Here are some tips on what to pay attention when you are building and fulfilling your own dream home:

1. Setting up a realistic budget

The first and most important thing to keep in mind when planning your new home is your monetary budget. In setting your budget for your new home, make sure to include not just the building costs but furniture costs, landscaping and other design costs as well. It is also advisable to compare different offers for all services needed to make sure you will get the best price and the best quality. Since additional costs cannot be avoided due to upcoming expenses, a buffer or a contingency fund for other costs must always be included.

2. Specific designs or features to include and finding the right builder

If you have a specific design or feature you want to be included in your home building plan, you should make sure that your builder of choice has prior experience or is considered to have expertise in that area. Researching who is the best local builder in your area will ensure you have made the right decision in hiring them. The key is to compare offers in the market until you find what you are looking for.

When you are making plans about building, renovating, and extending your home, these plans are never set in stone. These plans are always bound to some changes and adjustments to include or exclude some details while the plans are still in progress. These changes or adjustments are usually accompanied with additional costs not previously included in the budget as well as the building time, giving rise to disputes between the builder and the owner of the house. This is where building variations come up. 

3. Considering building variations

Building variations are the changes in the previously agreed building contract. Usually these includes anything from changes in the design of the wall, windows, doors, cabinets and other object of variations regarding quality of the product and the order of the construction. Building variations are not unusual but the owner must exercise diligence and practice thoroughness while signing a contract with specific provisions reflecting their own proposition with regard to the design of their home.

In most cases, additional costs based on building variations are shouldered by the owner. However, owners are not liable to pay additional costs if the variation work required has to do with issues that should have been taken care of prior to starting of work.

4. Manage Building Variations

The efficient management of variations will require a clear communication between both parties, the owner and the builder. These include changes in the price, date of expected completion of project prior to commencement of work. A builder, on the other hand, would provide quote for these charges or costs without depriving themselves with a reasonable profit for the builder. The costs should be agreed by both parties in writing.

5. Avoid Building Variations

To avoid building variations, is to plan your dream house to the minutest details. This includes researching the brand name or brand of the product on your preferred taps, door handles, locks, bulbs, doors, cabinets, tiles, etc. This would mean listing or charting down everything you want, including coats and shades of paints, to avoid any extra charges later. If all details have been taken care of from the start, chances are there will be minimal variations that will arise later.

If you are thinking about building your own home and you don’t know where to begin and what products or building supplies to buy, you can get a free quote from us here at Westall Timber.

Please contact us here and we’ll be happy to serve you!