Transmission Wire

Self-build is a phrase that is becoming ever-popular in the housing market. So what is “self-build”? It’s a home you build yourself, as the term suggests! Not necessarily only by yourself, but you set yourself in the position as planner, foreman, architect of your house and let professional workers do the task you tell them to do. “Self-build” is pretty much recession-proof due to the relatively low costs involved (relative to purchasing a property) - 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 create a property to your exact specifications, not a template that the large developers work to.

Already you’re probably thinking: “But I’m not a builder”. The good news is that getting involved with a self-build project doesn’t mean you inevitably have to get stuck in with the actual building (in point of fact, just 5% of self-builders in reality get involved with the actual construction work). Even the design aspects are often finalised by a professional designer. Self-build, mostly, is about you expressing (in laymen’s terms), what you need to the house designer - who then develops a plan dependent on your prerequisites. This design then becomes the blueprint the builders follow. See? You don’t need to have any active participation in self-build. Having said all that, the Do It Yourself fan can use self-build as a chance to save some dosh by contributing toward the tasks of self-build they have experience in - it’s your call as to how much involvement you want during the construction.

Self-build sounds expensive, but actually it’s in general cheaper than purchasing an already built property of identical specifications (roughly a third cheaper). That’s not all, self-built homes sell very well too - up to 25% higher than the actual build cost, so you can view self-build also as a means to invest your money, rather than just a home to live in

You must make sure the group of workers you select are 100% competent and that they can build as a team. Without doubt, you will want workers with lots of experience, particularly with specific types of building machinery, such as concrete cutting chainsaws, block and slab splitters, power / disc cutters, floor saws, and Masonry saws. Professionalism brings safety to the project too.

This article is simply an introduction to self-build, and I hope it will encourage those of you who are perhaps a little daunted by such projects. It needn’t take up all of your time, and you won’t need any specific 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.