Building a house is the dream of many people. Everyone who is interested in the construction of houses and cottages is concerned about the issue of price and quality. Is there an opportunity to save money? We will look into this in this article.

The presence of ready-made communications is a reason for saving during construction

When choosing the location of a construction site, pay attention to the availability of communications. The lack of gas, running water or remote electricity is a sure step towards higher prices. The owners may promise to carry out the project “soon, next year, and then the price of the site will rise”; they will talk about savings, but they are imaginary, since plans for communications are not always fulfilled. And you may have to invest your own money in their appearance, and this is a round sum that will have a great impact on the bottom line.

House/cottage project - another opportunity to save money

Do I need to develop a house project from scratch or can I download a standard project?

Let’s just say this right away - if you can download a standard project, it will be extremely limited, because the house project in any case needs to be integrated into your conditions for the future construction - site parameters, location of the house, additional communications - all this is important to take into account and include in the project, otherwise the result will simply be impossible to predict!

Of course, a standard project will cost much less. But individual project will allow you to fulfill any of your ideas and desires. However, if the goal is to save money, then you need to choose a standard project that will be adapted to your needs.

How to save on materials when building a house without losing quality

The materials used in construction can vary greatly in cost. Here, under no circumstances should you skimp on the foundation or supporting structures. The house must be reliable.

If you contact experienced, qualified specialists, they will suggest building materials that will be durable and safe for health. Also, experienced builders will tell you where you can save on finishing materials, how to do this most appropriately, for example, buy materials on sale or some kind of promotion.

A common question concerns what material the walls of the house will be built from. The material used to build walls plays a huge role in determining the price of construction. Here you need to understand what kind of house you want to live happily ever after, since remodeling it will be very expensive, if not impossible. Of course, if your plans do not include new...

Finding the right contractor to build a house

The choice of construction team is important. Definitely, you should not contact contractors whose services are priced much cheaper than others. We risk getting cheap execution, which will affect the quality of housing. This is also associated with financial and time losses - sometimes it takes a very long and expensive time to correct the results of the work of unqualified builders.

It is worth noting that you should not agree to obviously expensive construction options either, because the issue of remuneration for builders must be approached comprehensively, based on the conditions they offer and the quality of their previous work

The most the best solution will initially appeal to someone with experience and a name, and then torment them about special offers and benefits.

Doing something yourself is not a reason to save money?

You can even try to save on building a house by doing some of the work yourself. Here you just need to take the area that does not require special qualifications, for example, interior decoration premises.

But if you are not confident in your abilities, then it is easier to involve specialists so as not to waste a lot of time redoing what could have been done the first time. For example, we not only build houses, but also do business. It is more convenient for us to carry out all cycles of work on a turnkey basis, and more profitable for you.

Stage-by-stage payment for house construction

The question of payment for work must be determined for yourself in advance. Remember that it is better to pay for each stage than to make a large upfront payment. Very often, builders use advance funds to close other projects. It is also easier to control the construction this way, since the builders will be ready to correct mistakes before receiving payment. If the work is paid for in advance, then you are deprived of the main and simplest lever of influence.

Today, the process of building a house requires a lot of money, so every person strives to save money when building a home. The concept of saving here should not be understood as the purchase of low-quality materials, because in a couple of years this will lead to their destruction, and after that to overpayment for construction. There are several options that describe how you can save money when building a house. If you want to build a house from timber inexpensively, then you should prepare the material in the winter, because at this time the demand for all construction supplies falls, which leads to lower prices. In addition, wood will last you much longer, because it is more resistant to damage by pests and mold.

You can and should save money

You can save money when building a house by accurately calculating the area you need, because people often build large cottages, most of the rooms in which they do not use. Therefore, you need to decide how many rooms will be enough for your family.

