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Building a house on your own – pros and cons

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Building a house is one of the ways to get your own independent apartment. There are currently many development investments available on the market, from which you can choose a property tailored to your needs. While this is convenient, it also has numerous limitations. That is why many people decide on an alternative – building a house on their own. What are the advantages and disadvantages of such an undertaking?

Building a house: on your own or with a construction company?

Building a house on your own is often equated with working with the “economic method”. Choosing this path means that in many cases you can use solutions that are less technically advanced, but at the same time cheaper. One of the ways to reduce investment costs is to use materials obtained from demolition. These are, for example, formwork boards or aggregate for strengthening foundations.

One of the biggest limitations when it comes to building a house on your own is the lack of qualifications and knowledge. Therefore, even if the future owner decides only to help family or friends, at some stage of the work a professional will be necessary. This necessity will arise, for example, when installing an electrical or gas installation. Their approval for use requires approval by a licensed professional.

The easiest way to build ready-made energy-efficient frame houses. They are delivered to the property in a form prepared for installation. Much more knowledge and construction skills are required to build a brick building from scratch to the roof. In this case, you need to know masonry, carpentry, plumbing and many other areas of construction.

DIY house construction

Building a frame house on your own – advantages

The main advantage of building a frame house on your own is a significant reduction in the cost of work. It is no secret that more than half of the funds allocated for the construction of such a facility are consumed by labor. Hiring professionals is a considerable expense. This part of the investment is even more expensive if several independent teams appear on the construction site, which operate at different stages of construction and finishing of the facility.

The cost of building a house on your own is not only much lower, but you can also spread it over time. After all, there is no need for all the work to be done at once. After bringing the building to a closed shell state, you can take a break, postponing the installation of installations or interior finishing for the next months.

Another advantage of this solution is the unlimited possibility of deciding what the building should look like. A DIY house design can be ordered from an architect or purchased by choosing one of the ready-made solutions. Thanks to this, the facility will be perfectly adapted to the needs of the investor and his family. There are also special guides on how to build a house cheaply. They not only suggest practical and functional solutions, but also guide you through the construction process step by step.

Speaking of the advantages of building on your own, it is also worth mentioning the location of the facility. Developer houses are bought together with the plot. However, if the investor already has such a property, he can not only reduce the cost of the investment, but also often skip many formalities that have already been completed. He is also building in a place that he has chosen.

Building a house on your own – disadvantages

Building a house yourself is cheap, but it also has disadvantages. It is worth analyzing them in advance to guarantee that at some stage the implementation of the investment will not stop or bring additional costs. Most of the problems result from the lack of appropriate knowledge, necessary for example when installing a roof truss or installing an installation.

The main disadvantages of building a house on your own include:

  1. the need to independently select building materials that meet the required standards and have the appropriate quality,
  2. lack of sufficient knowledge about modern technologies,
  3. the requirement to have a lot of time to perform construction works,
  4. the need to solve difficult technical problems on an ongoing basis,
  5. the need to organize their own construction team, consisting of, for example, family members or friends.

It is also recommended to hire an expert who will watch over the course of work and guarantee that it will be carried out in accordance with the design. It is the construction manager.

To sum up, before you decide to build a house on your own, you need to prepare for it properly and assess your own capabilities – both financial and technical. It is also worth finding examples of energy saving at home and buying a house design for self-construction.