Building your dream house from scratch will be quite rewarding in the end, but there are things that you must plan ahead before starting.
1. Finding the Right Location
This is very crucial and you should not be hasty to purchase a new lot for your dream house without checking first if its "flood free", far from fault lines/active volcanoes, not prone to landslides induced by earthquake or rain, no history of nearby sink holes etc.
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| flood-free? (Image by macrovector on Freepik) |
It is best to personally visit the site for an "ocular inspection" and observe its surrounding:
- if it has sufficient access road networks to nearby places like market, schools, hospitals, etc
- will be your lot be able to acquire enough sunlight during the day and not obstructed with other buildings nearby
- has some vista (pleasing view) that you may enjoy during sunset or sunrise
You may want also to ask around from neighboring areas to get more info about the location and be able to collect more data to help you out in your decision if such location is the one right for you.
Doing these will save you the trouble from stress if later on you will find out that the said location will be frequented by flood or prone to landslide and other hazards that may not only affect the integrity of your house but won't let you have some peace of mind.
You can use this online tool to check out some hazards near your target location of property to purchase. (Here)
Hazard Map Tool (sample fault lines)
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| snapshot image of site: hazardhunter.georisk.gov.ph |
2. Setting up your Budget
Price of lot is not that cheap, and before you can start to build your dream house you first need to secure a land to put up that dream house of yours, unless you inherited a portion of lot from your family to start with.
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| Image by KamranAydinov on Freepik |
Assume you already had a lot (say inherited), still you must decide on your ceiling (max) budget for the construction cost needed.
Setting a limit will somehow be useful in terms of finding alternative materials that would fit in, say instead of an engineered/synthetic stone countertop you will be looking for alternative finish slightly cheaper yet good quality.
sample images from stonedepot.ph
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Not only on finishing materials, but your budget can be a big factor on how many rooms/areas you can put up "at the moment", and will just add them up later in the future when a new set of budget is at hand.
3. Know what you want
In order to help you get a rough idea of your targeted budget, try to break down and make a checklist of needed space/requirements you have in mind:
- how many bedrooms,
- number of toilet and bath,
- how big would be your living area,
- how many floors (one storey?, 2 storey? etc),
- provision for outdoor areas for dining and living?
- will it be a garage or carport?
- elevated at ground floor or resting on ground level?
- future expansion areas/space?
- cooktop or rangetop?
- single or double kitchen sink?
- roof deck or with roof?
4. Consult Professionals
To be able to maximize your budget and not put to waste your hard earned money, you need the help of some experts or professionals (Architect, Structural/Civil Engr, Electrical...) to properly plan and design your house.
The Architect will try to come up with a solution to incorporate all those spaces/areas you have listed and see what materials can be adopted that is more economical plus coordinate with allied professionals (Structural, Electrical, Plumbing, Mechanical) to give you good quality house according to your budget.
They will help you prepare the necessary documents (working drawings and specifications) for you to be able to apply for a building permit and get a certificate of occupancy after completion and avail utility services such as electricity and water.
5. Finding the Right Contractor
At least ask if they have a PCAB License (Philippine Contractor’s Accreditation Board), if none? Then find someone with a license, it is for your own protection and safety to be able to get the high-quality of service since they are accountable for any unlawful practices that may occur during construction.
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| Image by partystock on Freepik |
Hiring unlicensed contractors may be appealing with a lower price, but you are taking the risk if:
- manner of construction is in compliance with the minimum requirements of the building code and structural code of the Philippines.
- standard materials were properly used to complete the project.
6. Site Monitoring
Best practice to ask your contractor to take photos of "before" and "after" during the construction stages specially when you are not around, say you are an OFW or living abroad and either your siblings or parents are the ones monitoring.
Critical parts to have those photo taken before it will be poured with concrete:
- depth of foundation (to check if excavated soil is deep enough and if dry and not filled with water-requires dewatering and adjustment on water cement ratio plus more cement required)
- Footing rebars, colomns, and beams (to check if proper size of bars and spacing where applied)
- concrete spacers before pouring of concrete (to check if rebars have proper protection and not exposed to soil or thin concrete covering which is prone to moist)
- development lengths or hooks (bend) of rebars like footing, column to footing, beam to column connections, suspended slab rebars to beams etc
- 135 degree hooks for ties or stirrups for column and beam respectively.
Anything that requires "pouring of concrete" that conceals your steel bars or reinforcement bars, waterline pipes and drainage systems to electrical, at least have those photos taken.
before and after sample
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In case you are available during construction the better, and be present to check during the stages whereyour foundations are being constructed (excavation and footing rebar placement and column rebars).
As we all know that a good foundation is where all starts to be able to build a great house.
7. Learn to read plans including volume and area computations
Having a basic understanding on plans (regardless if architectural, structural, electrical etc) is a great advantage on your part being the owner of the house, plus it would be easier for you to communicate with your designer or contractors in charge.
How floor plan of a building derived?
- imagine a big cutting plane above ground level at height of at least 4' slicing to your exterior and inner walls.
- then start looking from above to see all areas that were cut to which is now your so called floor plan.
Some contractors may charge you too much but if you understand how to compute for the area with the knowledge of reading the plans then you can either bargain or question the proposed contract price ahead before signing the contract.
Area(sqm) computation is easy as Length x Width, whereas Volume(m³) is Length x Width x Thickness.
Sample:
You need an extra 4meters x 3meters wall to be added as partition using CHB (concrete hollow blocks) which is equal to an area of 12 sqm.
In 1 sqm area of wall it can contain 13pcs of CHB (regardless of thickness).
Therefore, you need at least 156pcs plus some 10-15pcs extra (for any breakage during delivery or installation).
From this, if a contractor will charge you 450 to 500pcs of CHB, you can already tell of an overpriced estimate and refrain from getting taken advantage if you know how to compute some basic area or volume.
I Hope you will find this helpful when you start building your dream house in the near future, invest wisely by starting it right.