You can also save on building materials if you buy them in the same place, thus, when purchasing at a large amount you can get a decent or discount card, which will allow you to purchase materials at reduced prices in the future. When you are planning to build, you are already saving money, because the timber has high thermal insulation properties. In this case, you may not need to purchase insulation or finishing material, because such houses look attractive anyway. Thus, you will save your money on this.

You can save on almost everything if you carry out the construction process yourself. As a result, you will find other uses for the funds that you can spend on ordering the services of a construction company. But, in this case, you will have to learn a lot, and perhaps not everything will work out the first time, but you cannot experiment in this matter, so it would be better to hire one specialist who will supervise your construction.

The only thing you shouldn't skimp on is the foundation and walls.

Foundation and walls of a timber house

To build houses from timber they use:

• slab,
• columnar and
• strip foundations.

They are represented by “floating columns” (the simplest foundation of this type), “grillage on pillars” and their subtypes. These foundations have proven themselves well on loose, weak-bearing soils.

The slab foundation is a reinforced concrete slab, which serves as the foundation for houses made of timber. The best thing slab foundations Apply on heaving soils with high groundwater levels. These structures are characterized by increased resistance to horizontal and vertical vibrations. It is worth noting that such reliability is inexpensive, since the construction of the foundation requires a lot of concrete and reinforcement.

Represent reinforced concrete structures, which have a cross section of the same shape both under the internal load-bearing and under the external walls. These foundations are highly reliable and relatively low cost, and perform well in heaving soils.

About the timber

Today you can find timber with different sections on sale, but recently timber 150 × 150 mm and 150 × 100 mm have been the most popular. For rafter systems and floor beams, timber 200 × 150 mm is used. To make this material, selected round timber is required, so it is quite expensive.

Previously, houses made of timber were often built from material with a cross-section of 100 × 100 mm, but today it is recognized as unprofitable. The 150 mm standard came out on top in popularity. Walls of this thickness retain heat better, their construction is less labor-intensive, and the number of crowns laid on the wall is reduced. Accordingly, the number of seams that need to be caulked is reduced.

In most cases, timber walls are made on site. Assembly is carried out using the “in the head” and “in the paw” methods. In the first case, the ends of the beams extend beyond the planes of the walls, in the second, not. In fact, this is the main difference between the methods. The choice depends not only on aesthetic considerations, but also on how the timber houses will be insulated. Cutting “in the paw” is necessary if in the future they plan to sheathe the walls with something else and additionally insulate them.

The height of the walls of the first floor should be within 2.4-3 m. Then the floors for the first floor are installed, and then the second floor or attic is built. Their walls can be constructed in timber or timber form, depending on the wishes of the customer.

Is lathing included in the construction of a house under the roof?

Quite a decent saving can be achieved when choosing a budget roofing material. However, here too it must be remembered that “clean”, untreated wooden walls need protection, which can be provided in an optimal and constructive way. For example, make the roof slopes wider on the windward side and choose the right roofing material.

Is lathing included in the construction of a house under the roof? Undoubtedly. But its design completely depends on the characteristics of the roofing material. So for a bitumen roof you need a continuous sheathing, but for a bitumen roof you need one step at a time. For continuous sheathing, smooth edged boards are used, which are laid parallel to the roof ridge. Under the slate and tiles, a lathing made of measuring bars is used. All lumber that is supposed to be used for sheathing must be thoroughly dried, since the durability and geometric shape of the roof depend on their quality.

In many respects, not only the service life and aesthetics of the roof, but also the degree of comfort and reliability of the attic, as well as the possibility of living in it, depend largely on the installation of the sheathing.

Building a house, and even your own, is a pleasant business, but it requires fairly accurate calculations. Throughout our lives, we all try to save on something, so during construction the same question arises, what to save on, but in such a way that it does not affect the quality.

Let's start from the very beginning, the house project, which option is more profitable.

What can you save on during construction without sacrificing quality? Developing your own individual house project will cost much more than contacting an architectural bureau and choosing from them finished project. The material for the house can be chosen according to your taste and color, it can be brick or wooden beam, foam concrete, etc. The area of ​​the house, the architectural form, can also be very diverse. Therefore, it is recommended that you first contact an architectural bureau, in case they already have a project that is right for you, and you can also save a lot.

