Building their home is a big endeavor in any one’s life. You invest a lot of time and money to make the dream of your own home come true. You should maximize the return you get from that. Here I want to point out 7 most common mistakes that people make that costs a lot of time and money and people are unable to maximize the gain from their endeavor.
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- Not Knowing What You Want
Your lifestyle is the determinant of the spaces you need in your home. You and only you can know what kind of rooms you need. Your designer can help you to visualize the spaces for the kind of activities you require. For example, if you entertain guests for gathering a lot then you’ll need a bigger living and dining space. Similarly, if VAASTU guides spaces then, bathrooms and kitchens will occupy southern spaces where the sun is maximum where it makes sense to put other living spaces. So, you have to be sure of the spaces and guiding factors for those. Proper collaboration with your designer will help you in this regard.
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- Not Understanding the Importance of Planning
Time and cost spent on planning save a lot more in the construction process. Municipality Engineers can give you cheap house drawings but your house won’t be cheap. As the construction goes on, you realize the spaces within and will try to change according to your need and as the structural columns are already cast, you won’t have much flexibility for change as in initial design phase. So, you should get a good designer and work collaboratively. Similarly, proper budgeting and scheduling will save cost and time and you will have a guideline for inspection as construction goes on.
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- Cost allocation and Buffer
You should stick to your initial budget and time and not allocate extra costs in items as the construction progresses. For example, using 20mm rods when the structure analysis is for 16mm rods doesn’t make sense. Another example can be the use of OPC cement in Wall and Plaster when it is better to use PPC or PSC. Similarly, in the finishing process, you are bound to incur a cost overrun as more expensive finishing materials come to market every season. It is better to keep a Budget buffer in Budgeting so as to manage the overrun and not despair.
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- Building a House that Doesn’t Belong in the Neighborhood
A Building should be designed as the location demands. For example, it doesn’t make sense to build a modern house in the old town of Patan. Although there seems to be a lack of bye-laws for the kind of outlook of a building, if every house owner tries it, it will make the area a whole lot better and not just your home.
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- Not Hiring a General Contractor or Project Incharge
Project incharge is someone who is responsible for the entire project as a whole. Generally what people try to do is to subcontract the jobs themselves as electric, sanitary, colorwork and other jobs. If they work under the general contractor or project incharge they will work as per the general schedule of the project and not hamper other workflows. Also, there will not be blame games and delays showing the misdoings of other subcontractors.
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- Skipping Inspection
Supervision of works done and items bought is a must. If not, the workers will make the work easier for themselves and look to increase the bill amount whenever possible with extra unnecessary works. It is advised to keep a supervisor to see if the works are done as per the planning of the designers. If not, you can get the designers to make frequent site visits and make continuous discussions for proper supervision for a certain charge. The time and money spent on supervision save quite a lot in overall project and it will help in realizing the actual design envisioned at the beginning of the project.
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- Not Anticipating Delays
Construction Works depends on a lot of variable from weather conditions, setting of concretes and mortars as well as the workers. Even with proper planning and scheduling, you need to keep a certain buffer in time anticipating delays. For Example, the workers working in the valley are generally from other districts and in certain festivities, they will go to their families and takes quite some time for their return, Concrete needs to be left for sometime before other works can be carried out for them to retain strength and there should be a gap between Brickworks and plaster. So, the works will not go at the same pace for the length of the project.