HOW TO BUILD COST EFFECTIVE HOME IN THIS KIND OF ECONOMY

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Building a house is expensive. It’s probably the single biggest investment of your life. And as such, it takes time and effort from you, your architect or designer, engineers, and contractor to make it successful and be exactly what you’ve always dreamed it would be and more.

But to build a house AND make it cost-effective, it takes even more effort to make sure you’re making the right decisions and staying disciplined in your approach to making it more affordable.

When designing an affordable home, you spend so much time planning and siting your home, creating an efficient floor plan with a simple, straightforward layout and simple details and materials, and optimized building systems that you really want all those efforts to pay off in the execution.

A well-conceived, affordable home design is not worth much if the construction isn’t as equally optimized, planned out, and held in the highest regard.

Cost-effective home construction not only takes clear and open communication and planning between you, the architect, and the contractor to get the design just right, but also time and dedication on the part of the contractor, his crew, and all the sub-contractors and suppliers. Attention to material limitations, proper construction techniques and installation, energy efficiency, and strategic material sourcing are just a few areas of focus to help make your house construction more affordable.

Let’s take a look.

Cost-Effective House Construction Methods

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When designing your home, it’s a good idea to be mindful of how it will get built. Select building materials based on affordability, structural capacities, and design aesthetics. Wood is cheaper than steel. Masonry and concrete usually fall somewhere in between. Understanding where certain materials fall on the cost spectrum will help make cost-effective decisions.

It is important to note that there are trade-offs to low cost. While steel is expensive, it is much stronger, can span farther than, and has smaller sized members than wood or other cheaper materials.

Open Floor Plan and Dimensions

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Efficient use of materials using standard construction dimensions and modules will be most cost-effective and reduces material waste. Reducing waste will save money because you’re buying less material to begin with and not wasting any.

Keeping the plan simple and open accomplished several things for us. First, fewer walls equals less material. In addition, the visual connection between spaces increases the perceived space, making it feel larger. This means my family can be in different parts of the first floor (kitchen, living, dining), but still remain connected. When the space feels bigger, you can actually build smaller. This is a win-win situation. Insist on a good plan design to eliminate wasted space.

Avoid complexity

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One common feature today (in a builder house/plan book house) is a roof line with umpteen gables along the facade with a myriad of things glued on. Rarely can anyone experience that complexity of space inside. Is it just a gift to your neighbors to stare at from across the street? Learn to love the box. The box is the simplest and most affordable thing to build. A floor plan that zigzags with multiple corners is something else to avoid. Watch how the spaces are arranged in three dimensions. Is there a logical structural organization? In other words, do walls line up between floors? In many stock house designs, I have seen no logic between floors, which requires additional structural elements to be added to hold everything up, especially the roof. It’s a waste of expense because you can’t see it or experience it. Good design has a clarity to its parts which should make it easy (and affordable) to build and understand.

Effective & Efficient Home Building

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We’ve mentioned before that improving energy efficiency is cost-effective because it lowers operating costs and ongoing monthly utility bills. During the construction phase, it’s important to properly build your home so all the great energy efficient design strategies you’ve incorporated into your design actually work properly.

Simple details

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One of the most important ways to make your home more affordable is to make sure the house is properly insulated.

Make sure your building envelope is entirely insulated (walls, roof, floor/foundation). Talk to your designer, architect, or builder about more efficient ways of building your home that will improve its weather control performance. There are various strategies to achieve this such as increasing the amount of insulation during construction, using a more efficient and effective materials, minimizing thermal bridging, and using higher performing windows to name few. The more efficient the home is, the less energy you expend to keep it a comfortable temperature. At the exterior, the brick details are limited to soldier coursing at the window heads and along the parapet. The brick course directly below the stone is recessed ½” giving a bit of detail expressive of the construction process. Simple details do not equate to lesser quality or impact, but can keep it affordable.

Mix and match

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Don’t limit your appliance and fixture choices to one brand. It’s perfectly okay to combine brands to buy best-deal appliances and fixtures. I recommend stainless-steel finishes, which mirror surrounding colors.

Keep the roof simple

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Complex roof lines not only add significant cost, but the risk of future leaks. A simple, not too steep roof will protect your investment over time.

Phase the finishes

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To get high-end finishes you want now but cannot afford, just phase them in over time. Plan your ideal finishes but break the work (and expense) down into stages. You can finish a kitchen without cabinet knobs and pulls and install them next, or paint the countertop backsplashes and tile it later.

A room with a view

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Small homes, unless you open them up with a view outdoors. Place large, picture windows in direct view as you enter a room, and it will feel larger. Don’t have a great view? Create one with lattice work and vines, a small fountain or a small patch of flowers.

Bring the outdoors inside

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An easy way to make small entertainment areas work overtime is to expand them by adding relatively inexpensive decks and patios with direct access to living and family rooms.

Smart material choices

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This is where some people lose their minds in an effort to keep up with the Joneses. In our case, we felt strongly about wood flooring, but we couldn’t afford for the door trim and baseboards to be stained wood. The flooring came from a warehouse wholesaler (**gasp**) for a very good price. The doors are solid, but paint grade. You may have to opt for modest ones over hard coat expensive once, or…laminate counter/plywood made tops instead of granite right now (**blasphemy**). Yes, when budget is that important, we must rein in our naira. Make real and hard cuts – you’ll appreciate it when you write your spending analysis. Also think bold colors and durable materials. Color can bring the unexpected pop to the design; durable materials save money on future maintenance.

