4 Common Home Building Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
If you are in the process of building a new home, yours will join the over 900,000 new homes built each year in the United States. However, undergoing the task of building yourself or hiring a house building company to build for you isn’t for the faint of heart. Homebuilding takes time, money, and a keen eye for details.
Even by commissioning a company that is used to building custom homes, there are several home-building mistakes that can be made along the way.
Unsure whether or not you might be making one? Continue reading for the 4 most common mistakes and how to avoid them.
1. Hiring Without Credentials
When building through a company in charge of an entire neighborhood, such as a sustainable custom home builder, you can be sure that they have been properly vetted as you can ask for their licenses or the credentials of the sub-contractors they are hiring at any time. If you are building on a piece of land and are hiring a company yourself it is up to you to ask for all the appropriate paperwork.
It might be tempting to hire someone whose rate is lower, but if they aren’t properly licensed you may not have protection if their work comes up sub-par. Having to hire someone to fix their mistakes, or make your home up to county standards for inspection could cost you a pretty penny.
Always ask for proper documentation before you sign a contract or pay for services.
2. Not Having Regular Inspections
As the future homeowner, you have the right to inspect your property and all work at any time. In fact, your building company should recommend it and schedule you for regular visits.
If a builder or contractor doesn’t want you seeing their work, this is a huge red flag. It’s better to catch mistakes early than during your final inspection, which could delay your move-in date and hit you in the pocketbook.
3. Using Sub-Par Materials
There are many ways to shave off the cost of a new home, but using budget or already used materials should not be one of them. Purchasing warped wood for cabinets or tile that’s been removed from another home isn’t worth the replacement costs.
Comfort could also be affected if you put the cheapest and thinnest carpet padding in.
4. Going Over Your Home Building Budget
Part of building a new home is reviewing and choosing the interior and exterior designs for your home. Many new builds have a base price, and then every new item added moves the cost up.
Going into your planning meetings with your budget set, from your low to your high, will help keep you from going over budget. As attractive as the custom woodwork around the ceiling is, if it puts you over budget, you may regret it later.
Learn From Other’s Home Building Mistakes
By understanding how to avoid these common home-building mistakes, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to your new build and home design ideas. Learning from others who have made these similar mistakes while building will save you time, money, and headaches down the road.
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