Wilson and Mawhinney are sharing advice for any one building their own house. The first blog post advises home builder not to try and do too much on their own but to invest in a construction team who will save you time,hassle and money. Wilson and Mawhinney also give this advice;
Pay attention to your site
You may have found the perfect site for your dream house but are your plans maximising all that nature has to offer. Is your glassy living room making the most of glorious views and are you picking up the sun as it rises and sets around your house? A good Design and Construction team can direct you to where you may want to locate your key rooms, garage, oil tank and patio. This may mean compromising from what you had originally in mind but your site will dictate lots of the distinguishing features of you home including the layout. Take advice and think carefully about your options before you start digging any foundations. Don’t assume that the flattest part of the site is the best place to build, enquire about the price of ‘digging in’ or ‘building up’ in order to get the best orientation and views and weigh up what means the most to you.
Try to be realistic about your site. It may be the perfect price and have beautiful views but is the access onto a busy road? Is it too far away from family? Or is there potential that you neighbours will extend obscuring your views? Is this a place where you could realistically live for the next 20 plus years? Only you will be able to answer these questions and it is best to do that before you are building.
Communicate with your team (lots)
We don’t mind if you want to take on some DIY projects once your house is built but we advise you to stick with professionals while to are planning and building your dream home. It’s easy to download a drawing package and have a go, but these drawings will only take you so far. An experienced Architect or Technologist will be able to help you during the planning stage. They have worked with the Planning Service, should know the Building Regulations relevant to your building project and can save you lots of time, hassle and even money. Fire regulations, structural loadings, ventilation rates, sap ratings, the schedule of finishes – these are all things that are complicated and better off in the hands of a professional.
Similarly a professional building contractor will have invaluable knowledge on site helping you steer around any unexpected problems or late changes. The construction team are qualified and trained to be problem solvers and have the experience to get over hurdles which would leave a novice stuck. That knowledge is invaluable when you are onsite and each day will be costing you more and more money.
Hiring an expert design and construction team may seem expensive but it will save you hassles, headaches and money in the longterm. You will be in control of the whole project through the expert hands who are running the job. Let Wilson and Mawhinney take the lead in your construction project and you will have confidence that your job is in the hands of experience, knowledgable professionals.
Wilson and Mawhinney plan to share more of their common house–builder mistakes to avoid in the upcoming weeks.