Splurge strategically

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Frugality doesn’t equal sacrifice. If you want to have a few really nice things, decide where it really matters. The remainder of the house can be more modest. The public spaces such as the kitchen, dining and living room can have a higher degree of finish while keeping the bedrooms and bathrooms subdued. You don’t need travertine in your bathroom if you’re building on a budget. I’m sure you can get by with ceramic tile or go green with natural linoleum. Another way to address this is to choose really nice lighting fixtures for rooms such as the dining room and entry. Use plainer, budget fixtures elsewhere. Simple clean door hardware in a brushed chrome finish was all we needed. But the custom kitchen bar top that I designed makes a big impact in our house.

Design copycats

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Now that internet has made designs popular, designer fixtures and finishes are everywhere. If you know what you have in mind, shop around for that item in many places to see if you can find a similar item for less. Cabinet pulls can shock you once you add up how many you need. You find a knob that’s 3,000 each and figure, “hey not bad.” But then you calculate you need 40 to 50 of them and you’ve dropped thousands of naira. In our kitchen and on our closet doors, we opted for long thin stainless steel pulls. I searched dozens of places and was shocked at the cost. Oddly enough I found them at Lowes for less than half of what others wanted. We had specific ideas about our dining room pendant lights. I found a beautiful fixture in a design magazine and contacted the lighting fixture representative. They were 250k per fixture! For original not china version I hunted and found an online distributor that sold a similar fixture for 205k each. That leads to our next suggestion.

Shop Online or at Discount Warehouses

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If actual work isn’t for you, consider helping to source and order fixtures and finishes. Creatively source materials and products, you don’t need to buy from expensive showrooms. They have marked up their products many times over and you’re not getting any benefit besides a snobby person looking down on you. Catalog what you need, make your lists and go shopping. This way you can calculate your fixture costs as you go (before you purchase them) and compare them to your budget allowance. There are hundreds of discount supply stores and online marketplace like www.Thebuildamart.com with many collections of vendors who have more cost-effective light fixtures, plumbing fixtures, hardware, bath accessories etc. Make a list of what you need and get creative. You may even find some nice salvaged materials that come with a nice story to tell your friends and family.

If you’re concerned about the quality of a product you find online, see if you can find the same item in a local showroom, hardware store, or building supply store where you can check out the quality in person before buying it online. This tip can even work the other way around. Browse your local stores for products, make a list of the ones you want, and then search online for them to see if you can find a better price than at the store.

It’s important to remember that you shouldn’t feel like you’re sacrificing anything. It’s OK to buy nice things and splurge on certain parts of your home. Just splurge strategically. Make sure you set priorities and decide what really matters to you. If a really nice bathroom oasis is important to you, then by all means, get the bells and whistles. But then consider taking a more modest approach to rooms or areas that are less important to you. Stand firm and don’t worry about what your friends did. That leads to…

Avoid peer pressure

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Your friends may expect you to purchase materials where they did (or where their contractor insisted they purchase it). What does it really matter where you bought something as long as it is in good taste and fits with your theme? Unless your friends are contributing to your building project, don’t fall to peer-pressure just so you can say you bought it at such-and-such place. Who cares? A staunch respected project manager in the field once told that “We hired a kitchen fabricator that does superb work, yet no one has ever heard of him. He doesn’t need to advertise because word-of-mouth keeps him more than busy. And as for quality, he can’t be beat. We were able to customize many things that didn’t cost more yet gave a richer result. People are always shocked with how little we paid for our kitchen and bath cabinets” Bloomfield Projects Managing Director retorted. Ask your architect or ask around, I’ll bet you’ll find that obscure carpenter who does excellent work for less than the mainline kitchen showrooms.

Centralize the plumbing

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Make sure to plan your heavy plumbing areas, including kitchen, laundry room, and bathrooms in close proximity to each other, reducing the cost of running costly plumbing pipes all over the house.

Active Participation in the Construction Process

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If you want to save money on the construction of your home, consider taking on some of the work yourself. If you’re familiar with construction, consider being your own general contractor. If you’re not THAT familiar but are handy with construction tools and enjoy getting your hands dirty, you can elect to do a portion of the work yourself. If you have family or friends who are in the construction industry like electricians, plumbers, or other construction specialists, see if they’d be willing to help out. They will most likely be cheaper than another contractor, if not free.

Remember to make sure to communicate frequently and from the start with your builder to make sure everyone is on the same page regarding your responsibilities. Be realistic about your skills and capabilities. The last thing you want to do is spend money on the contractor fixing your mistakes.

The strategies mentioned above for a cost-effective house construction process are well worth the time and effort to make them happen.

One additional important thing not mentioned in this article that can help provide some additional construction cost savings is to use a well-qualified, licensed, reputable general contractor on your house. They not only have more experience and skill to build and manage the home construction process, but also have established relationships with suppliers and subcontractors who can potentially provide services at a more affordable price than you’d find elsewhere on the market.

And lastly, changes during construction are inevitable. Whether due to unforeseen conditions, discontinued products, or design changes these changes do impact the construction cost. Making changes early in the design phase have very little cost associated with them. However, changes made during construction can have huge impacts. So to help control and minimize any additional construction costs, try to avoid making costly changes late in the game. Your wallet will be much happier for it.

You can also check:
APPLY FOR OPEN JOB OPPORTUNITIES
https://thebuildamart.com/opportunities/apply-for-open-job-opportunities

COST OF BUILDING MATERIAL IN NIGERIA FOR THE SECOND QUARTER OF 2017
https://thebuildamart.com/building-materials/cost-of-building-material-in-nigeria-for-the-second-quarter-of-2017

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