In 2015, the National Association of Home Builders discovered that the average cost to build a single-family home was $460,000.
If you have the money to build a custom home, it’s one of the best options to choose to ensure that you get everything you want in your house.
But are you on a time crunch? You may be surprised to learn that the time it takes to custom build a home may not be as long as you think.
A Good Rule of Thumb
In general, most houses can be custom built in as little as a year or as long as two years. This will largely depend on all kinds of things, and that time may end up being shorter or longer than you anticipated.
If you want to custom build a home but don’t want to wait that long, you can choose a partially-customized home that can be built in around six months to a year. However, a lot of things will have to go perfectly right for it to be built in six months.
However, this time frame is based solely on how long the construction process will take to actually construct the home. This doesn’t factor in designing and pulling everything together before construction.
With those phases factored in, you might want to add another three to nine months, depending on who you hire and if you know what you want.
Other Factors That Come Into Play
While each person’s custom house will take a different amount of time to build, there are some things that can play a factor in how slow or fast the whole process goes.
There are some obvious things, like the size of your house, what details you want, and what extra additions you’d like added.
But there may be some other factors you didn’t even think about.
The Authorization Process
Before the company can start building your house, they’ll need to get permits and approval from the Planning and Building Departments. The requirements will be different depending on where you are trying to build.
However, getting these approvals can take up to a month (or more if there is a zoning or property issue).
Weather
The weather could also potentially delay your home’s construction.
This will depend on where you live, what weather is there, and what season you decide to build in. A little bit of bad weather here and there won’t cause too much of a problem on your home’s timeline, but there are some issues that will stop the progress altogether.
For example, if it’s raining too much, they won’t be able to build the home. Whether it’s snow, sleet, or rain, your home will have to wait. Even when it stops raining, there could still be issues with construction. For example, there may be too much mud caused by the rain to do anything.
Another thing that could be an issue is shifts in temperatures. Depending on where you live, weather that is too hot could be dangerous for the crew working on your home, causing them to have to stop. For weather that’s too cold, they may not be able to work on the home because concrete won’t harden or the paint can’t dry.
Location
The weather will also factor into the location aspect of what could be a potential problem with your home.
Before you decide where you want to build your home, make sure that you research everything that you can about it. You’ll want to search for things including what type of soil is on the site.
If it’s soil like clay, it will be even harder to dig up and put a house there.
There might be other things like rocks or hills that could cause potential problems. Talk to the construction crew about the environment of the plot of land before you commit to building a home there.
How to Make the Process Faster
While these factors can hinder the progress of your new home, there are a few things you can do to help smooth out the process.
Following these few steps can make it less stressful and potentially shorten the time it takes.
Choose the Right Company
Before you even start designing or building your home, you should research a bunch of different companies, like these custom home builders.
When you interview a company or call them for a quote, pay attention to a few things. Do they seem organized and professional? Or do you feel like they’re running around trying to meet deadlines and can’t communicate with each other?
Ask them about who the architect, subcontractors, interior designers, and other vendors are. You should make sure they have a good team to work with. If they don’t, this could cause you delays later on down the road.
Figure Out What You Really Want
Once you’ve found a good custom home builder, you’ll need to decide what you really want. Before you start planning with an architect, you should have a rough idea of what you’re looking for.
Make sure you do your own research and take your time making the right decisions. You’ll have to plan out every single thing, from where the lights are to where the outlets are.
It’s better to get this ironed out now so you aren’t changing it halfway through the design process and prolonging the construction.
Discover More Tips on How to Custom Build a Home
This is only a rough estimate of how long it takes to custom build a home, but it really depends on all kinds of factors.
Building a new home and moving into it can be exhausting and overwhelming, but thankfully we have you covered.
If you enjoyed this article, make sure that you explore our website to find more just like this one!
Leave a Reply