Construction requires a lot of time and money, regardless of the design and materials used, but there are real opportunities to reduce costs. Members of the FORUMHOUSE portal know how to save money so that it does not result in even greater losses in the future.
Just as the construction process itself takes place in several stages, spending can be optimized in several ways:
- Savings on the project.
- Saving on materials.
- Savings on builders.
Savings on the project
Although sometimes the decision to build comes spontaneously, due to the emergence of a need or, on the contrary, thanks to unexpectedly found resources, more often this is preceded by lengthy preparation. Regardless of the speed of construction of the object - the entire cycle in one season or the stage-by-stage construction of a house over several years, a project is initially required on the basis of which the work will be carried out.
And when applying for a construction permit, the government agency will ask you to provide a copy of the design documentation. A house project consists of two mandatory parts:
- Architectural and construction (AC): drawings of all building elements with geometric characteristics - floor plans/floors, rafter system, roofing, house sections, facades. In the structural section (KR) there are diagrams of the elements of the foundation, floors, stairs.
- Engineering part: documentation on plumbing, electrical, sewerage, heating.
The project can have from 30 to 150 pages, depending on the number of floors and design features; usually it is a standard-sized landscape format.
Ordering a project from an architectural bureau or firm is an expensive pleasure; individual development will cost several hundred thousand. Therefore, the majority of private developers are trying to save on this expense item, for which there are several possibilities.
Contact a private owner - architects who work from home and are independent of the company charge much less, but it is also significant - you can keep it under 50 thousand if the project is not too complex and without an engineering part. In particular, on the portal’s exchange there are a lot of work offers at reasonable prices.
Guess the time – the hot construction time begins in spring, naturally, projects should be developed by this time. Therefore, in winter, architects are in great demand and prices are higher. In the fall, a recession usually begins, and prices also decrease.
Relax77 Member FORUMHOUSE
I agreed on the architecture and design, without an engineer, for 47 thousand rubles. A person has been working in a design institute all his life, there are a lot of implemented projects, but in order to save my money, he asks for the geodesy of the site, or to pour concrete into the ground.
Contact your friends who have the necessary experience or skills in working with computer programs for design - the amounts are negotiable, but the result is not guaranteed.
Take advantage of the free sample project – on the Internet and on the websites of specialized companies you can find workable projects of various configurations – both sketches from which you can actually build a house without bells and whistles, and complete packages, but this is much less common.
Do the project yourself – having the skills to work with graphic editors, it is possible to come up with not only a floor sketch, but also to work out structural solutions and engineering systems. Design will take a lot of time and effort, but the project will be completely exclusive, and there will not be a second house like it. And it’s easier to make alterations that arise during the design process yourself. Even on paper you can depict the design of your desired home.
Gaser FORUMHOUSE Member
We looked at at least 1000 projects on the network, and systematically started looking at the fourth hundred - when the wishes were a little systematized. As a result, I started drawing myself - I didn’t like anything inside or outside. I drew (on paper, now I laugh myself, but it was easier, more familiar to me) about 27 layouts of different floors and sizes - not all have been preserved. At the same time, I was evaluating the materials and design of the house, the layout of the site (taking into account the preserved 4 cherries and one apple tree and one lilac), the plan for construction work and the supply of communications.
Receive as a bonus – many construction companies, when ordering a turnkey house, include design documentation in the cost of the work. Of course, this is not a reason to immediately run to a company, but if you planned to turn to professionals, then it would be reasonable to profit from the design. It’s convenient that in this case you can make changes to the project as work progresses without additional payment.
Stas__Tatarkov FORUMHOUSE Member
The project was done quickly, the basis was taken from the well-known site “500 projects”. When developing the project, I slightly changed the area of the rooms, moved the partitions a little and asked that the size of the house be increased. Later, in the process of work, I also changed the project, added a couple of joists in the floor and screwed two piles under the base of the fireplace. The project came in electronic form in PDF format, with all components, types, sizes, panel cutting, etc.
When choosing a project, there are several nuances to consider:
- A square meter in a one-story building is almost 50% more expensive than in a two-story building, since in the first case the area of the foundation and roof is larger, and these are the main expense items. But if elderly people live in the house, it will be problematic for them to use the stairs several times a day.
- Each extra room “just in case” adds tens of thousands, or even hundreds, to the cost of the house, and it is unknown whether this case will occur.
- Architectural delights in the form of columns and bay windows look good on sketches, but are expensive and complicate construction work.
- The presence of a basement or ground floor also adds zeros to the amount of expenses, so if there is no vital need for it, it’s easier to get by with a storage room or utility room, it will be much cheaper.
