing, materials, sustainability, and durability!
Read below to see some of the answers that just might fit your questions:
There's two major factors that go into our pricing, which are
1.) Time
2.) Materials
Naturally, the larger and more complex the house, the more time and materials are required resulting in a higher price. It should be understood that we are doing the best we can to come to an agreement with each customer on the price and quality of their replica house.
Factors that influence price are number of walls, textures (commonly lap, brick or stone), number of windows, number of roof pieces, dormers, bay windows, 3D printed additions, roof textures, and other features.
The 'Front Only' replica is our most affordable custom birdhouse option. We are very flexible with the amount of details we can add, all depending on what you value most about the house!
The shown example has the front detail added, with the sides and back painted the correct wall color. The bird hole is on the back so that no features were compromised on the front of the replica. The shown example was built in the early months of 2024, and purchased as a wedding gift for around $450.00
The "Full Custom Replica" is our most popular option, as it features details on all sides of the beloved home.
We are flexible with the amount of details we can add, and we quite often offer options to include or exclude porches, railings, pools, even hot tubs.
The leading influence on price for full custom replicas is the increase in the amount of complex roof pieces, and the amount of windows. The shown example was built in the early months of 2024, and was purchased for around $1,150
The special order is a rare case, but we will never turn down a chance to push our limits. These are often ordered months in advance, and can take several days to design.
We have modeled historical landmarks, such as Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water, the shown example.
Special orders include martin houses, which are often larger than 2 feet long and have 6 or more nesting boxes. We have added details that we would have never imagined would go on a birdhouse, and we enjoy every second of it.
The shown example sold for $2,400 in late 2023.
The process of obtaining designs for any building is rather simple. Using methods such as satellite image analysis and photogrammetry, we find the ratios of the house's Length to Width to Height (LxWxH). Here's our standard procedure for finding the dimensional information needed to make a scaled model of any building:
1.) Type the address into Google Earth, and save the top-down aerial image of the building
2.) Using a free online tool such as 'Grid Drawing Tool by ArtTutor', overlay a grid atop the Google Earth aerial to obtain the correct ratio of length to width. Using client photos, we do the same thing for all sides
3.) using CAD (Computer Aided Drawing) sortware, we generate a 3D model of the house, and extract dimensions for design drawings. Some have said we should 3D print this model and include it as a Christmas ornament!
Below you can see some of the 'CAD' designs we created for building custom replica birdhouses
We use various materials on each birdhouse, but here's a list of the most common:
1.) Cedar wood, a naturally weatherproof and workable wood found in outdoor residential areas such as fences, decking, and siding.
2.) Cypress wood, a wood originating in swampy biomes giving it tremendous water resistance, is the wood we use for the base of the birdhouse. It has a tight grain and makes a great foundation for a birdhouse.
3.) PLA, which is commonly used as 3D printer filament, is used for all of our 3D printed details and decorations. Sometimes these 3D printed sections will be painted and weather-sealed
4.) JB weld, which is a 2 part resin, is used for many exterior applications. We use it to close seams, attach windows, and adhere virtually anything to anything.
5.) Exterior paint is used on all areas of the replica, excluding the underside (which is stained). We commonly mix several colors of exterior paint to achieve the desired color match for a replica.
6.) Polyurethane is used, typically in 2-3 coats applied over 2-3 days. to seal the replica and protect it from UV rays, rain, and weathering.