One of the most frequently asked questions is whether to build a house yourself or hire a team of builders. We have already touched on this topic in the article: . If you personally purchase the necessary materials for construction, you will already save a significant amount. You will personally have the opportunity to review and choose from the mass of proposals the most profitable option. If this work is transferred to the shoulders of the developer, believe me, he will also choose the cheapest option, only he can provide you with a report on more expensive materials.

How can you save money during construction without sacrificing quality? By doing the construction yourself and personally supervising the construction team, this will also save money, since many workers simply like to take credit for a couple of extra working hours.

Theoretically, it is calculated that independent construction and direct control of the work performed by builders allows you to save up to thirty percent of costs, and this, believe me, is quite a significant amount.

Everyone understands perfectly well that, just like that, without knowing and never having encountered construction, it is very difficult to take personal part in it. You must have at least some basic knowledge and skills in this area. Have an idea of ​​how to choose the right material and have free time for control construction work. Today there is a lot of useful literature on construction, which you can always turn to for help.

Everyone would probably like to have a big one beautiful house on two or three floors, with a bunch of rooms. But it is advisable to think about it, because the larger the house, the more costs it requires, and this is not only during construction, then this house will need to be heated, and this can seriously hit your wallet. Therefore, if the family is not large, it is worth considering in more detail the need for a particular room.

Naturally, every family member wants to have their own room, and when building your own house it would not be entirely right to deprive yourself of this pleasure. But the need for a guest room is worth thinking about. If your communication with guests takes place mainly during the day or evening, then the hall is quite suitable for this. But if your relatives or friends prefer to stay with you for a few days, then you cannot do without a living room. Unless you find another alternative option where you can accommodate everyone without much difficulty.

Is there a need for an office?. When your work involves documents, and you often take it home for checking or analysis, and you need privacy and silence, then, of course, you need an office. It may not be large in area, about nine square meters. You can easily place a computer desk and a filing cabinet on them. It is also necessary to take care of good lighting and ventilation of the office. If you only need a computer for work, it’s easier to buy a laptop that can be easily moved to any room, then the need for an office may disappear by itself.

One of the most important rooms in the house is the kitchen. Which kitchen is most convenient for you - combined with the living room or separate? The most optimal area for a kitchen for four people is considered to be twelve square meters, for a hall - from twenty-four square meters. The dividing wall between the living room and the kitchen will significantly increase their area. If you prefer frequent festive dinners with friends, then the hall basically turns into one with the kitchen. Please note that when combining a kitchen and a living room, all the smells and heat from the stove will be noticeable in both rooms. Therefore, in this case, you need to install a good ventilation and air conditioning system. But this is more a matter of your personal preferences and design.

There are a number of bathrooms.

How can you save money during construction without sacrificing quality? An additional bathroom will significantly increase the cost of building a house and its further finishing, so before deciding to have a second bathroom, you need to weigh everything from the point of view of economy and optimality. For a family of four people, one toilet separate from the bathroom will be enough so that there is no queue for them in the morning. Most suitable option To effectively save money, install a washbasin in the toilet.

The most optimal area of ​​the house is achieved by minimizing rooms that cannot be decorated beautifully and get the greatest functional significance from them; they are also called dead zones. These include corridors and various passages. Basically, if it concerns economy-class housing, then it would be best to make do with a small hallway with an area of ​​six to eight square meters, which will lead to a walk-through living room, therefore it will also serve as a corridor, thanks to this there will be no need to further increase the area of ​​the house and, accordingly, expenses.

