How to manage costs when building your home

Most people aspire to build their own houses, because building offers great flexibility to choose the design, materials, finishing, quality of workmanship and size.

On the flipside, if not well managed, building your own house, especially if you do not have prior experience in project management can lead to leakages that will inflate construction costs. Efficiency has been positioned as one of the areas where one can achieve up to 10 per cent savings in overall construction costs. A rule of thumb is to always engage the use of professional and sufficient labour.

It’s also advisable to leave the professionals to manage the project. However, you need to constantly monitor the project to ensure that it is on schedule, on budget and importantly, that high quality standards are being maintained.

To help you do this, experts recommend that you seek the services of a quantity surveyor to provide advice on costs at every stage of the project. When hiring fundis and foremen, insist on referrals and qualifications so as to determine their level of experience and expertise.

When sourcing for materials, narrow in on a supplier who has the ability to afford you the variety of materials that you need.

When using a contractor, it is advisable to get into a fixed contract as this will spell the cost of construction and the timeliness. In the contract, lay out clear time lines, deliverables and penalties for non-performance.

Avoid variations

Some home owners suggest major changes when the building is under construction.

Contractors allow for variation but most of the time this happens during the finishing stage, where the home owner may opt to make changes to the previously agreed finishings.

However, the cost of changing can become costly especially if these changes are made after the sourcing of materials has been done. It also increases the labour and re-engineering costs, if the variations are structural.

Then there is labour. This is one of the costlier factors, and owners should narrow down on this, deciding between daily standard wages and paying for work delivered.

Daily standard wage requires a lot of supervision, as workers have been known to employ delaying tactics to prolong the project. It’s better to pay for work delivered, which should be quantified and agreed upon beforehand.

Create time to physically see your project or have a trusted third party who can take charge, especially when one doesn’t have a main contractor on site. These are just a few of the ways that can go a long way in plugging the leakages during your house building venture.

The writer is the Head of Mortgages, Barclays Bank