Building your own home can be a great way to help make sure you’re getting a home that’s perfect for you and meets all your needs, but it can equally be quite an overwhelming process. To help you plan your dream home, we’ve come up with some top tips to help navigate the process. Want to learn more? Take a look at our following tips and tricks for your self-build.
Budget Planning
One of the first places you’ll need to start is putting together a budget plan for your building project. Outline the kind of money you’re comfortable spending on a project. You need to combine the balance of making sure you’re being realistic with the amount of money that will need to be spent on the project, whilst at the same time limiting spending where possible to save money. Getting quotes from different contractors can help to give you an idea of the average cost of carrying out the work you have planned. Brushing up on your DIY skills can help you to save a lot of money as you’ll be able to get stuck in with a lot of the work yourself. This could include things like painting, tiling, or installing flooring. You should also shop around for materials and compare prices from different suppliers before making a purchase. You also need to bear in mind any hidden costs. In addition to the cost of labour and materials, there can be some other surprising hidden costs associated with building your own home. These could include things like permits, inspections, and clearing away waste before the building takes place.
Finding The Right Land
When you’re looking for the right piece of land to build your home, there are a range of different considerations that you will need to make to find the right place. For example, the location you think would be best for your new home. Is it close enough to family, friends, commuting to work, and local amenities? If you have a family, you will also need to make sure they have everything they need locally too, such as good school, daycare, and family entertainment. You’ll also need to make sure you read the fine details when it comes to the legal pack that comes with a piece of land. It might require planning permission in order to build the home you want. It’s important to bear in mind that there is no guarantee that your planning permission will be granted as issues such as neighbours not being happy with the planning can still crop up. Some pieces of land might already have planning permission for certain building work to be carried out, but this can bump up the purchase costs for buying the land. You might also need specialist surveys to be carried out for things such as potentially contaminated land, ex-mining land, or ecological surveys.
Designing Your Home
You might already have a rough idea of the perfect home design you would want to build, but you will need to find the right architect for your project to help bring your vision to life. They will be able to tell you which elements of your vision will be achievable, as well as suggest useful additions or changes to your plans for the house. As well as being experts in home design, architects can also help to save you money on your build by using more cost-effective materials or cutting down on unnecessary design elements. Perhaps one of the most appealing elements of designing your own home is that it will be completely unique to you. A good architect will work closely with you to help make sure your home is tailor-made to your unique needs and preferences where possible and will make sure your home is a reflection of the lifestyle you want to create within it.
Applying For Planning Permission
One of the most important, but commonly frustrating, aspects of building your own home is having to apply for planning permission. This can be a long and drawn-out process, with it being possible that applications could be rejected even after a long wait. You will need to work with your architect and follow guidelines from your local council to help make sure your plans will be more likely to be granted permission. Before applying for planning permission, get in touch with your local authority to learn more about the criteria your self-build will need to meet. You can then incorporate these elements better into your planning, making it more likely to be approved. If your plans do get rejected, then it might be possible to appeal the decision.
Choosing Your Builders
Making sure you have the right builders working on your building project can make or break it. A good team of builders will charge a fair price for their work, be reliable, and manage to keep to the schedules you and your architect set for them. You will also need to decide if you’re going to be project managing the build yourself or if you want a site manager to oversee the day-to-day building work for you. There are many reliable and hard-working contractors out there that will be an asset to your project, but there are also many that can overcharge for their work and fail to meet deadlines. To avoid time and money wasters, make sure you do plenty of research into the builders you’re going to choose for your build and try and get reviews for builders that have been used by people you know and trust if possible. It’s also a good idea to get professional references if you can too to help improve your chances of choosing a reliable contractor.
Consider Adding Eco-Friendly Features
In this day and age, conserving our environment and making better choices for our planet are going to be crucial for our future. Therefore, it’s a good idea to try and incorporate eco-friendly features into your self-build where you can. Some good ideas for helping boost your home’s sustainability include things such:
- solar panels to help power your home
- water saving taps and toilets
- high-quality insulation to prevent energy and heat loss
- green roofs to help provide more plants for insects and wildlife
- rainwater harvesting to source things such as fountains and sprinklers in your garden
- sustainable and responsibly sourced building materials
If you’re unsure what eco-friendly elements you could include in your self-build, your architect might be able to advise you on some good design features or sustainable materials to implement in your building project.