How to Save Money when You Build a House.

Homebuilding can be quite expensive. USHousebuilders offers 6 easy steps to save money when building a house and dealing with builders and contractors.

Homebuilding isn’t simple – finding house builders, hiring electrician and roofing contractors, controlling their work, buying materials and so on. And everything is so costly these days.

 

When you build a house you are likely to balance between making it too expensive or too inferior. Now you can really save money when building a high-quality house.

 

Here are 6 steps to save money when you deal with house builders and independent contractors:

 

Step 1. Find a reliable house builder.

Find a builder with a good long track record. Check if this company is ready to provide a warranty on some jobs. Even its present job-site to make sure it looks ok.

The home builder that you choose may be not very cheap. But if your choice is correct, you will get a good return on your money. High-quality building services will guarantee long-term safety and comfort. Besides you won’t have to spend extra money on rebuilding efforts.

 

Step 2. Decide about your home’s size.

You may choose any size, but remember: building a small house you save money twice. First time – when you build it, buy materials, pay for construction works. Second time – when you live in it and pay for utilities (gas, electricity, etc.) Besides, a small house will also save your time and energy as it is easier and quicker to look after.

 

Step 3. Take a ready-made house plan.

If you decide to have an individual home plan you have lots of expenses. Hiring a specialist, having house blueprints, re-drawing the plan and deciding which variant to choose. All these actions require both much money and time.

When you take a stock house plan it’s simple, easy and inexpensive. These are ready-made plans. They are not individual, of course, but they cost less. Usually average and most requested features are included there. The most difficult thing here is just to find what suits you best among the great variety of good house plans.

As soon as you’ve decided – just buy the plan and that’s it.

 

Step 4. Save money due to your house plan and design.

It’s easy to save money when your house plan and design are detailed enough. You save money paying less for materials and construction works. May be, you’ll also save money later on utilities.

So, decide about your home design:

-          try to make it simple, without any unnecessary an unusable space. Instead of it, make a niche or a closet. But too many storage rooms will be useless as well. So be practical and simple;

-          have simple stairs. Straight-run stairs are cheaper to construct than other stair types, like U-stairs, for example. They can also look elegant. Simplicity can be elegant;

-          make tray or panned ceilings. They will give an impression of higher ceilings and make the house seen more spacious without being too big in reality.

 

Step 5. Save money on materials.

Ask your house builder about some special offers on constructing materials. You may get a discount, especially of buying everything from one company.

Try to use local building materials. They can be much cheaper, as you don’t have to pay high transportation costs.

Use recycled materials. They are cheap and, as a rule, environmentally friendly.

 

Step 6. Use energy saving appliances.

All house appliances require much energy. Try to use energy efficient devices. Nowadays there are “energy star” qualified appliances, requiring 10% - 50% less water or energy.

Although, they may seen not to be very cheap, remember that a house needs energy and water 24/7.

November 25, 2009