Building a new home can be one of the most exciting and rewarding things you ever do. Afterall, this is your chance to build a house around your personal tastes and style of living. You get to make all the choices, and you don’t have to live with anyone else’s questionable design choices.
However, nobody wants to pay more than necessary to build, renovate or extend their own home.
Whether your new build budget is €100,000 or €1,000,000, you’ll find it’s amazingly easy to blow away the budget. But with a little planning, care, and attention, you’ll also find there are dozens of ways to cut costs without sacrificing quality
Here are some great expert tips from M.T. Metal Frame team to help you keep your costs under control and ensure that you are getting the best value for money.
Decide on Your Budget from the Start
Determine your budget as soon as possible and clearly communicate this to your architect or designer. Your designer should have years of experience designing and building projects to a budget. Take advantage of this and make it part of the design process early on.
Choose a Simple Design
Build simple shapes. The more complex a building is, the more it will cost to build and the more it will cost to run.
Every time you introduce a corner in an external wall you slow down the building process and the labour timescale is extended.
If you want to save on your build costs, avoid overcomplicated shapes.
Stick to the Plan
While building is not an absolute, a good design delivered with integrity will save both time and money. What you specify is critical to costing and delivering. If you keep changing your mind along the way then expect additional costs.
Be Creative with Inexpensive Materials
Think creatively about cheap materials. Can you use plywood, OSB (oriented strand board) or rough sawn softwood instead of expensive hardwoods? What materials have you got or can you source for free that you can recycle or upcycle?
This applies to your countertop choices, your tiles or even for your bathroom appliances. Remember, luxury is a matter of style and creativity, not expensive choices.
Don’t Be Afraid to Recruit a Quantity Surveyor
Don’t expect that an architect will always know how much it will cost to build! It’s for you to investigate the various costs, put them all together and then work out what impact any changes will have on the final build sum.
If this raises concern for you (which it probably will do!) then employ a package company or quantity surveyor to work with you on the project.
M.T. Metal Frame Houses is an “one-stop” construction company which consists of a team of professionals; Architects, Civil Engineers, Mechanical Engineers, Quantity Surveyors, Interior and Exterior Designers, providing you sophisticated, inventive, and distinctive designs, in order to build your dream house from A to Z.
Opt for Tried-and-Tested Build Methods and Materials
Don’t use materials or techniques that your builders aren’t already familiar with.
Not only will this drive up the time that the builders will need to be on site, it could also increase wastage, the number of snags that need correcting at the end of the process and could lead to a sub-standard finished product.
Shop Smart
It is far easier to go to just one builders’ merchant, as it is surprising what savings can be made by mass shopping around for the best price. Also make sure you are asking for trade prices and know what materials cost before purchasing.
Don’t forget to factor in the delivery costs, too: smaller builders’ merchants can often deliver for free and can save you time having to travel around to pick materials up.
