Stage-by-stage construction of a house: step-by-step instructions. Building a house with your own hands: step-by-step demonstration Building a two-story house with your own hands

The costs of building a house of the same area can vary by two or more times.

You can reduce the construction budget if you invest your own labor, knowledge, energy, and talents into this matter.

An inexpensive house should not be:

Very small. Its size should suit your family's needs.
Inconvenient. It should suit your family's lifestyle.
Low quality. You can use cheaper, but high-quality traditional solutions. Typically, such decisions are easier to implement.

What can you save on?

1. You can save a lot by choosing a house design which should have economical solutions for the layout and structural elements of the house.

Architects offering ready-made projects are not interested in the cost of the house. Their task is to charm the developer with a beautiful facade and sell the project.

A beautiful picture acts like a drug - the developer decides at all costs build a large, complex and therefore very expensive house.

The project for an inexpensive house is a one-story house with a gable roof on a shallow foundation with floors on the ground. Total area 123 m 2 . The house has no internal load-bearing walls. There is no attic ceiling - the suspended ceiling is attached to the roof trusses. The angle of inclination of the roof slopes is 20 degrees. In summer, the living space increases due to the large, more than 20 m², a terrace completely covered and protected by walls, pos. 13.

An inexpensive house project is:

A rectangular house with a gable roof;
a one-story house without expensive interfloor ceilings, stairs and numerous windows;
a house without a basement, because if there is one, costs will increase by at least 30%;
house on low and ;
a house without unusual elements - bay windows, arched windows, tympanums, columns, balconies, pilasters, stairs, two-level rooms, winter gardens;
a roof with two, or at most five slopes (sometimes there are fifteen of these slopes!). Corners, valleys, hatches, roof windows and many tin elements - such a roof can cost 40% of construction costs;
external walls, the simplest to construct;
standard size windows;
simple interior and exterior wall decoration;
traditional facade made of cement-lime plaster.

The simple form of the house is the embodiment of the ultra-modern architectural style of the Barn house. A distinctive feature of the style is its exquisite laconicism, which is achieved by the correct choice of proportions, as well as the texture and color of the exterior decoration, in harmony with the surrounding space.

Devote maximum time and energy to choosing an economical home design.

Read articles on choosing the main parameters of a house project:

2. At finishing works. Option “minimum”: walls with traditional plaster or plaster, laminate on the floor, simple plumbing in the bathroom.

3. On materials. You can entrust the selection, purchase and delivery of materials to the construction site to the construction contractor - you have less worries. But if you want to save money, then take on this work yourself.

You can buy materials from well-known brands, or you can purchase the same materials from local or lesser-known manufacturers. Moreover, they will not be inferior in quality to the first ones, but their price will be lower. To save money and not make a mistake in choosing, collect all available information about the manufacturer, prices on the construction market in your and neighboring cities, as well as reviews about the quality of the product.

However, remember the basic rule of the market - quality costs money.

Many sellers give seasonal discounts from prices during a period when demand for building materials falls. This usually happens from November to February. Keep an eye on prices and purchase expensive materials during this period.

What to build a house from, what material?

SNiP 02/23/2003 proposes to carry out, by making appropriate calculations, optimization of the building shell according to.

For different structures of house shells (walls, floors), the total cost of construction is calculated 1 m 2 wall or ceiling surfaces, rub/m 2. The heating costs of a house built using these different shell designs are then determined. For each design, a payback period is found - the period of time during which construction costs will be recouped.

In different regions, depending on the cost of the fuel and building materials used, as well as the severity of the climate, different results are obtained for the payback period of a particular wall or ceiling structure.

If you do not have specific preferences on what to build a house from, then find out the results of such calculations from local designers. Choose the wall and ceiling design option with the shortest payback period for construction costs in your region.

Calculations and construction practice show that in places with a harsh climate and/or expensive fuel It is more profitable to invest in highly efficient insulation materials.

Advantageous in harsh climates or when heating with electricity build double-layer walls with a thin but durable, and therefore relatively cheap, load-bearing layer (, etc.) with a masonry thickness of 180-250 mm. and insulate them with a fairly thick layer of effective insulation - 100-300 mm.

In areas with very harsh winters in a double-layer wall It may be advantageous to lay the load-bearing part from less durable but warmer blocks: aerated concrete, gas silicate, foam concrete or porous ceramics, density 600 - 1200 kg/m 3. This solution will reduce the thickness of the layer of highly efficient insulation, but due to the lower strength of the wall material, the thickness of the walls will have to be increased.

