Tue 16 Jun 2009
Self-build is a phrase that is getting ever-popular in the housing market. So what is “self-build”? It’s a home you build yourself, as the term hints! It doesn’t have to mean LITERALLY by yourself, but you put yourself in the position as architect, planner, foreman of your house and allow trained workers do the job you order them to do. More and more people are doing just that – in fact, there are more self-builders in the UK than the total amount of properties being developed by any single developer. The purpose of self-build is to produce a property to your precise specifications, not a boiler-plate design that commercial developers use.
I know what you’re thinking: “I can’t build a house”. The pleasant news is that getting involved with a self-build project doesn’t have to involve you with the physical aspects of the home building (as a matter of fact, only around 5% of self-builders actually get involved with the actual development work). Even when it comes to design, quite often this is delegated to a professional designer.. Self-build, by and large, is about you expressing (in plain English), what you need to the property designer – who then creates a design based on your prerequisites. This plan then becomes the blueprint the builders work to. Easy, eh? You don’t need to have any hands-on participation in self-build. Even so, the Do It Yourself enthusiast can use self-build as a chance to save some money by contributing toward the tasks of self-build they have experience in – it’s your shout as to how much participation you want during the development.
Self-build sounds costly, but actually it’s in the main cheaper than purchasing an already built home of identical specifications (roughly a third cheaper). That’s not all, self-built homes sell very well too – as much as 25% higher than the development costs, so you can view self-build also as a means to invest your money, rather than just a place to live
You must make sure the team of workers you choose are 100% competent and that they can work as a group. For sure, you will need builders with experience of some rather potentially dangerous machinery used in construction, such as ics diamond chainsaws, block and slab splitters, power / disc cutters, floor saws, and wood saws. Professionalism brings safety to the development too.
This article is simply an introduction to the concept of building a house by yourself, and I hope it will encourage those of you who are put off by the thought of executing a task of this kind of size. It needn’t be time-intensive, and you won’t need any specific skills, but hire carefully, and you will need to carefully work out the overall cost of the project.
