What You Need to Know About Building a Home From Scratch

Is building a home from scratch your dream? About 1.20 million new houses are constructed every year in the US. Building a home from scratch is not necessarily the easiest way to get into a new home, but most homeowners that have taken the journey, agree that in the end, it was well worth the effort.

Building a home from scratch can be a long process, especially when you are building a custom home. It is not something that happens overnight, but the end result, is you get your dream home.

Where Do You Start?

If you are in the early stages of building a home from scratch, you may be wondering exactly where do you start. The place most people start is by picking out their homesite. Your first step in the process is deciding where you want to build.

Construction loans are easier to secure if you own your own property, but that means you cannot secure them if you don’t. A lot of builders will offer home, land packages. However, if you are going to build your home from the ground up, you might as well, look for property that speaks to you to build on.

Choosing the property to build on requires some thought and some inspection. Buying property that does not perc right can mean not being able to build on that property. Or buying a property where the slope of the property is too high, can mean pouring a lot more money than you plan on to level things off a bit so the property can be buildable.

Before you make the decision about buying a piece of property to build on you should consult with experts about the feasibility to build on the property. There is a specialty branch of home inspectors that focus on inspecting land that can help ensure that you are making the right buying decision.

Once you have your property picked, it is time to take the other steps necessary for building a home from scratch.

Wait! Before a Brick Is Laid You Have to Do These Things

Unfortunately, having the building site picked out, does not mean the builder can get started. There are a few things that have to be done to the property before the builder can start working on the building:

• Land survey
• Bringing in water lines, setting up sewer connections or having septic installed
• Bringing in electricity

A land survey will tell you where the best place to put your house is going to be. A land survey can also discover any natural springs on your property that you may want to avoid. If you are building a house from scratch many times services like public water, electricity, and sewer service has not been connected before.

Having all those things done first will make the job easier for the builder. While you can potentially have your builder start the project before you get those things done, it is strongly recommended that you do not. It is easier for all parties involved if you follow a timeline of utility installation first, then building activities.

A land survey is often provided by the building contractor. It will outline where the house is to be built based on some pre-established criteria like the grade of the land, natural springs, proximity to the road, and other criteria.

Of course, if you have bought a piece of property that is forested, trees will have to be removed for the project as well. Most people that are building a home from scratch have the same question when they realize how many things need to be done before the build. They want to know how long it will all take?

Prepping your land for the build can take anywhere from a few weeks to a couple of months. It all depends on:

• The amount of work that needs to be done. For example, do you have a heavily wooded lot that needs to have quite a few trees removed? What about grading? Do you need fill? All of these things can either add time to the preparation or reduce the amount of time.
• The weather. Unfortunately, weather delays are common in these cases.
• Financing. If you are doing pay as you go plan, then how much you can afford to do each week will be a factor.

Other delays can include waiting for the utility companies to be able to schedule you in. In other words, you should expect this part of the project to take anywhere from about 6-8 weeks, longer if the weather is uncooperative or there are other delays.

https://athomeinspections.net/2020/08/what-you-need-to-know-about-building-a-home-from-scratch/