One square meter frame wall contains the maximum amount of highly effective insulation. This is probably the most profitable wall design in terms of return on construction costs.

Frame wall of an inexpensive house for a harsh climate:

Between the frame posts there is a mineral wool insulation board with a density of at least 45 kg/m 3, thickness 100-200 mm.
On the outside, insulation slabs made of extruded polystyrene foam (EPS) or polystyrene foam or facade slabs made of mineral wool with a density of at least 125 kg/m 3, thickness 40 - 100 mm.

However, a frame house has features that not all developers like.

It is profitable to build a house with frame walls and in areas with less severe winters. The outer layer of insulation on a frame wall in areas with a milder climate can be omitted.

In areas with mild winters houses made from lightweight, warm porous ceramics or without additional insulation and masonry thickness no more than 510 mm.

Wooden walls made of timber or logs in most climatic zones of Russia do not meet modern requirements for heat conservation. Wooden walls of houses for year-round use require additional insulation.

In the comments, please justify your choice: cheaper, warmer, more durable, etc.

Video about the design

There are two main technologies, each of which has its own characteristics.

Frame-panel. How to build a house cheaper? Collected with my own hands. Of course, this will require skills and equipment. Thanks to this type of construction, this is possible, although you will need to invest a lot of time and additional money in the purchase of insulation and other things. The frame is made of wood and covered with sandwich panels. Each part has to be installed separately, which affects the timing and complexity of construction.

Frame-panel. This option is expensive, but reliable and requires much less labor. The structure is assembled from ready-made panels, which are manufactured at the factory to special order. The panels are supplied already insulated and completely ready for assembly. If we compare the prices of panel and panel buildings, the former are more expensive. However, the final cost may turn out to be the same if workers are invited to assemble frame-panel housing, because you have to pay for all types of work separately - assembly, cladding, thermal insulation, finishing.

The assembled wooden frame already looks like a finished house. It only requires cladding and finishing. Steam and waterproofing materials are installed into the walls of the structure at the factory, which helps to increase the service life of the building

Undeniable advantages of the technology:

Economical. Light weight is an obvious opportunity to save on the foundation, and short terms - on paying workers. It is believed that houses built using frame technology are the cheapest, but the efficiency largely depends on the area of construction, the selected components, finishing, etc. Calculations by experienced engineers show that this is beneficial if the length of the building does not exceed 20 m and the number of storeys is 3. Often the design decides everything.
High energy saving ratio. The structures warm up quickly and efficiently. The walls are made of materials with low thermal conductivity, so the structure retains heat well. The wall thickness can be 15-20 cm. Additional benefits include reduced heating costs compared to a conventional building of the same area.
No shrinkage. The walls of the structure are strong, resistant to deformation, highly rigid, and the house itself does not shrink. This also has a positive effect on construction time: finishing work can begin immediately after the completion of the main work. The cladding does not require additional processing, which reduces finishing costs.

Disadvantages or things to consider:

To assemble such a structure you need special knowledge and tools. The qualifications of the builders are of fundamental importance, so not every developer can do it himself, and the team will have to be carefully selected.
Wooden frames require additional treatment with compounds for biological and fire protection.

When choosing a project, special attention should be paid to ventilation. Artificial materials provide excellent thermal insulation, but from the point of view of environmental safety they leave much to be desired. If the home is small, then theoretically you can get by with natural ventilation, but ideally, a normal air exchange system should be calculated and installed for it.

When installing frame structures, “wet” technologies are not used. This feature is a big plus, because... allows you to work at any time of the year

Tightness is one of the main advantages of a frame house, because serves as a guarantee of good thermal insulation. But it also has a downside - a violation of air exchange. To prevent human waste products, dust and other factors from worsening the microclimate in the building or reducing the amount of oxygen in the air, it is necessary to design a high-quality ventilation system

What to make it from:

Tree. Despite all kinds of processing, wood is exposed to moisture and microorganisms. On average, such a frame lasts up to 60 years and is inferior to metal analogues in strength, lightness, and resistance to destructive environmental factors.
Metal. A lightweight thermal profile is used for manufacturing. Its advantages are excellent fire resistance, light weight, and corrosion resistance. Metal parts are not susceptible to attacks by fungi and mold. All this can increase the service life of structures to 100 years.

What would be cheaper to build from? When drawing up estimates, a wooden frame will have a clear advantage. However, if you “look into the future” and take into account the higher performance properties of the thermal profile, then its service life fully pays for the costs.

