Building your own home is an important event in the life of every human being. It however involves a lot of planning and expense and becomes an exercise which takes up a lot of your time and effort for longer periods of time. It also requires a lot of pre planning as it has to be according to your tastes and has to fit into a specific budget. SO how do we plan and build our own home? This is a step by step guide to building your own home.
Preplanning the Construction after Acquiring the Land
The first step after acquiring the land is always the pre planning of the construction. This involved many steps like fixing a budget, getting the blueprints designed, hiring the contractor and hiring an architect. Once you have acquired the land the first step is always to get the blueprints prepared by the architects according to your specifications and needs. These blueprints can be very elaborate as they not only contain the measurements of the interiors but can also contain the maps of the plumbing and electrical wiring in the house. This as per me is the most important these days as it is a trend to have underground wiring installed and later on in case some electrical faults develop in the underground wiring this wiring plan will help in locating the faults and repairing it. Then the budget has to be worked out with the architect so that you can arrange the requisite funds.
Preparing the Land and the Construction of the Foundations
The foundation work of any house is the most important part of the construction of the home. The foundation must have the strength to bear the number of floors for which your plot is passed irrespective of whether you are going to construct your home as a single floor unit because if you have to extend the structure higher your foundations must be strong enough to bear the weight of the extra floors. For this the land needs to be prepared.
Complete the Rough Framing
The construction of the frame of the house needs to be completed. The frame includes the walls, windows and doors and the roof. This is the period when the underground electricity lines and the plumbing is laid out and the maps of these will come in use to install the underground pipes required for the home both in the walls( for Electricity) and floor ( for plumbing) and sewage disposal. It is during this time that the ducting for the air conditioning system can be installed if you are going in for central air conditioning. Once the roofing is completed the house is considered dried in and the electrician can install the receptacles for lighting fixtures and switches.
Start the Exterior Finishing
Once the interiors are dried in the work can begin on completing the exteriors like the plastering of the exteriors, completion of texturing and application of primary coat of paint. This work generally takes a bit of time as there are many ways in which you can texture your exteriors like fixing different types of tiles to different areas.