- The desire to save money should not lead to a total reduction in square meters - you will have to live in the house for a long time, and if it turns out to be uncomfortable, no amount of savings will justify it. There are standards that must be followed. However, a building of several floors with a basement will most likely be empty most of the time. And if money is tight, then if you set your sights on an object that is too large, you can get stuck in construction for years.
What is typical is that today a lot of people save on a project even easier - they build without it or on the basis of a simple graphic sketch. And it’s not a fact that as a result they end up with worse quality or more expensive due to lack of estimates, but these are rather happy exceptions.
Saving on materials
kaminfan FORUMHOUSE Member
As for building on your own, it is possible and necessary. If I had not had such a start, I would now be sitting in a chicken coop with a sickening smell on the stairs, to the sounds of boom-boom from behind the wall and car alarm sirens through the window. Member of FORUMHOUSE
What you can do yourself - do it, for example, a company built the box of a house from timber, while I was at the dacha all the time and supervised. They hired me to dig a cesspool and a well, and then my husband did the electrical work himself on weekends - it took a long time, but he did it himself and correctly. We brought water into the house (a pipe), then we’ll do the wiring ourselves - we have the Internet, I’m sitting, studying what’s best, what’s right, my husband will do it, and I’ll help.
Be able to negotiate – when hiring workers, it is justified to pay for the facility as a whole, and not for each operation performed. The amount for the entire complex may turn out to be less than when adding up individual items, and even bargaining is realistic. But this option is for teams; this will not work with a company.
Sektor FORUMHOUSE Member
It is necessary to generally agree on the scope of work, without specifying the price for each item, then you can save money. When the walls of my house were laid and the roof was made with metal tiles, I did not separately discuss the cost of masonry, armored belt, etc. The bargaining with the foreman was something like this: lay out the walls - so many cubes, assemble the rafter system and cover it with roofing felt for the winter. He named the price, I haggled, and in the end the price dropped a little, and instead of roofing felt, they covered my roof with metal tiles for the money. The ratio of the price of material to the price for work was 7/2, and at first the foreman wanted to work only at a ratio of 1/1.
It is worth considering that the duration of construction has a great influence on the cost of construction - the longer, the more expensive it becomes. But if the long-term construction is carefully planned, then you can profit from it. But everything should be within reason - if, in the process of total savings, you ruin your health with hard physical labor, because you didn’t want to pay for equipment, the costs of treatment will eat up the entire difference, otherwise you will even go into the red.
If the construction has already been completed, and there are still some finishing touches left in the form of a fence and driveway, read the article, from it you can learn how to save money on such a useful structure. Roofing is one of the most expensive items in the construction budget - it will also save a pretty penny. In the video there is a master class on floor screeding - this skill will be useful to any home handyman, because the prices for such work are hefty.
The article uses visualizations of the architectural bureau Z500, project Z136.
The main method of organizing work on the construction of a highway is in-line, the basis of which is a complex flow, where the implementation of linear and concentrated work along the highway must be coordinated in time and space in such a way that linear work is carried out without interruptions, i.e. the execution of concentrated work must precede the execution of linear work.
With this method, all types of work are performed by specialized mechanized units moving along the route in a strict technological sequence, usually at the same speed. At equal intervals (shift, day), the construction of equal length sections of the road is completed.
Specialized flows include several private flows, for example, when constructing road pavement, private flows will be intended for constructing structural layers of road pavement.
Each private flow consists of separate sections in which specialized units perform certain work operations. Such areas are called captures. The length of the gripper, as a rule, is taken equal to the replacement flow capacity; sometimes the grips are two-, three- or four-shift.
Between private and specialized flows, and sometimes between individual occupations, gaps are created (technological, organizational), measured by the number of shifts.
Depending on the nature and volume of construction work, it is recommended that road construction work be assigned in the following sequence: in winter, clearing is carried out by a specialized integrated team, the main work is carried out by an integrated flow, in which its individual units perform linear and concentrated work:
Linear work on preparing the road strip (restoring the route, clearing the route of stones and bushes, cutting down and uprooting stumps, removing the vegetation layer);
Concentrated work on the construction of artificial structures;
Concentrated excavation work in places where artificial structures are installed, high embankments and deep excavations;
Linear arrangement of artificial structures;
Linear excavation work for the construction of a subgrade from imported soil, reclamation of disturbed lands;
Linear arrangement of road pavement in separate units for laying structural layers;
Construction of a road as part of a complex flow.
In order to maximize the use of daylight hours, it is advisable to take the following shift of work: cutting clearings and installing artificial structures - in 1 shift, other work - in 2 shifts.