The foundation can be chosen tile, columnar or strip depending on the type of soil. You can save on an easy-to-install roof - gable or mansard. The choice is up to the developer.

Material on the construction of a veranda at a frame-type dacha may also be useful:

1 sq. m of metal frame weighs 30-50 kg, with casing - about 200 kg. The low specific gravity of the finished house allows it to be built on unstable soils. The profile is also used in the reconstruction of buildings with heavily worn load-bearing structures

Option #2 – brick construction

Brick is one of the most popular. Houses made from it can hardly be called cheap. The walls have to be made thick, plus they require additional insulation, which leads to an even greater increase in the cost of structures. The weight of the finished structure is large, so the foundation needs to be truly strong. It is done to the entire depth of soil freezing.

It's difficult to save money on it. The disadvantages include long, labor-intensive construction. However, the durability of the structures, their fire safety and practicality largely pay for the costs.

If you look at the prices for the construction of a high-quality building on the websites of specialized companies, you get the impression that the cost is low. However, even the price of turnkey construction does not include the finishing touches: installation of flooring, interior doors, plumbing fixtures, etc.

If you do all this yourself, then only the costs of purchasing materials should be added to the cost. If you need to hire workers, then also pay for their labor. Construction is profitable only if the owner of the site initially selected the project correctly and can carry out most of the work independently.

Video: about bricks for buildings

Option #3 – aerated concrete blocks

Aerated concrete block is a worthy competitor to traditional brick. Building a box is significantly more profitable than erecting it. The wall thickness can be reduced by 1/3 without losing its thermal insulation properties. The material itself is noticeably lighter, which allows for savings at the expense of the foundation. An additional “bonus” for the home owner is good sound insulation.

A dwelling made of aerated concrete blocks “breathes”; air exchange in it is not impaired, because through pores. However, for the same reason, blocks are considered not the best option in terms of waterproofing. If construction is carried out in violation of technology, the finished structure may also be blown out. You need to pay attention to the finishing.

As for the construction time, an aerated concrete structure can be erected 2-3 times faster than a brick one; it practically does not shrink. Special adhesives are used to connect the blocks. In this case, it is undesirable to use ordinary cement mortar, because... it produces thick seams, which can cause the formation of “cold bridges”.

One of the disadvantages of aerated concrete blocks is their relatively low frost resistance, so you will have to take care of high-quality finishing. The materials you can use are plaster, siding, stone

Option #4 – economical timber buildings

For the developer, timber is more profitable than anything else. If we compare timber and brick walls in terms of heat-saving properties, it turns out that a structure made of spruce 220 mm thick and a brick 600 mm thick will be equally warm. Usually for construction they take 200 mm timber, use 100 mm thick insulation and apply a layer of plaster from 20 mm.

Advantages of timber:

efficiency;
fast construction (built in a few weeks);
simple technology;
environmental Safety;
excellent thermal insulation;
comfortable microclimate;
ease of construction.

If you are choosing what is cheaper to build a house from, then timber is a win-win option. This is profitable, and the technology is simple, and almost any site owner can master it if he already has construction skills.

When building houses from timber, you need to carefully design heating and energy supply systems. The buildings are considered a fire hazard. Wood is also afraid of moisture, so it requires protection from dampness and fungus.

Compare prices per square meter

How and what is the cheapest way to build can be seen in the estimate figures. If the calculations are based on average indicators (soil freezing depth - 1.5 m, groundwater - 2.5 m, sandy loam soil), then we can determine the cost of construction of 1 square meter. Depending on the components, the numbers will be as follows:

frame structure – 875 rubles;
brick – 2330 rubles;
aerated concrete – 2000 rubles;
timber - 1900 rubles.

Review of popular materials - video

Obviously, a frame house will cost the developer the least. When finally deciding on a choice, you need to take into account all the features of the project, the soil, and the site itself. The calculations do not include payment for the services of the construction team. Hired labor is an additional (and considerable!) expense item.

Any construction always involves expenses, and considerable ones at that. But even if your budget is small, you shouldn’t give up trying to get your own home, because you can always build a house inexpensively if you know where and how you can save. However, it is worth understanding that any savings should not be at the expense of the strength, comfort, beauty and durability of the home. In our article we will tell you how to quickly build a house with your own hands and at the same time get by on a minimal budget.

