Building your own home is a big adventure you embark on with your builders.
Together, you will envision a home on an empty lot and then work hard to make that dream a reality. If you trust your builders, then leaving them to take care of what they do best is generally a good idea.
However, the house is being built for you and how you feel about each piece matters a great deal. You should maintain a strong connection with your builder during the process.
Of course, building a home isn’t all dreams and candy-floss.
There are a lot of issues and detail work to be done before your concrete slab becomes a cozy home.
To help you get to that point happy with both your home and builder, here are a few helpful pointers.
1. Safety First On Site
While you can visit your home-in-progress don’t forget that your property is now a full-blown construction site meaning that safety should always be your number one priority.
Contact your builder before going on site to ensure it is appropriate and you are safe to do so.
They may, quite reasonably, ask you to wear a hard hat, eye protection, or close-toed shoes on the site as basic safety precautions in an environment full of raw wood, nails, and people building things above your head.
2. Open Communication
No matter who you ask or where you go, there is one agreed upon fact of working with a builder to construct your new home: Communication.
A professional builder will just get on with building your new home and should communicate progress reports from time to time. But if you want to know what’s going on be pro-active and keep in touch.
3. Cost Variations Can Happen
With a fixed priced contract the overall cost should stay in the same area. But individual items, changes, delays, and council requirements to accommodate have every potential to increase the costs.
By maintaining a strong communication connection with your builder, you should be able to see these price variations on the horizon and manage them properly to minimise added expense.
4. Ask Questions
Never be afraid to ask your builder questions. In fact, your builder will probably enjoy explaining how certain features in your house were built.
What you learn by asking your builder whatever you want to know will not only help you understand and keep track of the construction project, you can also turn these interesting facts into stories about how the future family home was originally constructed.
5. Do a Final Walkthrough
When the builder is ready to sign off on the project, make sure to do a final walkthrough together.
This is the perfect time to catch if anything is incomplete, faulty, or needs fixing. In something as complex as building a house small fixes are normal.
Address all your final concerns to your builder before the two of you sign off on closing the project and pursuing the permits and certificates that will legally declare the home complete and fit to live in.
6. Recommend to Your Friends and Family
Never forget the long hours of discussion, the days of teamwork, and how accommodating they were to the personal requests that now make your home truly yours. The next time someone you know is talking about building a new home, give them a glowing referral to your builder. Both parties are sure to thank you in the future.
For more information about building your own home, please contact us today!
