How long does it take to build a house with your own hands

How long does it take to build a house – trying to calculate the time needed for the stages of the house construction.

During the construction of a country house there is a large number of questions appearing and the most common of them – how long does it take to build a house from scratch? In case you decided to build a new house yourself you should realize the time needed.

The stages of the construction

Any construction is consisted of the steps, each of them takes time and finances. But before anything else you have to obtain permitting documents for the new construction or renovation of the old buildings. It is not possible to avoid this step, as in future it could lead to heavy fines.

Selection of the land

The first stage is acquisition of land. There are two possible options: the land with no buildings and the land with some buildings. If there are no buildings, then you just need to plan out the site and carry out the preparatory work. If the plot was bought just for the land, the old buildings are demolished.

Design

The second step is a house project. There are several options for the acquisition of the project:

• buying a ready project;
• developing an individual project;
• buy an already built house project some of people you know have.

How much time will be spent on development of the project depends on the design. The finished project is sufficient to bind to the site. The most time is usually spent on the development of the individual project which takes into account the land surveying, calculating all the costs of the future construction, choosing the materials, number of floors, etc.

You should first and foremost take into account the following factors:

• your financial capabilities(do not forget about the future exploitation of the house);
• creating the optimum comfort for living;
• the climatic conditions of the area.

The phased construction of the building

Construction of any object involves the logical stages that should be performed one after another.

The ground works

Building a house starts with the ground works: pit digging, laying of external communications. When using specialized equipment you can build a house rather fast.

Land works take about a week.

The installation of the foundation

After the ground works were carried out, it is time for the installation of the foundation. Its construction depends on the type of the foundation that you select. The simplest foundation which does not require large financial and time costs is the tape one, but it can be used not for all the buildings. It is perfect for a small house. Type of foundation depends on the soil, the number of floors and the material of the future walls. The more difficult walls and floors are, the more powerful the foundation must be.

The installation of the foundation takes about two months.

The walls

Light houses require wood or metal floors. They can be made of reinforced concrete or wood beams. Although the frame houses are cheaper and faster to be built, but also require some “heavy” materials. They can last for a hundred years. But the houses made of heavy pieces are warmed and cooled slower. So, you should think twice. The time you will need for erecting the walls of your future house greatly depends on the selected material. The easiest and the quickest option is to build a house made of logs or profiled lumber or logs (it is something like the intermediate option between to build a house with your own hands and to build a prefab house). The longest construction is the construction of houses made of brick. The houses made of foam blocks and aerated concrete are built rather quickly.

If you work with a team of friends, the erection of walls will takes about three months.

The installation of the roof

The very important stage of the construction of the house is the installation of the roof. Its function is to protect your house from external influences and precipitation, so it must be durable, waterproof and resistant to temperature extremes. In addition, it performs an aesthetic role and determines the appearance of the house. The length of the roof unit depends on its complexity. The simplest option may consist of the erection of the truss system and the roofing battens. In addition, you can perform various additional works: thermal insulation, vapor barrier, installation of the snow retention systems, waterproofing, etc. The roof can have a complex shape which also influence on the time of its construction.

The installation of the roof will take about 5-6 weeks.

The finishing works

After the erection of the box of the house there are two options for the further construction. If you want to shorten the construction time, the finishing works are carried out immediately after the construction of the box. The decorating stage depends on the materials and the surface of the walls. Wooden houses require almost no decoration, they are attractive thanks to their natural beauty. For houses of foam blocks and aerated concrete the finishing work is required. The facade of the house can be plastered, processed with brick, siding, granite or stone.

It will take you about 2-3 weeks.

The construction period and factors they depend on

The quality of each stage of the construction will influence on the reliability of the entire house, its further exploitation and the service life. During the construction all the rules and requirements for the installation of the foundation, walls and roofing must be taken into the consideration. You have no right for a mistake in this case, unfortunately.

Nowadays the most rapid and low-cost technologies for the construction of the private buildings are the following:

• the block houses – the house made of aerated concrete: foam, polystyrene, silicate, concrete block, and so on;
• the frame houses which includes all kinds of skeletons: on wood, laminated veneer lumber, metal, plastic, and so on. d);
• the multilayer walling type the builders often call “the sandwich house”;
• the houses with the retained formwork.

After analyzing all the stages of the construction of the house the following factors influencing the timing of construction of the house can be named:

• the presence of buildings on the initial site;
• the financial position of the future house owner;
• the size of the future house;
• the construction technology;
• the material used for walls, roofing;
• the trim quality;
• weather conditions;
• availability of communications;
• the number of people in your team (if you work alone you can multiply the terms mentioned above by 2 or even 3).

So, the average term is 8-9 month. If you face some problems, your work may take a year or even more. You should be ready to face some difficulties.

If you order a service of a construction company, it usually means that the professionals have extensive experience with the finished objects, and the terms are usually the following:

• the construction of the box of the house with all the necessary preworks – about 2 months;
• construction of the roofing and the finishing works – about 3 months.

So the ‘turnkey’ process performed by professional builders will take about 5 months.

We hope this article helped you to learn how long does it take to build a house with your own hands.