Ways to save

Let's start with the fact that it is, of course, possible to build a house cheaply, but since you and your family will live in it, the quality of the construction should not suffer. Moreover, the completed house should not be:

Too small. The usable area of the building should meet the needs of your family.
Inconvenient. It is necessary to choose a layout option in which all family members will feel comfortable and cozy in such a house. It is equally important to provide for zoning of the house, separating the sleeping (quiet) area from the living room, kitchen and hallway.
A well-built home does not have to be expensive. To build a cheap house, you can use inexpensive but high-quality materials, economical construction technologies and simple installation methods.

To make your home quickly and inexpensively, you can save money in the following ways:

At the very initial stage, you can save on choosing a project. Moreover, we are talking not only about the use of a standard project instead of custom-made designs, but also about economical planning solutions, as well as the selection of durable and inexpensive structures.
To build a house cheaper, you can save on finishing work. That is, you should use the simplest and most inexpensive finishing materials for walls, floors and ceilings, and inexpensive plumbing fixtures. This will not reduce the comfort of living in the house, but the savings are obvious.
It is better to carry out the purchase and delivery of materials yourself, rather than entrusting them to a contractor. This way you can control everything and choose less expensive materials.
It is much cheaper to build your own house than to hire a team of workers. But this option can be implemented if building houses is at least a little familiar to you.

This is not worth saving on

If you decide to build the cheapest house, but want it to be warm and economical, then in no case should you skimp on the following things:

If you entrust the construction process to a team of workers, then you should not skimp on technical supervision. Even if you have at least some knowledge about the construction process and materials, you still will not be able to fully control the quality and correctness of all construction work. And the strength and durability of the entire building depends on this.
Even if you buy a standard house project, it is worth ordering it in relation to your area and climatic conditions. This way you can build an inexpensive house, the design solutions of which will be adapted to your climatic conditions, soil characteristics, and groundwater levels. It would also be useful to perform a thermal engineering calculation of the thickness of the enclosing structures so that the house is warm in winter, and there is also no waste of materials on excessively thick walls and insulation.
If you decide to build an inexpensive house, then you should not skimp on engineering systems and communications, because the comfort of your stay in the house depends on this. Electricity supply, water, sewerage and good heating - all this must be of high quality and work properly for a long time.

Economical housing construction options

To build a house inexpensively, you need to choose the optimal construction technology. Today, several technologies are known that allow you to build a house quickly and inexpensively:

frame-panel housing construction;
frame-panel houses;
construction of a house from timber;
use of aerated concrete blocks.

The construction of prefabricated houses using each of the above technologies has its pros and cons. So that you can choose the best construction option, which will allow you to build a house relatively inexpensively and quickly, it is worth studying the advantages and disadvantages of each technology.

Frame house construction

The construction speed using this technology is the highest. A house can be built even in a few weeks. The resulting structure will be quite warm, durable and weather resistant. The service life of a frame house can reach up to 75 years.

A house can be built cheaply using one of two frame technologies:

Frame and panel construction ranks first in terms of speed of installation. To build a house, ready-made or home-made sandwich panels and a timber frame are used. The construction technology is so simple that the structure can be erected independently.
For the construction of a house frame-panel technology it will take a little longer, but the cost of construction will be cheaper than the previous installation method. In this case, a wooden frame of the house is first erected at the construction site, then it is sheathed with wood sheet material. Thermal insulation material is placed in the gap between the frame posts, then the inside walls are lined with OSB or moisture-resistant plywood. A wind and water barrier must be used in the construction of the walls.

The advantages of the technology include the following:

Thanks to the light weight of the building, you can save on the construction of the foundation and the volume of excavation work. Moreover, the walls themselves are cheaper in cost than building a house made of brick or concrete.
Such a house warms up very quickly and retains heat well. Walls 20 cm thick protect against the cold in winter no worse than a brick wall 0.5 m thick.
Due to the low thermal conductivity of the material, you can significantly save on heating your home in winter.
Such buildings do not shrink, so finishing work and moving into the house can be done immediately after the construction of the box.
Since there are no wet processes during construction, the installation of the house can be carried out even in winter.

Disadvantages of frame technology:

The high tightness of a frame house is its main disadvantage, because for a comfortable stay in the house you will have to equip high-quality supply and exhaust ventilation.
The environmental friendliness of such a building is questionable, because OSB contains synthetic resins, and the polystyrene foam itself, used to insulate the house, cannot be called an environmentally friendly material.
Increased flammability. Moreover, expanded polystyrene releases toxic components during combustion.
The durability and safety of such a house is questionable, because if desired, you can cut a hole in the wall with an ax.

