Home Building Information - Professional Answers

If you are considering building a new home you definitely need to check out the useful home building information provided below. These are some of the most commonly asked questions relating to building projects.

Important Note:

When evaluating and choosing a homebuilder please contact your local Home Warranty Program to ensure that you are dealing with builders with memberships in good standing.

This will mean that your new home will have a new home warranty backed by the Home Warranty Program.

To contact the New Home Warranty Program of Saskatchewan, Inc. call (306) 373-7833 or visit www.nhwp.org

1)What is the cost of a House?

-There are many factors that control the cost of a house. As a rule of thumb a certain house may cost so much per square foot. The problem with this is that houses come in all different shapes and sizes, the design and size of the house can greatly vary the cost of a house.

There is another variable that determines housing cost and that is choices in building materials. There is such a variety of different materials that can be used in a house it can sometimes be mind boggling, also throw in different qualities within those choices and decision can be staggering. Arming yourself with as much home building information beforehand will make it easier to determine exactly what you want before getting your house priced. Make an effort to educate yourself on the products that are going to used in your house.

2) How do I get Started?

- The first thing you must do is find a plan that suits your needs. A good way of doing this is looking at what you have now and determine what you would want to change. By looking at your existing dwelling you will have an excellent frame of reference to determine the home building information required for your new home. .

Look at room sizes and shapes, number of rooms. You must have an idea also know where you are locating the home so you know that the house will fit on the lot. If you are on a farm or acreage you don’t have to worry much about size.

You can find plans on the internet there are many good sites. You can get home plan books from bookstores or from lumberyards. You should get a budget price off the plan that you have picked before you order plans, make sure it fits within your budget. You must allow yourself ample planning time as the process of picking a plan, getting budget pricing, ordering plans and signing contracts can take up to 2 months.

3) How much time does it take to Build?

As you can see from the question above the planning process can be quite involved and take time. Once all that is done once we start digging we allow 4 months for a build on-site and 3 months for a RTM. This is assuming it is in prime building months, and everything goes as planned. Two years ago a study came out that showed the average building time for a house in Canada was 4.5 months, which would only be worse today do to lack of qualified trades.

4) What Products Should I use?

Where to begin? There are so many different choices to make on products ie what type of floor system, type of exterior, type of roofing, type of windows, type of floor coverings, type of cupboards. All come with different designs, colours and quality. First you must choose what is pleasing to your eye and then worry about quality.

I always say spend the money on the items you don’t want to touch or replace for a long time. Spend more money on windows, roofing and cupboards. Spend money on things that will save you money in the future ie more energy efficient windows, more insulation on the walls or ceiling. There is never a correct answer on how much to spend, you still have to meet a certain budget.

5)How do I compare your quote against another companies?

If you do a lot of the things that I talked about above, good planning, learning about the products you’re putting into your house and picking the items you want in your house ahead of time, the quotes will be based more closely together than usual. Take time to learn what is in each quote just don’t base it on a bottom line and then find out you have up charges throughout the whole project.

When you are contracting your own house and are just getting a materials list, I suggest that once you get all your quotes, I would suggest 2-4 quotes to begin from reputable firms and then look each over carefully and decide which one is the most complete or best suits you and then take that materials quote to other places to quote. Remember take the prices off.

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