Can You Self-Build Your next Home?
Self-build is a phrase that is becoming ever-popular in the housing market. So what is “self-build”? It’s a home you build yourself, as the phrase indicates! Not necessarily only by yourself, but you place yourself in the position as architect, planner, foreman of your property and allow professional workers do the job you order them to do. More people are opting for the “self-build” route – in point of fact, there are more self-builders in the UK than the total amount of properties being built by any single developer. The purpose of self-build is to make a house to your exact specifications, not a template that the large developers work to.
I’m sure you’re formulating this thought right about now: “I can’t plan, and manage a house build”. The pleasant news is that getting involved with a self-build project doesn’t have to involve you with the physical aspects of the house development (as a matter of fact, only around 5% of self-builders in reality get involved with the actual construction work). Even the design aspects are often finalised by a professional designer. Self-build, generally, is about you saying (in plain English), what you need to the house designer – who then produces a plan dependent on your demands. This plan then becomes the draft the developers work to. Easy, eh? You don’t need to have any proactive involvement in self-build. Having said all that, the Do It Yourself fantatic can use self-build as an opportunity to save some money by helping out with the aspects of self-build they have experience in – it’s your call as to how much involvement you want during the development.
Since you get full control over the specifications of the self-build, you can select the latest in technology, while large developers lag behind because they’re developing to set boiler-plate designs. You can put in things like automated climate, lighting, underfloor heating, and entertainment facilities throughout your home.
You must ensure the team of workers you select are 100% competent and that they build well together. No doubt you will want workers with lots of experience, particularly with specific types of construction machinery, such as floor saws, wall saws, angle grinders with diamond blades, masonry saws and stihl saws. Professionalism brings safety to the development too.
This article is merely an introduction to self-build, and I trust it will encourage those of you who are disheartened by the thought of running a project of this kind of size. It needn’t take up all of your time, and you won’t need any specific skills, cautiously, and you will need to carefully work out the overall cost of the project.