Houses made of aerated concrete

You can quickly build a house from aerated concrete blocks. Building a house frame from this material is much more profitable than building from brick for several reasons:

If you are looking for how to build a house cheaply and quickly yourself, then aerated concrete is exactly the material that will allow you to achieve what you want three times faster than using traditional bricks.
The completed house practically does not shrink, so after installing the windows and doors, you can immediately begin finishing and moving into the home. This is especially important if it is important to you to get your home as quickly as possible.
The low thermal conductivity of the material helps retain heat in the house. As a result, in winter you will be able to save on heating. Moreover, the walls are 1/3 thinner than brick structures and retain heat in the house just as well.
Due to the small specific weight and significant dimensions of one block, a house can be built with your own hands without the use of construction equipment in the shortest possible time.
The porous structure of aerated concrete allows the walls to breathe. Thanks to this, a microclimate favorable for humans is formed in the room.
Aerated blocks provide a flat, smooth surface that does not require additional leveling before finishing.

Important: when building such a house, it is better to use not an ordinary mortar, which will contribute to the formation of “cold bridges,” but a special glue that produces a tight and thin seam.

When deciding what is cheaper to build a house from, it is worth considering the disadvantages of aerated concrete:

Due to its high porosity, the material is very hygroscopic, so it must be carefully protected from moisture with special finishes outside and inside the premises. A damp gas block loses its thermal insulation characteristics.
Aerated concrete walls cannot be left unfinished, so you will not be able to save on finishing materials.
To rest the truss structure and floor slabs on aerated concrete blocks, it is necessary to install a monolithic reinforced belt, and this entails additional costs of money and time.

Timber houses

When choosing what to build a cheaper house from, you should pay attention to profiled and laminated timber. Of course, laminated veneer lumber is not such a cheap material, but profiled kiln-dried products are no worse in performance characteristics and at the same time have an affordable price.

Among the advantages of timber houses, it is worth noting the following points:

High thermal insulation characteristics. A wall made of timber 22 cm thick has the same thermal conductivity as a brick wall 0.6 m thick.
Walls made of profiled and laminated timber look so attractive outside and inside that they do not require any finishing.
Due to the lightness of the material, a shallow, lightweight foundation can be made for the structure.
The construction technology from timber is quite simple, so you can build a house with your own hands.
The building made of wood is distinguished by its environmental friendliness and a special favorable microclimate.
The speed of construction is another plus in favor of this technology.
A house made of timber can be built even in winter.

Among the disadvantages of the technology it is worth mentioning the following:

Wood is susceptible to rot, mold and damage by insects, so periodically you will have to renew the protective antiseptic impregnation.
A house made of wood shrinks, so you won’t be able to move in immediately after the box is built.

Attention: shrinkage of a house made of wood with natural moisture can take from 6 to 12 months. The construction of kiln-dried glued and profiled timber will shrink within 3 months.

Wood is a flammable material, so all elements must be treated with fire retardants.
It is necessary to strictly follow the construction technology and use inter-crown insulation so that the house is warm and comfortable, and the structure itself lasts a long time.

There are more and more people wanting to settle outside the city or in a small town. In megacities it is stuffy, mentally and physically, from the inhaled air and extraneous noise. I would like, if not to move out completely, then to acquire a corner of outdoor recreation. As you know, we do not suffer from excess funds, so the problem arises: how to build a house inexpensively? In a private house you will have to put more effort into housekeeping and maintaining it will cost a little more than paying for utilities for a city apartment of equal size, but a healthy lifestyle is worth it. And if you start at least a small backyard garden with a greenhouse, then, without breaking a sweat, individual housing can be made generally profitable.

Is it cheap and fast?

A private residential building in the budget price segment may well be comfortable, warm, and reliable. And if your hands grow as they should and there is a desire to use them correctly, then you will look respectable, see fig. However, building a house cheaply is not everything. There are already almost 7.5 billion people on Earth and everything is coming. Our “ball” is not rubber, so it would be simply naive to expect that property taxes and land rents will somehow decrease over time.

Consequently, the cheapest house is not necessarily the one whose construction will cost less: when choosing the material for the house (see below), design, etc., you must keep in mind further operating costs. Especially if the construction is carried out on credit, you need to start repaying it immediately. That is, the period from the start of construction to the readiness of the house for occupancy is of great importance: while construction is going on, there will be no time to find additional income, but you have to pay for your previous housing and take out the next loan payment.