It is a fairly common opinion that building a two-story house is much more profitable than a one-story house, since only one roof and one foundation are needed. But this is appropriate when building a house with a living area of ​​more than 150 square meters. Since if there are two or more floors, there is a need for a staircase, and the safest staircase with a height of 2.75 meters occupies about six square meters of floor on the first floor and about four square meters on the second. Therefore, the area occupied by the stairs is equal to the area of ​​a small room. It should also be taken into account that the presence of a second floor requires an additional bathroom, and the rooms on the second floor are significantly inferior to the rooms on the first. And the staircase itself will significantly affect construction costs.

The square is considered the most profitable shape for a house, with lower heating costs.
Taking into account all the factors, the best option for a family of four is to build a one-story house with an area of ​​about 100 - 120 square meters, having three separate rooms, a 2000 room, a kitchen, a bathroom and a toilet with a washbasin.

Is it possible to save money when building a foundation?

What can you save on during construction without sacrificing quality? The foundation is the foundation of the house and how well it is made depends on the integrity of the entire house. Before making a foundation, it is necessary to accurately carry out all the necessary calculations, because in case of an error, in the future the house may crack or settle to one side. Thanks to the correct calculation, you can save about thirty or even forty percent of funds, without causing any damage to the construction. The foundation is laid so that a significant part of it is located directly in the ground, thereby transferring a significant load to the ground. Therefore, it is worth considering that properly carried out waterproofing, even at the very initial stage of construction (when pouring the foundation), plays a rather important role, because groundwater is absorbed directly through the foundation, and this in turn leads to premature wear of the foundation itself and, accordingly, everything building.

Let's consider several types of foundation:

Strip foundation, pouring the foundation should directly go along the perimeter of the future building. Mainly used for construction various types buildings, regardless of the number of floors.

Columnar foundations are used in the construction of houses where the load is insignificant, mainly for casing and panel structures. The cost of this foundation is quite low, but it will perform its functions for this type of building as needed.

A wooden foundation is used to build wooden houses; its disadvantage is its low structural load.

A pile foundation is used when the soil is not stable.

Monolithic foundation is used when various types designs, has no restrictions.

Can be ribbon, solid or columnar.

The main thing you should not forget about when pouring a foundation is, as mentioned earlier, its waterproofing. The more thoughtful and reliable it is, the longer the service life of the house will be.

What is the most profitable material to build the walls of a house from?

How can you save money during construction without sacrificing quality? A modern and already quite common building material is a heat block. He is building block, consisting of three layers. Along the edges, its layers consist of expanded clay concrete, and the inner layers are made of insulation. They are connected to each other using ceramic basalt anchors. The facade, outer layer can, in addition, have a three-dimensional painting and decorative texture that will imitate brickwork, natural stone or some other texture, it all depends on your imagination.

The use of these heat blocks in construction will significantly save not only money, but also time.

Heat blocks have high thermal characteristics. Therefore, in houses built from this material, heating costs are much lower than in brick houses, or rather almost three times. Such a house is easier to cool in the summer. When using these blocks, savings also extend to the foundation, because walls made from them are much lighter than walls made from brick, which in turn significantly reduces the load. Savings using heat blocks are about 15 - 20 percent. In addition to all this, the heating block itself is environmentally friendly and has required quality certificates. The weight of a wall made of this material is three times less than that of brick wall, and its thickness is two times, thanks to this you can still save on transportation costs for the delivery of heat blocks.

Since the heat blocks are already equipped with a decorative outer layer at the production level, therefore, any external work is no longer required, and this is another plus for savings.

Laying walls from heat blocks can be entrusted to an experienced mason, the main thing is to lay out the first level. It is produced in one row, due to which the internal area of ​​the house increases.

How can you save money during construction without sacrificing quality? If you calculate the material consumption, then on average it will take you 100 thousand bricks or 4 thousand heating blocks to build a two-story house with an area of ​​about 250 square meters. It will take 200 days to build this house from brick, and only 10 days to build a house from a thermal block. It should also be noted that laying bricks will require about 10 cubic meters of water.

