Is Building a Home Yourself Really as Easy as You Think?
With the prevalence of how-to videos on YouTube, free building plans on various websites, and stories of average citizens building their own homes using recycled materials for a fraction of the cost, it’s tempting to think the only things you need to get the home of your dreams are a big parcel of land and a whole lot of elbow grease. The reality, of course, is it’s a lot harder to build your own home than you think.
A few people might be well-suited for taking the plunge into building their own home, but there are many things to consider before you break ground. Consider the following to see if it's the right choice for you.
Understanding Your Skills
A hundred years ago, it wasn’t uncommon for a person to have the types of skills you’d need to build a home. People knew how to build things and they knew how to fix things. They also had a community willing to pitch in when it was time to raise the walls and roof of the home. If you’re an avid DIYer, you may have some of the skills you’d need to build your own home, but a lot of people are all too eager to pass on their fix-it projects to the professionals.
However, if you have good organizational and project management skills, you still might be able to build your own house by outsourcing the actual work and managing all of the various workers as they come together to make your dream a reality.
Getting Your Home Design
You may have a basic idea of how you want your home to look, but you’ll still need proper architectural drawings if you want to build a home. You’ll need to hire an architect to do this. Plans may be available online, but they aren’t likely to have the level of personalization you really want. In most cases, your local government then has to approve the plan before you can start building. You can’t just start building a home simply because you own the land.
The Problem of Organizing Workers
Even if you have a high level of knowledge and skill, you’ll need to hire extra workers to help you with the task of building your home. This is a challenge on many levels. You’ll first need to be sure you’re hiring trained and experienced professionals who know what they’re doing. Various certifications and referrals can help you make these decisions, but there’s often a certain amount of luck involved.
It can also be challenging to get your hired workers to your build site at just the right time. For instance, you don’t need the plumber or electrician to come until the home is almost built, but your inexperience can make it difficult to accurately estimate the timeline.
Approvals Throughout the Process
In most cases, you have to get government approvals throughout the building process to be sure the work is up to code. Skipping one of these approvals and later finding out you have to go back and re-do some of the work significantly increases the amount of time it takes to build your home. Again, making errors in estimating your timeline can then negatively impact the hiring of your contracted professionals.
Affordable and Available Building Supplies
Yes, a new home build can be more affordable than you thought when working with a builder. On your own, though, you might be thinking you’ll be ordering enough materials to qualify for a bulk discount. That might be true to a certain extent, but you’re certainly not going to be ordering the volume of materials that a professional builder is. The discount won’t be as great as you think.
You’ll also have to worry about getting your materials to the building site on time. The things you need aren’t necessarily in stock at all times, and without the experience of knowing how long a shipment can take, you may inadvertently slow down the process. Considering a typical timeframe of a new home build, the last thing you want is major delays that make you feel like you've taken on a bigger project than you wanted to.
Your Friends (Probably Won’t) Help
When you’re just sitting around drinking beers, your friends are probably saying they’d be interested in helping you build your home. It sounds like a fun process, and you’re hopefully offering to give them some cash for their trouble. However, building a home is real work. When push comes to shove, your friends are probably not going to want to help. In all honesty, you probably don’t really want inexperienced workers pitching in to build the most important thing you’ll own.
Even if your group of friends includes professional tradesmen, it can be hard to hire your friends for these tasks. If they’re used to working with professional builders, they will easily become frustrated by your laid-back approach. You don’t want to ruin your friendships.
DIY home building works well for people who have the necessary skills and knowledge. It also works well for those who have a specific and unique idea of what they want in a home. The average person, though, would probably be better off working with a professional builder.
Among other advantages of building new, the homeowner can still customize the new home, but the process will likely go more smoothly. This is especially true when you choose the right Winnipeg home builder.
