What Exactly Is Self-Build? Can I Really Build a House by Myself?
Self-build is a phrase that is getting ever-popular in the housing market. Hold on, what exactly is “self-build”? It’s a home you build yourself. Not quite literally by yourself, but you put yourself in the position as foreman, architect, planner of your house and allow professional workers do the task you order them to do. More people are choosing the “self-build” route - in fact, there are more self-builders in the UK than the total amount of homes being developed by any single developer. The intention of self-build is to produce a property to your exact specifications, not a boiler-plate design that commercial developers use.
I know what you’re thinking: “I’m no developer”. The pleasant news is that getting involved with a self-build project doesn’t mean you necessarily have to get stuck in with the actual building (in fact, only around 5% of self-builders in reality take a role in the actual building of the property). Even when it comes to design, quite often this is delegated to a professional designer.. Self-build, generally, is about you expressing (in laymen’s terms), what you need to the house designer - who then develops a plan based on your prerequisites. This design then becomes the blueprint the builders follow. Easy, eh? You don’t need to have any hands-on engagement in self-build. Having said all that, the DIY enthusiast can use self-build as a chance to save some cash by helping out with the aspects of self-build they have experience in - it’s your shout as to how much involvement you want during the build.
Since you get total control over the details of the development, you can choose the latest in technology, while big developers fall behind because they’re constructing to strict template designs. You can put in things like underfloor heating, automated climate, lighting and entertainment facilities throughout your entire home.
You must make sure the team of workers you choose are 100% competent and that they build well together. Without doubt, you will need builders with experience of some rather potentially dangerous machinery used in construction, such as concrete cutting chainsaws, block and slab splitters, power / disc cutters, Floor saws, and wood saws. Not only do they need to be safe with such equipment, they of course must do their job well too!
This article is just an introduction to the concept of developing a property by yourself, and I hope it will encourage those of you who are disheartened by the thought of running a task of this kind of size. It needn’t be time-intensive, and you won’t need house building / designing skills, but hire carefully, and you will need to carefully work out the budget of the project.