So, the decision was made to build brick house. Questions immediately arise: how to do this, which company to contact, how to save and on what? If you decide to carry out this “modest” task, then you still have money. However, it is important not to be frugal when doing this. Let's consider the question: how save on construction brick house ?

Basic costs

A brick house includes mandatory costs. They can be specified in the following order:

1. Foundation and its construction – 14%;
2. Walls (the most significant expense item) – 30%;
3. Floors and stairs – about 12%;
4. Facade, openings – 26%;
5. Roofing – 18%.

Construction of the “box” of the house and finishing work takes up almost all the expenses. This is approximately 78%. The cost item includes the provision of communications. If you are planning to install expensive systems, then you can forget about saving. These are, for example, video surveillance, energy-saving technologies, gas and others. In this case, the expense item for the construction of walls (in relation to the arrangement of communications) will be 5%. Saving on brick construction is not so easy, but it can be done.

Let's start saving

Construction begins with choosing a brick house project. Saving consists in choosing a standard project. Fortunately, the Internet is full of such solutions, and finding the most optimal option will not be difficult. Exclusive and exotic are faithful “helpers” of financial waste.

Please note that the walls are not continuous masonry, but the so-called “effective” one. In this case, insulation materials are laid between two rows of bricks or air gaps can be left. Choose a project with such walls right away so as not to pay additional costs for recalculating estimates and other design alterations.

The insulation, which is laid in the gaps of the walls, will make it possible to obtain a warmer house, which means that in the future this will affect the reduction of space heating costs - accordingly, the “savings” item increases. If you choose the option of non-continuous wall laying, then due to the efficiency of insulation materials you will not have to build half-meter walls, and this is a significant reduction in the cost of building a brick house. If solid masonry is chosen, then the thickness of the walls should be at least 2.5 bricks, this will allow you not to “heat” the street during the cold period. Better home insulate.

You can also save on the building material itself by choosing not just white brick, but ceramic (the price of which is 20% lower). Solid briquettes are becoming a thing of the past. Hollow bricks have higher performance indicators, are easier to install, reduce the overall thickness of the walls, have less weight (which means we save on foundation construction), there are much fewer seams in the wall (fewer cold bridges), and, accordingly, less will be spent masonry mortar. You can choose double brick, which will reduce installation costs and wall thickness (less consumption of masonry mortar).

When purchasing this building material, it is better to ask for certificates of conformity. If they are absent, it is better to pass by. You should not purchase bricks in winter, especially if the material was stored outside in bulk. The price in March and April is not yet rising, so you can make a very profitable purchase.

Please note that imported brick has completely different indicators than domestically produced material. The cheapest is Belarusian brick, and the most expensive is from Europe (for example, Estonia, about 5 times the price). By the way, when buying bricks at a manufacturing plant, you can save quite a bit (about 2 times) than when buying at a retail outlet.

These simple rules will help you well save money on building a brick house. It is also advisable to order the project and construction services from one company, which will also reduce the overall costs of the entire process.

One of the most important principles of saving in construction is, oddly enough, “the miser pays twice,” but without fanaticism. There is no need to buy very cheap materials and hire very cheap labor; these attempts to save money always lead to even greater expenses.

The second principle of saving is that you need to approach everything with your own mind and not with advice from the Internet, “Uncle Vanya” and the experience of your neighbors. Listen, collect information, remember the initial course of physics and chemistry at school and draw your own conclusion. If you are not lazy about construction and approach it with your own mind, everything is not so difficult. Usually people are lazy to draw their own conclusions, but trust someone (the Internet, acquaintances, outside advisers) and with this they lose all the logic of their construction. No one except you knows what you need, only you, having received the maximum information, can decide how and what to build from. And only with this approach you will get what you want. It will take time and it will be hard, but it’s worth it, the knowledge you gain will be useful to you and will be 100% within your budget.

