ᐅ Potential Savings in Residential Construction

Hello everyone!

My partner and I have recently gone through several homebuilding guides. They included some tips on saving potential that do not involve doing any of the manual work ourselves.

One major point was hiring different trades separately, as general contractors often add 10-15% to the price to cover possible cost increases.

Do you have any other suggestions for saving money without necessarily lowering quality?

Best regards
FamPre

FamPre schrieb:
Hello everyone!

My partner and I have recently gone through several homebuilding guides. They included some tips on potential savings that do not involve doing the labor ourselves.

One major point was to hire different trades directly, as builders often add 10-15% to subcontractor prices to hedge against price increases.

Can you think of any other ways to save money without necessarily reducing quality?

Best regards,
FamPre

Hello, and who coordinates everything? Do you have an architect, construction manager, etc.?

I’m not sure how old the guides are, but currently, we have a craftsman’s market, not a buyer’s market. Any tradesperson without a full schedule has done something wrong.

Good luck

simple floor plan – four corners
simple roof design
avoid bay windows and dormers
orientation on the plot
maximum window area facing south
ask about brand for sanitary fixtures
controlled residential ventilation is not necessary for a solid masonry house

Managing the project yourself involves a lot of work… for each trade, a detailed specification must be written, contractors need to be contacted and followed up with multiple times, trades have to be coordinated (in practice, this often means calling hourly, since—as in our experience—as an individual client you tend to get deprioritized), interfaces must be aligned, liability issues clarified, and so on.

Alternatively, you can work with an architect who handles this for you—of course, that doesn’t save any costs.

If you choose to manage the subcontracting yourself, you need to know what you’re doing. Otherwise, important interfaces may be missed, which can make the construction more expensive and take longer. You also have to coordinate the schedule yourself, which can be very time-consuming. I know many people who, after the groundwork was done, almost wanted to stop the project. Unexpected additional costs in the four-figure range appeared—costs no one from the construction company had mentioned. The contingency budget was gone before the first brick was laid. If you don’t carefully compare offers and know what to look out for, you can quickly run into serious problems. On top of that, you have to inspect and approve the work of each trade yourself. Can you assess whether the structural work, groundwork, heating, and plumbing are carried out properly?

If you want to manage the trades yourself, you should have a dedicated architect or construction manager. This costs money, but if they are good, they are definitely worth it. Unfortunately, this is often the area where savings are made first.

FamPre schrieb:
Can you think of any other cost-saving measures that don’t necessarily reduce quality?

The user is only asking for additional saving options, nothing else.