As much as homeowners love the extra space that building home addition brings, there is always the issue of cost as most of them don’t want to spend a fortune on it, so you will hear them asking, how can I save money building an addition to my house?
Well, there are plenty of tricks you can use to your advantage. These tricks include:
Do it yourself
Do you have home-building skills? You shouldn’t waste money hiring a house remodeling professional. Instead, you should do the work yourself. Even when doing the building work yourself, ensure that you follow the right procedure and don’t cut corners.
If you have the skills, you have the luxury of doing the work by yourself, but if you don’t the skills, you should hire a professional to build the house for you.
When hiring the contractor, ensure that the contractor knows what they are doing. The last thing you want is hiring someone to botch up your work, and you have to redo it, which sees you wasting a lot of money.
Although, you should be conscious of the price charged by the contractor, avoid an extremely cheap contractor, as the chances are high that they won’t do a good job.
Source your own materials
Did you know you can get the building materials at much lower prices on your own than through a contractor? The reason for this is that despite the contractor making money from the labor costs, they want to make a profit from the materials they supply you, so they mark up the prices.
To save money, source the materials on your own. For example, if planning to have a kitchen addition, visit the home improvement stores and find cheaper countertops. If you don’t have a huge budget, find reclaimed materials for your project.
Most contractors will do their budgeting while including the materials they will supply you, and if you decide that you will be sourcing the materials on your own in the middle of the project, the contractor may have to go back to the drawing board, and they might not be pleased about it.
To avoid bad blood in your work, ensure that you let the contractor know beforehand that you will be sourcing the materials on your own.
Shop around
Whether you are looking for materials or a contractor, don’t work with the first company you come across—take your time, visit different companies, and see what they have.
Many homeowners make the mistake of being in a hurry when doing their construction, so they rush to hire the first company they come across. Don’t do this as you end up spending a lot of money that you shouldn’t. The best way to go about it is to take your time and knock on several doors and see what is available.
Sometimes you might not only find the company or supplies at a low cost, but also discover materials you have never heard about.
Go the prefab way
If you don’t have a lot of money to spend on new items, consider getting prefabricated materials. Some people believe that these materials are of poor quality and will give your home a cheap look, but this isn’t the case. When you work with experienced home remodeling architects Washington DC, you will have specially designed homes that are professionally built, energy-efficient and stunning.
One excellent idea is to use a reclaimed shipping container for the additional room. If house containers are allowed in your area, find a contractor that knows how to work with containers and ask them to do the work.
