If you want a stunning new home but don’t particularly want one that is listed for sale online, it may be an idea to build your own home from scratch. This is called self-building.

You don’t have to have any construction experience to build your own house – in most cases starting a self-build means getting experienced workers to build your house for you. This is where Melville Joinery and Construction can help you.

Self-building can take a lot more time and work than just buying a new home, but it has some amazing advantages:

• You get more choice over the way your home looks.
• You can plan your home’s features to suit your own needs.
• It can cost less to buy a plot of land and build a house than to buy a similar house that already exists.

Our Advice

The most important aspect when planning your self build or renovation/extension project is working out how much it is going to cost. There would be nothing worse than getting to a standstill.

There are many variables that can alter build costs beyond the average, which could prove potentially disastrous for someone working to a limited budget.

Therefore, it is extremely useful for anyone pondering a self build to have an understanding of what changes to the design, build route or specification will alter costs from the average, and how to make savings off these figures. Unless otherwise stated, per square metre costs relate to the whole floor area, rather than facing areas.

How Much will it Cost to Build my Home?

If you are new to self build and want to get an general idea of what you can afford to build, you first need to figure out how much you have available to spend by combining your savings, equity from the sale of your current home, plus any funds available via a self build mortgage.

Buying Land

Unless you already have a building plot, the next step is to take a look at the price of land in your area and set aside a sum for the cost of buying a site plus legal fees and Stamp Duty . You can get a good idea of plot prices by visiting various online plot finding websites.