See ways to save money on your construction project

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Verified
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August 10th, 2020, 7:01 am

While of course you want your project to be top notch, but with limited resources, are there still ways you can save money on your projects? VerifiedHomesNg has these to say:
A home construction project
A home construction project
8 Ways To Save Money On Your Construction Project

1. Choice of Land
It starts first with the choice of land. When you are mindful of cost of construction, then the first place to start it the choice of land. If you don’t have endless supply of cash, you cannot afford to buy a swampy land or overly steep land. another very expensive kind of land to build on is rocky land. if you can avoid these kinds of land then do. although this type of lands are usually very cheap in most cases except if that is the most predominant kind of land in that area. what is the use of buying a cheap piece of land only to spend more than the usual in building on it.

One very important thing to look out for is the depth of the underground water. Since most people will have to source for their water, then you have to be sure that a dip well will serve you. if a dip well will not serve you then I think you should look elsewhere except if funding is not going to be a problem.


This picture is showing a site where the slope is so much that we had to construct a retaining wall to allow for filling of the site before foundation works could start.

2. Do it yourself unless you can’t.
Why pay for what you can do? If you have grown up kids who can help with labor work on site why not allow them go on weekends or during holidays. You will be able to save some cool cash by so doing. You don’t necessarily have to pay for everything, you can really make it an exercise that the kids will enjoy, you can go with cameras and food and make it memorable and something they can look forward to. You can come up with anything interesting to make it look good. You can even pay stipends but not as much as you would naturally pay the workers.

Another thing that you have to do is to do market survey by yourself. Don’t just get quotes at home unless you don’t have the time to do so, and in that case what you are engaged in better be able to pay for the supervision. You may not be able to know the best quality but you will have a good idea of prevailing market prices and that can save you a lot of money. The masons can get really mischievous but if you are sincere with them and allow for some little slacks then you will get the best of them. On the other hand, if you think you are smart, you will end up looking very stupid and beat up. you cannot beat them to the game especially if you are a first time builder.



3. Draw up a budget
A lot of times we may not be able to draw up a budget especially for first time builders. a lot of people have this funny believe that building a house is not a big deal and with 1.5 million you will build a 2 bedroom flat. although there a lot of things that culminate in the total cost of a building , yet telling your architect how much you are willing to spend on the building will guide him/her in putting the design together. He or she may just tell you that your budget is unrealistic or decide which finishes will be suitable for your purse. Architect can advice you that you should go for a bungalow instead of a duplex.

The budget will also help you in planning how long it will take to raise and directly determine how long the building construction will take.

4. Choose a very simple plan
The shape of building will directly affect the cost of construction. Constructing a building that is just a rectangular floor plan is cheaper than the one with more angles and shapes. so don’t be fooled by funny shapes and curves and all the funny shapes that architects use to make a design compelling. If you are mindful of the cost of construction, then just settle for the regular shapes and no funny irregular shapes that will put you in more trouble.

5. Avoid unnecessary building elements
If you want to cut down on cost then avoid unnecessary building elements. For example, concrete eaves is beautiful but it is not compulsory. It looks good on the building, but it cost a fortune. It cost anywhere between six hundred thousand and one million to construct a good concrete eaves on your building depending on the size and mode of construction. Precast is cheaper than in-situ from experience. you can do without columns and large arches if cost is something to go bye. You should also avoid cantilevers as much as possible if you are doing more than one floor. why do you think that you hardly find columns in mass housing estates, it is simple the more columns the more expensive it is to construct.

4 bedroom bungalow
This building still looks very good and beautiful even without columns

6. Salvage or go sustainable
You don’t necessarily need to buy everything new. You can reuse some material, you can buy used planks for your formwork. you can get rubbles from sites where they are carting them away to do your filling instead of buying fresh materials to do your filling. If there is a road construction going on in your area, you can talk to the operator and you will be shocked how cheap you can get unsuitable materials to do your filling. You can use mud bricks to build and you will be shocked on how much you will be saving on your construction.

7. Get a professional to supervise
Yes a professional to supervise! You will be shocked how much a professional will save for you. You can use a young school leaver, although the experience level may be low, yet it will be better if you do the supervision by yourself. you can talk to the professional to come in ones in a while to ensure the job is done properly. If you think the charges are too high look for another one. But the risk of loosing your entire investment to a collapsed building is higher than paying the guy to ensure that job is done properly. Think about it for a moment, if you want to do it by yourself, you stand the risk of loosing the entire structure. I have seen a building that came right down after the completion of the concrete eaves, simply because the right professional was not engaged on the building. if the client had paid someone a paltry two hundred thousand naira to supervise she may have packed into the house by now. or at least have someone you can drag for a refund.

8. Use best materials
The best way to save money in construction is use the best material. It doesn’t have to be expensive to be good. Buy the best material you can afford as against using a substandard material. for example, the craze for stone coated roofing materials has made the market swell with sub standard stone coated roofing material. Instead of buying the substandard stone coated roofing material for 2000/square meter why not buy 0.75mm thick aluminum long span roofing sheets. It is one of the best in that category as against using the substandard in another category just to feel among. at the end of the day the difference will show eventually. at that point when the fake material fails, you would wish you had done the long span roofing sheet or even the step tiles.

Written by Oparinde Ayodele

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https://verifiedhomesng.com/8-ways-to-s ... n-project/

What do you think of these ideas?

Please share...

User avatar
green20
VIP VIP
Location: Rivers state
 

August 10th, 2020, 8:08 am

i don't support your idea
it is your house, why not make it look good with your money!
better soup na money kill am
"We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right."
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NiceGuy
Senior
Location: Lagos
 

August 10th, 2020, 10:17 pm

green20 wrote:i don't support your idea
it is your house, why not make it look good with your money!
better soup na money kill am
You have point
I'm really not that nice... :mrgreen:
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Jegz
Senior
Location: Naija
 

March 26th, 2021, 6:00 am

Thanks once again Architect for sharing these useful tips.
"Many of us are not living our dreams simply because we are busy living our fears" - Les Brown
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calculus
Senior
Location: Ojuelegba
 

March 26th, 2021, 6:43 am

Very good. Thanks.
I'm the world's greatest! Don't argue it. It will get you killed!
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Jegz
Senior
Location: Naija
 

March 27th, 2021, 6:34 am

green20 wrote:i don't support your idea
it is your house, why not make it look good with your money!
better soup na money kill am
You're very right.
However on many occasions where limited resources (money) are available, then these tips will be lifesaving. :clap:
"Many of us are not living our dreams simply because we are busy living our fears" - Les Brown
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Gloria50
VIP VIP
Location: Enugu, Nigeria
 

May 7th, 2021, 3:50 pm

Interesting
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Bash888
Senior
Location: Kontagora
 

July 29th, 2021, 9:23 pm

Thanks for the update
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