When Sarah Miller started building her dream home last spring, she knew she’d get a three-bedroom, five-bath house with a wide-plank hardwood floor in the foyer. By the time she moved in six months later, her house would have stone-veneer exterior walls, a pop ceiling in the great room, and automated shades that opened and closed by themselves. It took some costly delays, errors, and unexpected repairs along the way, but Miller learned valuable lessons about homebuilding.
Her story isn’t unique.
Building your first home can come with some surprises – mostly bad ones. Most people don’t realise the amount of learning involved in turning plans into a real home. What looks so simple on paper can be so much more complicated in real life, with so many variables coming into play. Variables such as weather, and the personalities, work habits, and styles of all the people involved – from carpenters to engineers and architects. It can be frustrating.
Understanding the Timeline Reality
Everybody thinks that the construction timeline is so rigid and infallible, don’t they? Not until the weather turns sour and the inevitable occasional delays creep up. And, sure, occasional delays are no big thing in the construction world. A week of rain can delay the foundation by a week, which delays the framing by a week, which delays the electrical rough-in by a week, which delays the drywall installation by a week. All the while, each of the affected trades is waiting around for the one before it to get back to work. Slowly but surely, the delays stack up.
The novice builder looks for a completion date to be a hard and fast number. This number is usually padded for any oversights that the builder fails to account for, and most custom homes take somewhere between 6 to 12 months to complete. Experienced Guernsey County OH home builders can provide an accurate scope of time for the custom home construction process for their first-time clients.
You should also keep the seasonal weather in mind when planning out your home improvement project. There are certain conditions under which certain home improvements can only be done. For example, concrete work cannot be done in freezing temperatures. Exterior painting must be done within very specific humidity and temperature ranges before and after application. Roofing cannot be done on high wind days or during weather such as storms.
For the smart first-time builder, it is worth bearing in mind your current housing circumstances as you consider options for residence whilst building. In the short term, your current higher rental payment for a short-term lease may appear to be poor value compared to an annual lease, but it has many advantages including no pressure to acquire a place in the area to come home to should the project overrun, and no insecure storage in a storage unit pending completion with all the hassle of moving items to and from the facility should you then decide to move to a more cost effective storage arrangement.
Budgeting Beyond the Base Contract
Construction budgets behave like gases in that they expand to fill the available space. This phenomenon is often observed when a builder quotes a fixed price to construct a house, only for the actual cost to exceed the original tender by the time the project is completed. The tendency for construction budgets to increase is particularly pronounced in areas experiencing high demand and limited stock availability.
Thousands of dollars can be spent on change orders that homeowners never thought of. Many change orders for electrical enhancements come from plans before construction. Most standard electrical packages include more than the minimum electrical requirements outlined in the building code. However, typical standard packages rarely provide enough outlets in the right locations, the electrical panel may require an upgrade for electric-vehicle charging, or wiring for smart-home integration may not be included.
It may surprise you how basic materials can have unexpected additional costs. The difference between a standard door and a very nice door isn’t just the price of the door itself, but the price of the hinges, threshold, frame molding, and all the trim pieces on either side of the door, on top of the door, and on the bottom of the door. And it’s not just doors. The floors in a room will affect the cost of baseboards and transition strips. The windows in a room will affect the cost of window trim and moldings. And let’s not forget the walls. Decisions lead to more decisions, many of which cost money.
Financial planners recommend adding 15-20% to the quoted cost of the base construction contract to provide a contingency fund for the inevitable ‘hidden surprises’ that show up along the way. Do you know what lies beneath where you want to build? Do you know what the permit process will demand? Even while building ‘within budget’, it is easy to include little upgrades or features that seem trivial at the time but add up to significant expenses when pulled out one by one. The contingency fund can help you make informed decisions relative to your budget as options arise during design and construction.
Communication Protocols That Work
Construction sites can be confusing places for the uninitiated. Even after weekly progress meetings, you may be left with a host of questions. In fact, daily progress meetings might be more effective. However, most successful sites operate using a combination of regular updates and a clear record of the key decisions that have been made.
Photos of the project at various stages of completion will serve as a record of progress and allow CAN Construction to identify and address minor issues before they develop into costly repairs. Written documentation of all oral agreements made during pre-construction, as well as site visits, is critical to ensuring that both CAN Construction and the homeowner have an accurate understanding of the terms of agreement before they are reduced to writing and potentially misinterpreted before receipt in the mail.
Inspection Schedules and Quality Control
Home building inspections are generally written into the construction contract for specific occasions. Because of this, the inspections are not scheduled at the homeowner’s request, but are instead set at specific intervals during the various construction phases. Therefore, the foundation inspection would be scheduled 1 day before pouring the foundation. The electrical rough-in inspection would be scheduled before insulation is installed.
Delays caused by failed inspections can be immediate and costly. Experienced builders usually plan for scheduled inspections with some buffer time, and conduct a quality check on their own before calling for an official inspection. Municipal inspectors don’t give second chances and will not accommodate make-up inspections on short notice.
Preparing for Move-in Reality
Most people have a misconception of what the move-in day really looks like for new homes. Everybody imagines a model home turned key for you, all boxes and packaging removed, and 100% complete with all the little fix-ups and tweaks done. Yes, there will be some punch list items that typically number around a dozen or so, but with just a few touch-ups on the paint, some fine-tuning of cabinets, and the proper installation of fixtures, you could be walking through your new doors in no time.
Perform the final walk-through during the day. Allow enough time to thoroughly inspect all portions of the home and business. Bring a flashlight and a notebook, and don’t overlook the tiniest detail. Remember, most warranty issues resulting from construction defects are covered, but if you don’t report them, they can be easily forgotten and misassigned to the wrong party as time passes.
Building a custom home is one of the most difficult and organizationally challenging projects to take on. To make your dream house a reality, the homeowner needs to have realistic expectations, plan thoroughly, and pick builders who are forthright about the problems and the fixes before they happen. Patience is also a virtue.