Tropins Blog

Despite the recession, “self-build” homes are still popular. Why? Because they’ve always provided better value for money than simply purchasing a home. So what is “self-build”? It’s a home you build yourself, as the phrase indicates! Not quite literally by yourself, but you set yourself in the position as planner, foreman, architect of your home and allow trained workers do the job you tell them to do. More people are opting for the “self-build” route - in fact, the army of “self-builders” in the UK outnumbers the amount of properties being developed by any professional developer. The intention of self-build is to produce a property to your precise specifications, not a template that the large developers work to.

I know what you’re thinking: “I haven’t a clue about how to build a house”. The good news is that getting involved with a self-build project doesn’t mean you inevitably have to dive in with the actual building (in fact, just 5% of self-builders actually get involved with the actual construction work). Even when it comes to design, quite often this is delegated to a professional designer.. Self-build, by and large, is about you saying (in plain English), what you need to the property designer - who then creates a design dependent on your demands. This plan then becomes the blueprint the developers work to. Easy, eh? You don’t need to have any active involvement in self-build. Even so, the Do It Yourself fantatic can use self-build as a chance to save some money by helping out with the aspects of self-build they have experience in - it’s your choice how much engagement you want during the build.

Since you get full control over the details of the development, you can select the most up-to-date technology, while large developers lag behind since they’re constructing to strict boiler-plate designs. You can put in things like automated climate, lighting, underfloor heating, and entertainment facilities throughout your home.

You must make sure the squad of workers you select are total professionals and that they develop well together. For sure, you will want workers with experience of some rather potentially dangerous machinery used in building, such as ics diamond chainsaws, block and slab splitters, power / disc cutters, floor saws, and wood saws. Not only do they need to be safe with such equipment, they of course must do their job well too!

This article is just an introduction to self-build, and I hope it will encourage those of you who are disheartened by the thought of planning a project of this kind of size. It needn’t be time-intensive, and you won’t need house building / designing skills, but you will need to be careful as to who you hire, and you will need to carefully work out the overall cost of the project.