The calendar dates for the duration of the construction season are established on the basis of average long-term data from SNiP 1.04.03-85 (Appendix 1). It is worth noting one pattern associated with the beginning of the construction season. Regardless of the type of work, the start date of the season in one particular area is the same, which is explained by the passability factor of wheeled vehicles and the lack of soil adhesion to the working parts of road-building machines. The end dates of the construction season for certain types of road construction work are different due to the unequal technological properties of the road construction materials used.
Using climatic characteristics data and reference literature data, a list of the duration of the construction season is compiled for various works planned during the construction of the highway, Table. 4.
The timing of the work is assigned based on the constructed road-climatic schedule and Appendix 9.
Table 4. List of construction season duration
| Flow by layer device | Group of works | Minimum temperature at which work is possible, °C | Calendar terms of work taking into account climatic characteristics | Number of non-working days | Number of workers shifts | |||||
| exit, holiday T OUT | due to snowstorms, downpours TKL | due to car repairs. T REM | T R.SM | |||||||
| in the spring | in autumn | in the spring | in autumn | Calendar duration. construction season A | ||||||
| Construction of artificial structures | ||||||||||
| Bottom layer of base | ||||||||||
| Top base layer | ||||||||||
| Coatings |
A specialized thread (squad) can consist of three or more private threads. For example, from a private flow for the correction of the subgrade and the construction of an additional sand layer of the base, a private flow for the construction of a crushed stone base reinforced with cement and a private flow for the construction of an asphalt concrete pavement.
The duration of each private flow in shifts T R.SM. can be determined by the formula
T R.CM = (A - T OUT - T CL - T REM) * K CM, (5)
where A is the number of calendar days in the construction season to complete the work of this group; T OUT – number of weekends and holidays for period A; T KL – number of non-working days (downtime) due to climatic conditions (rains, etc.); T REM – downtime for technical reasons (repair, maintenance of machines, organizational and technological reasons) days, for Siberia Ttech = 13 days; K SM – shift coefficient corresponding to the average number of work shifts per day. The number of shifts is assumed to be 1 during the period when the air temperature is below +5°C and 2 when the temperature is higher.
Data on weekends is written out from the calendar for the year of construction. In the winter, one Saturday per month must be working, and in the summer season, usually all Saturdays are working.
The number of non-working days (downtime) due to climatic conditions (rains, etc.) TCL is determined by the formula:
(A - T OUT) * P
where is the number of rainy days depending on the road-climatic zone (RCZ), % (Table 5);
There is an opinion that the autumn-winter period is not a suitable season for building a private house or cottage. It is better not to continue construction in winter, much less not to start. And, indeed, in most cases, life outside the city comes to a standstill during the cold months of the year, both in already inhabited private houses and on construction sites; the construction season ends. Why? In the first situation, everything is clear: the gardening season is ending, and many private owners are leaving for the city, warmed by the thought of the upcoming summer and weekend trips to a home dear to their hearts. But in the second situation, not everything is clear... It would be more accurate to say that not everyone and does not always have the necessary information on how to correctly plan the construction of their home, taking into account the onset of an unfavorable season for construction, so as to reduce the time required to build their own country house.
Construction in one season: how to reduce construction time?
And we will begin, it would seem, with basic information - about the construction time frame, taking into account the unfavorable “cold” construction season. As a conditional object, we will choose the construction of a 2-story private house with an area of 100 sq.m.
From a technology point of view, provided there is uninterrupted funding, it will take four to six months to build a house box with these parameters. This also includes two months for interior finishing and engineering support. In other words, in approximately six months, the construction of a small country house can be considered 90 percent completed. We reserve 10 percent for exclusive interior finishing details. This will be solid, warm housing with all the necessary life-sustaining communications.
However, in a good half of the cases (more precisely, in 60 out of a hundred) it happens differently. Construction time is delayed for a variety of reasons: a lack of workers, financial instability, untimely delivery of building materials, artificial extension of construction (sometimes for several years) “at the discretion of” private developers, since many prefer not to invest all the funds at once. This category of people sincerely believes that a house needs to be built according to a scheme devised by “someone”: first pour the foundation, next year build a box, another year do the roofing, and so on... But such an opinion can greatly affect a significant increase in previously planned financial resources.
How much does a house cost in installments?
Let's just say that if you decide to build a house in stages, then you immediately need to take into account the following unpleasant moment - the rapid rise in prices for materials and services of construction and contracting organizations. As sad as it is to realize, prices rise every year not by 5 or even 10 percent, but by three orders of magnitude higher. And at what point this will happen, no one can determine. So, it is not recommended to draw up an estimate for the next stage in advance, because the planned funds may simply not be enough, and construction will ultimately be postponed indefinitely.
