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Steps to Building
The process of planning and building a new home or carrying out major renovations can be very daunting.
With so many things to think about, its easy to become confused, especially when you're not familiar with the process or terminology. We have put together 12 steps to shed some light on the process and help you understand the various decisions along the way.
Whether you're building with a large group housing company or a single builder, it's important that a project manager or designer is appointed to oversee the whole project - many homeowners take this task on but even those who don't should be aware of the steps involved so you can discuss any issues that may arise with confidence.
The following steps mainly apply to building a new home but many additions or alterations will include similar steps.
Building Options
There are three common ways of building a new home. You will need to decide at the outset which method is the best for you. You should consider your needs and expectatons, your budget and the amount of experience or time you have to manage the project.
Group Housing Company
Group housing companies are highly reputable and offer a variety of standard house designs at fixed contract prices. Often they provide house and land packages, and can help with finance. The house designs have been tried and tested over time and often with showhomes available you don't have to dream what your new home will be like but get a degree of certainty to the layout, quality and pricing of the completed home. Many housing companies allow minor adjustments to standard plans to let you add your own touch.
Custom Design
This allows you to design your home from scratch which gives you more freedom to include the special details and features that are important to you. You can have your home designed by a registered architect an architectural designer, or an architectural draughtsperson. Once you are happy with the design, the actual building process can be handled in three different ways.
- Labour Only Contract - where you control the project yourself, supervise from start to finish, purchase the materials, organise tradespeople. This is not recommended unless you have extensive previous experience in building.
- Employ a project manager to run the contract on your behalf. In some cases this could be the person who designed your home
- Put the project out to tender to a builder who will give you a completion date, and a total costs including materials, sub-contractors, full site supervision and co-ordination.
Design & Build Companies
This option allows you to work directly with a builder who can arrange a fixed price for designing and building the home to your brief.
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