House project.
Needed! Without it, you risk a lot of money; it’s better to spend time and, if necessary, money on it. But, don’t buy something ready-made and unfinished. If you spend money on it, it should have everything that you actually use. Dimensions, layouts, materials. All! “We’ll take this from the project, but we won’t take that” - it won’t work. The project must be 100% consistent with what you want to get in the end. This means that before drawing it up, you must study the building materials market, read articles on the Internet, talk with “Uncle Vanya”, see point 2... then draw your conclusion on the materials for the house, decide on the layout, architecture, and then start his project.

Purchase of materials.
This is a separate difficult job, anyone who has never encountered it thinks that they opened the Internet or went to the market and that’s it. Nothing like that, if you really count money, then almost the same amount of time is spent on purchasing materials as on construction, these two stages should go in parallel, purchasing ahead of two stages of construction. You need to spend time on this, look at prices on the Internet, go around the markets, and then buy. The difference in price can be up to 200%, such work always brings results. I have not been surprised for a long time by the difference in price for the same material; the construction materials market is very chaotic.

About payment to workers.
It is much more profitable to give workers a large amount of work and not to break the work into stages, but at the same time you should not abuse the versatility of the workers and, for example, not hire a team of masons to install plumbing. An economical and high-quality approach looks something like this: one team - the foundation, walls and roof, the second - external and internal finishing, the third - plumbing, heating, water supply, the fourth - electrical. Always negotiate “on shore” and sign a paper with them with prices for a set of works (complex!) broken down into main stages with a total amount. In this way, you will fix your budget and protect yourself from sudden expenses like “but here we need to nail a batten” or “we’ll install windows but won’t do casing, we only agreed on windows”; in general, there are a lot of options.

Time.
Don’t drag out construction for a long time; staged construction is much more expensive both in terms of labor and purchasing (since you can buy a lot of things at once from one company and get a good discount) and in terms of electricity costs. It’s better to save up some money and get involved in a construction project, clearly understanding when it should end and having the money for it.

Samostroi.
It is my deep conviction that self-building is not profitable. They delay construction time, spoil a lot of material, make a lot of mistakes during construction that you either have to correct and spend money again or live with it for decades, but I won’t say anything about wasted nerves and time. It’s better to let those who have done it many times build it, and you observe, consult, control and purchase material. You can do the work yourself that does not affect the quality of the building and communications. For example, any painting, laying laminate, even tiles if you are confident in your abilities. That is, something from the decoration of the house. Everything else is better not needed.

Delights.
Often people begin to be “carried away” by delights that clearly do not correspond to the construction project. For example, expensive windows or natural tiles are installed in a frame house. In communications they are trying to install a mega expensive boiler with ordinary cheap pipes, etc. Everything must be rationally selected. Delights are of no use, according to experience, you will regret it later because the money spent does not bring satisfaction when using the “delicacy”. This, of course, does not apply to houses that were originally built as one big delight.

It is impossible to take everything into account.
This is true, but with good planning it is possible to reduce the budget of unplanned expenses as much as possible. The better the planning, the fewer surprises. Describe for yourself each stage of construction for materials, time and payment to workers. Include shipping and time spent sourcing materials.

Delivery and unloading.
This is a lot of money if you don’t take everything into account in advance. I recommend that you immediately agree with the builders that they do all the unloading of materials themselves and without additional assistance. Payments. Look critically at the access roads to the construction site. It may be worth paying for road slabs once rather than paying for a manipulator for each delivery of materials. Or a concrete pump. When purchasing materials, analyze the price immediately including delivery. Very often the price of the material is cheap and the delivery is so expensive that all the savings are eaten up.

Guarantees.
Don’t forget about them, take and save all receipts. Sign warranty statements from builders. No matter how good everyone is and no matter how much you trust them, always sign the papers and accept the work under guarantee.

It’s a lot to quote, but even as a person standing “on the other side of the counter” I will subscribe to every word. It’s worth putting it in the section “How to negotiate with builders”). Especially the "Delights" item.
I reread, rewrote, memorized. Thank you.
I'll be glad to work for you.