Ideally, to begin the zero cycle of work (if we take central Russia), it is best to choose the time in May. In this case, the chance to celebrate a housewarming party at the end of the year is very high. If the foundation is poured in September, then, in principle, by the new year it will be possible to put a roof on the house, install windows and close the thermal circuit, however, you will feel this warmth “in the belly” of the still unfinished house.
In order for a private developer to have a complete understanding of how to properly plan the construction of his own home, he must first of all get a complete understanding of the time that will be needed for each stage of construction, as well as the main work that needs to be performed at these stages.
Stages of construction of a country house with an area of 100 square meters. m, 2 floors:
1. Preparation for pouring the foundation (we take the most common option - a lightweight foundation) - two weeks
2. Pouring the foundation - two weeks
3. Laying walls - from two weeks to a month (walls are erected within a week after the completion of pouring).
A slight digression is necessary here. If aerated concrete (or brick) is chosen as the material, then the walls are laid in the shortest possible time. A log house, already assembled at a construction site, is installed even faster.
When erecting walls in a stone house with monolithic floors, another one or two weeks should be added to the already indicated maximum period. On the other hand, if the floor slabs are delivered ready-made, then they are laid within a day!
4. The rafter system is installed - a month.
5. The roof is covered with a roof - two weeks (if the roof is of a simple configuration and the material is metal tile, then all roofing work, without exception, can be completed in a maximum of three weeks).
6. Windows and doors are installed - two to three days.
The last stage is interior finishing. Once it is completed (the timing depends on the complexity of the project), you can proceed to the installation of heating and electrical equipment.
Is it possible to lay walls and pour concrete in winter conditions?
Construction in winter is possible if frost-resistant additives are added to concrete and mortars. But there is one caveat - in this case, building a house, financially, will become more expensive. Thus, at the zero cycle in winter conditions, the estimated cost of building a country house, compared to seasonal construction, will increase by one and a half times. If hired labor is involved in construction, living expenses for workers will increase accordingly. If you decide to do it yourself, you need to take into account the additional costs of the necessary heating of bitumen and concrete.
In principle, in winter, you can perform any type of work, but you need to take into account a number of important features:
1. Brick walls must be covered entirely with film.
2. A log house is installed only in dry, frosty winters.
If you install a log house during the period of rains and thaws, then you need to be prepared for the fact that mold and fungi will settle in it, and the log house itself will acquire an unpresentable gray color. This is especially true for rounded logs.
3. It is not advisable to assemble a frame house in winter. Although, there are not many restrictions in this case. The wooden frame elements are initially reliably protected from external weather influences, as they are treated with an antiseptic in the factory. On the other hand, despite the fact that frame houses are built quickly, favorable weather may not be possible.
4. It is not recommended to work at temperatures below 5°C. Manufacturers of some building materials warn about this. So, if metal tiles can be installed on self-tapping screws all year round, then bitumen tiles in winter require special treatment - during installation, bitumen tiles need to be heated with a hairdryer. And heated tiles quickly cool down in cold weather and become covered with cracks.
And one last thing. If you feel that you have miscalculated your strength and cannot finance construction that has already begun in winter conditions, it is better to mothball the unfinished house before the construction season begins (as you remember, it begins in May). Until then, take measures to protect the unfinished building from precipitation. For example, cover it with roofing felt. An unprotected unfinished house may end up completely rotten. This is especially true for structures made of aerated concrete.
If you are planning to build your own home, first develop the right strategy of action and investment. Believe me, this will yield results - you will build faster and at lower costs.
Today nothing is impossible. Modern house-building technologies make it possible to build all year round. But the timing of the construction of the walls and roof, and your housewarming, depend on when the start is made - the foundation is laid.
Of course, the most optimal time for construction is the warm season. Construction can be carried out in winter, but since we are talking about initial work: digging a pit, laying and erecting a foundation, it is highly not recommended to carry them out in cold weather, as this is fraught with uneven concreting, the appearance of cracks, shrinkage and other unpleasant consequences, which in will ultimately reduce the durability of the building.
In this article we will look at how the construction of the most popular in Russia, a country wooden house with a strip foundation, begins. Let's look at two main time strategies, their advantages and risks.
Strategy one
Foundation work is carried out in early spring - as soon as the ground thaws, the construction of the log house takes place in the summer, and finishing - in the fall.
