Building Your Own Home: What You Should Know to Get It Right

Written in collaboration with Trevor Davis

It’s the dream of many: building your own home. Seeing your home lifted from the ground up through your strengths is a satisfying endeavour. It gives you a feeling of accomplishment and puts you in complete control of the design. When you build your place, you can personalise it however you want and add anything you need so it’s practical and no space goes to waste. You also won’t have to trouble yourself with additional maintenance.

When purchasing a house, you’ll likely have to patch up leaky pipes or give the walls a fresh coat of paint. That’s normal and the result of the usual wear-and-tear of a home that’s been lived in and was exposed to various weather conditions over the years. A newly built house won’t have any of these drawbacks. A new place can also be more energy-efficient and won’t consume as much as an older home, so you won’t be faced with mounting energy bills.

Considering all these aspects, building a home may seem preferable to buying. If you’re considering it, look at the following to get a better idea of where to start and what to expect.

Plan carefully

Building a home is a sizable project. You must be fully aware of what it entails when you decide to do it. It’s a project that’ll take quite some time, so you should arm yourself with patience when you start. The other thing you should arrange is a detailed action plan. When you begin a project as large as this, not having it all sketched out means you’re likely to beat around the bush and cause delays. Since you want to move in as soon as possible, it’s best to avoid that. Take into account the beginning point and the scale when sketching your blueprint, so you’ll get a rough estimate of how long everything will take. Don’t leave out the time it’ll take to clean everything after construction is done.

Buy a lot

Purchasing the land to start working on your new home can often be the biggest challenge of the entire process. There are many things to consider before securing a lot. For example, proximity to your neighbours is essential to take into account. Some people enjoy the presence of close neighbours for social reasons. Building your house in a remote area won’t sound like an appealing choice for you if you count yourself among them. However, if you’re the type that values peace and quiet, you can look into options that are a little bit off the beaten track. There are likely to be some drawbacks, however. Since remote properties tend not to be integrated into the municipal sewage system, you’ll need to find alternatives.

Road access is a vital feature as well. Even if the scenery from your window is as picturesque as they come, it’ll probably soon lose its appeal if you have to hike every day to get home. And of course, don’t forget to check the signal strength of the area as well. You probably aren’t planning on staying without your phone or internet, so you should ensure the signal is strong.

Lay the foundation

You are probably already aware that the foundation is the most important part of your home. In the absence of a proper understructure, the integrity of the entire building suffers. You may start noticing cracks in your walls or ceiling and other forms of damage. If you want to start with a resilient, sturdy foundation, pick a reliable supply and delivery service, such as Titan Concrete in the North East. Creating solid support for your home guarantees that you won’t have to do constant maintenance work, as the damage of natural forces won’t be as extreme to your home. Temperature fluctuations, weather conditions, and natural disasters such as floods or earthquakes all take their toll on the building, so you’ll want to protect it as best as possible.

While you’re at it, you can also arrange a plan for other structures that require foundations, such as the driveway or patio. While different applications are needed, they all have one thing in common: the ability to keep your structures sound and withstand anything that may come their way.

Work with architects

If you’re not skilled in construction work and design, there’s no use feeling around in the dark. It’ll only serve to delay you, and there’s no reason to do that when you could request the help of an architect. You should first discuss whether or not your project is feasible. The design of your dream home may come with structural issues that can skip the untrained eye, but an expert would spot them immediately. An architect can also provide insight into where to build, as some land may be tricky for homes. And while the view may be to die for, having a sinking house is not ideal.

If you’ve already decided what you want your home to look like in minute detail, you might think you’re all settled, but talking to a home designer can still offer you valuable feedback, so you pursue this path with renewed confidence. An architect can also answer any question regarding managing the project’s financial aspect. It can sometimes be challenging to get a good idea of how much everything costs so you don’t end up overspending on some items and not having enough left for others.

The bottom line

Building is a task that seems to have too many variables at times, as there are so many aspects to consider and so much work involved even before you start the construction work. So one of the most important aspects is to stay focused. If you’ve started working on one house wing, don’t abandon it because another great idea just came to your mind. Your building plan doesn’t have to be set in stone, but you should integrate everything new that comes along the way and not do it in the spur of the moment.

Leave yourself room for mistakes as well. It won’t all turn out great from the beginning, so don’t be easily frustrated. If you persevere, you make sure that it’ll all come together nicely.