by McKenzie Stalkenburg

Image Credit: Unsplash

If you have ever dreamed of pouring foundations and building, brick by brick, towards a brighter future, it is clear that there is a house builder in you. Though you might have the soft hands of someone who works in IT, there is a fundamental impulse that makes many of us dream of designing and building our own homes.

This instinct may have once been easy to follow, but these days, when an office job is much more likely, finding the time and the skill to do it is tough and sometimes a custom builder like Berks Homes is a great route. Instead of building your own home, you will have to be content with getting help with everything from the design to the building itself. In fact, by the time it is almost done and looking beautiful, you will probably want to get someone else in to do the painting too!

Just like a renovation project, you need to prepare carefully to make sure that everything you do is considered, to budget and will work. Let’s break that down into more detail.

Set Your Budget

The very first thing you should do is set your budget. When you are building a house, there are lots of areas where you could save significant chunks, but on the other hand, there is plenty of scope for spending your life’s savings many times over. The key word here is balance.

A good tip is to ensure that you have at least 10% of your budget kept back as a contingency fund just in case you come across any unexpected costs. Just getting out of the ground can cost a lot more than you budgeted so you need to be smart about how much you keep back and which problems you are willing to throw money at to solve.

Your budget should inform the location you choose as well as how much is left for building plus all the other fees you will inevitably pay. If you aren’t sure of what you could end up paying now, then you could end up running out of money halfway through the project. Securing financing at this stage will only add stress so the better your financial plan is now the easier the build will be.

Find the Right Location

There is absolutely no point in building something yourself if you are going to put it somewhere you don’t want to live. Location, location, location has always been the most important thing when it comes to house buying and it is no different when you build.

The right location will, of course, depend on what you want and what you like but do bear in mind that each location will come with some practical issues. If you are planning to build on a tiny patch of land in the city center, you will need to think about access issues and may need smaller machines to do the work costing you more time and more money. On the flip side, if you choose to build in open countryside, you may need to put down power lines, connect to the sewer system and figure out a way to get everyone there each day. You might even look for a lot big enough for a garden and composting.

For lots of people, these practical issues are all well worth solving if it means that they get to live exactly where they want but for others, it quickly becomes clear that suburbia really is the easiest place to build and usually has all the local conveniences we want.

Talk to an Architect

Unless you are an architect, you should definitely employ one to help you with the designs. Architects are brilliant and imaginative people so you can give them an idea of what you want and then let them come up with the konstruktionsritningar (otherwise known as construction drawings!). After this point, you can sit down with them and amend different parts until you are happy with the design of the plot and the architect is satisfied that it's going to be possible to construct. Having an architect do your drawings will also simplify the construction process, as any contractors you use will likely have had experience dealing with similar architect plans in the past.

The best thing about architects is that they will always challenge you and your design to make sure that you are getting what you want as well as what you need. Be prepared to completely change your mind several times over and consider this part of the journey to your new home. They will present you with options to spec the home like using electric radiators in the house.

When you are talking, though, do keep your budget in mind. With unlimited resources you could have the best house on the planet, but you don’t have that. Instead, you need to be working on getting as much as you can for every dollar and making compromises to ensure that you get there. You need to find the balance between making the most of this once in a lifetime opportunity and your financial security for the future. In other words, don’t spend your pension and remember that you will need a sofa to put in your living room!

Clear the Site

There aren’t many sites that come clear and ready for development so it is likely that you will have to clear your site before going any further. This can get quite complicated depending on the state of the site and what has been there before.

If are knocking down an old house and replacing it, you can be fairly confident that the ground is sound, though you should still get a soil analysis done to be certain. This is vital for sites where you aren’t sure what has been there before or you know that there was a factory because the soil may be contaminated. Also, don't forget to find the right ally by your side like eagle dumpster rental to remove all the waste and other unnecessary things from your old house.

Digging out lots of soil - either because it is hazardous or because that is required by your design - can take more time than you might anticipate so it is worth going ahead and getting stuck in as soon as possible. Soil disposal can be quite a niche area of waste management but it is quite easy to find specialists who can deal with it for you.

You may also have to remove trees from the site as well as other plants. Again, this will take more time than you anticipate so starting early is a good idea. If you can save trees and plant them elsewhere then this is obviously a good thing for your local environment but otherwise, see if there is a waste company making compost in your local area so that the nutrients don’t go to waste.

Request Planning Permission

One of the most ridiculous mistakes people make is assuming that they will have permission to build when they haven’t even thought to apply. Even if you are a professional melbourne townhouse builder and you think you will sail through the application process, you must ensure that you have building and planning permission before you start.

Plenty of projects have gone bust because they started building and then found out that they needed to make a subtle change to satisfy the planning committee. This is such an easy thing to avoid and it cannot be stressed enough that changes are far easier made on paper than they are on a building site! In other words, make all the changes to the drawings first and then start building.

You may also require planning permission if you are building in the city centre and will need to put a skip on the road. This kind of planning permission is also essential because many city councils put heavy fines on people who just go ahead and do it without written permission. Again, this is another thing that is easily avoided and really shouldn’t cause an issue.

Start Your Adventure

Once you have your design, you have cleared your site and have planning approval, it’s time to start your adventure and get cracking.

Many architects recommend builders they have worked with before and some are also able to provide a project manager to oversee the progress on site. However, if you are up for the challenge and looking to make building cheaper, being your own project manager is a common way of saving money and getting more involved.

You should create a plan that takes you day by day and week to week so that you always know where you are up to and what needs to happen next. While one phase is in motion, you need to be looking to the future and making arrangements for the weeks to come. For example, as glass takes so long to be produced, you will need to send off your accurate measurements as soon as possible if you want to maintain a strict schedule.

The more you can plan with your architect on paper, the easier it will be to build your home. This includes things like fixtures and fittings as well as the more obvious things like electrical points and where the plumbing will go. Changing things like this might not seem a big deal while you aren’t out of the ground, but as soon as your builders are in daylight, it will be incredibly expensive to make even the smallest adjustments.

Building your own home, with the help of everyone around you, is one of the most satisfying things you can do. It is one of the few ways that you can truly and honestly make a mark on your local area and express yourself in a bold and exciting way.