Advantages
- Construction is being carried out in good weather conditions. Foundation work will be carried out correctly, in heated ground, and the concrete will harden under optimal conditions. And this is a guarantee of the reliability and durability of the entire structure of the house;
- Given ideal weather and proper organization (this means the readiness of all building materials, the availability of the necessary equipment and labor), you can get your home by autumn.
Flaws
- If the project involves the construction of a house with a ground floor or basement, it is dangerous to carry out foundation work during spring floods and rising groundwater. There is no need to risk the integrity and tightness of the foundation;
- Unfavorable weather can change this wonderful plan. The quality of the foundation is affected by hot weather and rain. Rapid hardening reduces its strength, and precipitation can erode the surface that has not yet hardened, deforming it;
- If the summer is damp (with a lot of rain), then mold and mildew can grow on the wood, especially on rounded logs. To build a frame house, you also need dry weather, even if the timber is treated with an antiseptic. Therefore, with this strategy, it is better to let the log house stand, the wood to dry and postpone finishing the house - external and internal - until next spring;
- Summer construction is characterized by a traditional rush: it is difficult to find good developers, and prices are high in building materials stores.
Reservation: Further construction work can be continued in about a month, until the foundation is stable, as experts say. And these are precious fine days... That's why this strategy doesn't suit everyone.
Strategy two
The foundation is poured in the fall. Then in winter a frame is placed on it. Finishing is carried out in spring and summer.
Reservation: Unfortunately, you can’t paint walls with varnish or paint in winter, because paint manufacturers recommend working at above-zero temperatures. But, when ordering from a supplier, you can ask in advance to antisepticize the timber. This is enough to keep the house going until the summer.
Flaws
- A noticeable increase in work time and a high probability of unexpected expenses;
- The minimum temperature for pouring the solution is considered to be no lower than minus 5 degrees. If the soil is frozen and the foundation is poured into this soil, then in the spring it may begin to freeze and cracks will appear on the foundation. Or it will become brittle and crumble;
- The necessary frost-resistant additives in concrete increase the cost of construction by 1.5 times. In addition, it is still necessary to take into account higher electricity costs, so in addition to heating the premises for workers, it is also necessary to heat bitumen and concrete;
- Even if the equipment is able to develop the soil, when it thaws, such a foundation will give a more serious settlement after loading its walls than if the house began to be built in the warm season.
If the house is made of a different material
Let's talk about options if you are not building a wooden house.
One of the most convenient solutions in terms of timing are houses and cottages built on a pile-screw foundation; they can be built in any season of the year.
Walls made of aerated concrete, ceramic block and foam blocks are the most rapidly erected. The construction of monolithic walls takes more time. But here you need to work with solutions, and they require positive temperatures.
It is possible to build houses from brick, stone, cellular concrete and other similar materials only after the frost has stopped. Low temperatures can destroy the masonry mortar, which means reducing the strength of the walls.
One of the rare construction methods worth mentioning is frame buildings, walls that are stuffed with straw, clay, and sawdust. Due to the fact that such houses are built practically from waste material - waste from woodworking and agricultural production, they are very economical and quickly erected. They can be built at any time of the year, with virtually no involvement of qualified specialists.
The category of exclusive, but increasingly popular types of ecological, resource-saving houses includes buildings made of adobe - light, medium and heavy, which can only be made in the hot summer season. These houses dictate to the builders the shape of the roof with long canopies, which should cover the walls from slanting rain, because this building material is very sensitive to constant exposure to moisture. Of course, such buildings are not yet so popular in Russia.
Roof installation
Finally, months have passed, all stages have been completed, the foundation and walls have been built and we have reached the stage of erecting the roof.
Installation of the rafter system, construction of the roof and closing of the external contour - all this work is not seasonal. Of course, certain types of materials can dictate their own temperature “conditions”. Thus, laying bitumen shingles is possible only at positive temperatures. But you can work with most classic roof materials - slate, isover, galvanized sheet and others - even in cold weather.
No matter how modern construction technologies help to overcome the weather, you need to take into account the sequence of stages of building a house, which cannot be avoided in any hurry. So, when installing the roof, take into account the exit of the chimney to the roof. But the oven is not ready yet? By the way, the stove can only be installed in the warm season.
Then the roofing work is carried out in two stages: first, the lower roof is arranged (using roofing material or hydroglass insulation), and then the upper roof is arranged (metal, tiles, polymer materials). If the lower roof is done immediately, then the upper roof is done after laying the stove and settling the walls of the house, and this is at least a year.
Conclusion
In this article, we tried to consider in detail the features of the construction of private houses and summer cottages in different seasons (periods) of the year. In order to finally decide which strategy is best to choose, it is recommended to be guided not only by deadlines and budget, but also to consult with specialists.
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