Everything Costs Something

April 9, 2009 9:22 PM

What It Costs provides information on the costs associated with a wide variety of services and concepts. Whether you want to know the price range of practical activities — such as what it costs to replace a kitchen countertop, building a nuclear aircraft carrier — or are interested in unusual articles — such as the cost to build Fenway Park, being cryogenically frozen or cleaning up a murder scene — you will find all this and much more.
posted by netbros (24 comments total)

This seems like an opportune time to make the "same as in town" joke.
posted by Pants! at 9:28 PM on April 9, 2009

I was going to laugh at the kitchen counter entry, since it listed a range from $5-150/sq ft then I saw that it went on for 4 pages. I'll keep checking entries out, but this might be pretty cool.
posted by Science! at 9:39 PM on April 9, 2009

forgive me if i am gone for a short while to read this neat site.
posted by the aloha at 9:47 PM on April 9, 2009

what does the monetary system cost?
posted by eustatic at 9:57 PM on April 9, 2009

...or cleaning up a murder scene...

Bookmarked.
posted by arachnid at 10:02 PM on April 9, 2009 [1 favorite]

i'm back. i can't afford to do anything that this site writes about. still a neat read.
posted by the aloha at 10:15 PM on April 9, 2009

A friend of mine was getting quotes from kitchen renovation places; to get drawers that went "whoosh" and automatically braked their close was quotes an additional $1k.

He went to the local hardware store and bought the "whooshers" for $4 a pair and installed them himself (no, he did not have 250 drawers in his kitchen).
posted by porpoise at 10:19 PM on April 9, 2009

God bless the Internet. I was just debating whether to spend my tax refund on a kitchen refurb or a nuclear aircraft carrier.
posted by rokusan at 10:52 PM on April 9, 2009

Neat site. Practical.

Wow. When I worked for 5-1/2 years as a building super and had to clean up the remains of a dead tenant (it was not murder but was gruesome), I should have been paid for it. $600 an hour. whoa.
posted by nickyskye at 11:05 PM on April 9, 2009 [1 favorite]

I've put in a request for an article on a handjob in Manila.
posted by rhymer at 1:41 AM on April 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

If you have to ask, you can't afford it.
posted by pracowity at 2:38 AM on April 10, 2009

Sidewalk: No results

Spoke wheel: No results

F-22: No results

Treehouse: No results

Result: Disappointment
posted by Kirth Gerson at 2:42 AM on April 10, 2009

I think the translation of historical costs into modern money is always misleading. For example, it says the Panama canal cost $14 billion in 2008 dollars to build. That might be a literal translation of money then to money now based on something like the CPI, but does anyone really think the canal could be built today for that? I bet it would be something much more akin to $140 billion, plus or minus a couple of hundred billion.
posted by maxwelton at 2:57 AM on April 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

So the ballpark estimate for a new kitchen counter-top is somewhere between five and one hundred and fifty dollars?! That's not a ballpark. That's not even a friggin' stadium. That's a green. That's like saying cars cost somewhere between $100 and $50,000,000. Just. not. helpful.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 3:39 AM on April 10, 2009

(er... per sq. ft., that is.)
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 3:40 AM on April 10, 2009

1) Jackson Pollock - No. 5: $142.7 million.

What I think is a greater work of art is the con job dreamed up by the gallery owner who ordained Pollock as a great artist.
posted by digsrus at 5:42 AM on April 10, 2009

Cars do cost between $100 and $50,000,000. It depends on the car.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 5:42 AM on April 10, 2009

I wonder what this web site costs?
posted by FishBike at 6:04 AM on April 10, 2009

Civil_Disobedient: So the ballpark estimate for a new kitchen counter-top is somewhere between five and one hundred and fifty dollars?! That's not a ballpark.

As the article explains in meticulous detail, an inexpensnive laminate countertop will run you $5 per square foot, a tile countertop in the neightborhood of $20/sq. ft., synthetic will be approximately $50, stone moves us to about $70, engineered stone weighs in at $120, and if you really want one of the $150 per square foot countertops they mention in the headline, then you want to go for marble. The information in the article offers a lot more than just a ballpark estimate.
posted by netbros at 6:23 AM on April 10, 2009

Very handy and interesting. Thanks!
posted by jopreacher at 8:22 AM on April 10, 2009

$600/hr. for murder scene cleanup. Damn. I'm totally in the wrong business.

At least I get paid more than what you can expect to pay for Doggy Daycare!
posted by grapefruitmoon at 10:07 AM on April 10, 2009

I can't imagine any formica countertop that costs only $5.00 a sf. I love my formica, because I could get it exactly the color of dark forest green I wanted, and could get a groovy beveled edge drop in a contrasting shade, and it's unbelievable tough; heat, caustic chemicals, soap curing...none of that has damaged it, but I'm pretty sure I paid a whole lot more than $5 a sq, 10 years ago.
posted by dejah420 at 12:22 PM on April 10, 2009

Great think! I appreciate it!
posted by ragtimepiano at 2:56 PM on April 10, 2009

OOps---sleep deprived---I meant GREAT LINK!
posted by ragtimepiano at 2:56 PM on April 10, 2009