Essential Tips To Control Construction Costs, For The DIY Builder

The last few years have seen remarkable changes in the global economy as well as the construction industry. There seems to be construction boom across the newly-developing countries of Asia and this has increased competition for natural resources. The result of this has been double digit increases in prices for basic materials like steel, concrete, cement and petroleum. This of course affects construction costs.

At the same time there has been a trend towards the DIY home builder – the non-professional home-owner/project manager who builds, then lives in his own property. More families are building their home on their own instead giving it to a contractor or outside agency. Since these individuals are not trained in construction budgeting, they are more likely to run into problems. This article will help with the often-challenging process of controlling construction costs in a new build.

There are a number of factors that can be used to estimate the cost of a building up-front like size, complexity, level of finish etc. The difficulty is that construction costs are very susceptible to the eccentricity of the specific site or house. The result of this is that budget creep occurs, at times barely discernible, to add costs to your construction as items are added and modified, errors are exposed, or bizarre site surroundings are uncovered.

With a modest amount of preparation; with endurance and forethought on your part, you can control unexpected costs and shun budget creep. The following are pointers that will aid you in better planning your home construction and keeping costs in check.

- If you choose to take delivery of complete house materials in one go, including the lumber and plywood, windows and doors, etc. then you will require adequate storage for these. For this you should hire trailers to safeguard your materials from the weather, erosion, theft, etc. In order to avoid all these, take deliveries in more than one shipment even if the initial costs are high since this will save you potential loss later on.

- You should organize for the electricity before hand since in any case you will be using it later. It’s better to do this instead of hiring expensive generators. This step will reduce your electricity costs.

- Make sure that the location of your home is easily accessible so as to avoid high transportation costs in delivering raw materials to the construction site.

- Be certain to select and budget for your fixtures, floor tiles, appliances and so on up front, rather than leaving this to the last moment. Doing so can save you expensive and unpleasant surprises. Buy light fixtures at an early point, at the time of purchasing other necessities, and avoid impulse-buying at the end.

- Last but not least is never make changes or modifications after work is well advanced or nearly completed. Last minute decisions can cost a lot of unnecessary cash.