The conclusion is obvious: Having planned to build, first of all we figure out how long we will spend until the house is completely ready? This point can be significant even for a fairly experienced builder, if you need to decide whether to build it yourself or entrust some of the construction stages to a conscientious contractor with established production and well-equipped technical equipment. Savings from a reasonable distribution of cash and/or available funds according to the stages of home readiness (see below) for contract and manual work can significantly exceed all other possible items and will certainly make the choice of the main structural material of the house and its foundation - the foundation much easier.

What is a budget house?

We will consider a budget house to be a house whose construction until it is fully ready (see below), but without heating, cooking and plumbing fixtures, will cost 10,000 rubles. for 1 sq. m of total area or less. A house with 100 total square meters in this case will cost up to 1 million rubles. or ok. $18,000 at today's exchange rate (2019). In certain local conditions, it is possible to reduce the cost of construction to 5500-6000 rubles. per square; if you build completely with your own hands, slowly and only for your own; if you have inexpensive previous housing, then it is possible to meet the cost of 4,500 rubles. per square meter, but cheaper is already a fiction, no matter who promises anything. Good contractors for 3000 rubles. You can still find it for a square meter, but it’s turnkey, and it will take at least the same amount to bring the house to full readiness.

Note: The figures given, as well as those further in this article, are averages for the Russian Federation. Here it is appropriate to recall an old joke, which is now reinterpreted in its own way in almost all countries: a nobleman gorges himself on meat, a peasant only has enough for bread. On average, they eat a meat pie for two. So, finally, look at the prices at home - it is impossible to give a complete overview of them in one publication, and the market situation may change the next day after its publication. Here we primarily provide information on how to use technical and organizational measures to build a house cheaply and quickly without compromising its quality.

About the number of floors

The problem of taxes and land rent can be largely solved, firstly, by building a 2-story house, which will save on land payments. Some prejudice against upper floors in individual houses remains from Soviet times, when private construction of more than 1.5 floors was strictly prohibited. There is no point in building a budget 3-story building anymore: the staircase will have to give up too much usable space, and strengthen the walls of the 1st floor, which will greatly complicate, lengthen and increase the cost of the work. And in a 2-story building, the staircase to the 2nd, sleeping floor can lead directly from the living room or hallway/hall.

Secondly, you can also significantly reduce your property tax yourself on a completely legal basis by creating a sleeping mezzanine in the form of a Siberian attic. The diagram of the pediment of a frame residential building with a Siberian attic is given in Fig. on right. Not everyone likes houses with Siberian attics because of the faceted roof, but in fact they are economical and convenient, and in budget construction there is no time for exquisite architectural solutions. For a budget frame house (see below), the Siberian attic is practically the only opportunity to increase its actual number of storeys.

Note: for a house made of foam or gas blocks, there is another non-trivial opportunity to increase its living space without a significant increase in taxation and land rent, see below. This factor may be decisive in regions where 2 or more storey individual construction is prohibited due to natural conditions, for example. in seismically dangerous places or on permafrost.

Stages of home readiness

The stage (stage) of readiness of a residential building for occupancy means a completely completed cycle/complex of construction work, after which the building can wait for the start of the next stage for some definite or indefinitely long time. A technological break between stages is most often necessary for shrinkage of structures from the previous cycle, but sometimes (see below) is unacceptable or possible only in the warm, dry season. Work at the next stage of construction can be carried out either independently or under contract from the same or another contractor, regardless of how the previous one was completed. The stages of bringing a budget residential building to completion are as follows:

Zero, or zero cycle - the foundation has been laid, has gained at least 75% strength and has given the calculated settlement. This is the most critical, complex and time-consuming stage, at which it most often turns out to be advisable to hire an experienced contracting team. Technical break before next. stage is necessary in any case.
Box - there are walls with openings for windows and doors, covered with a roof. Load-bearing partitions were also erected inside. Communications have been established, but are currently muted. A mandatory technical break is required only for heavy (brick, stone, concrete) buildings due to their own shrinkage. In budget construction, the box stage as such is most often not highlighted, and for a house made of SIP panels it is completely excluded.
Turnkey - the doors and windows are in place, the frame is stable. The house can winter up to several times. It is possible that the floors have also been laid, but the communications are not connected, there is no interior finishing or insulation. The favorite bait of overly cunning contractors is “cheapness,” so at this stage you need to especially carefully calculate how much it will cost you to eat while performing the remaining work, as well as their cost, and compare it with the price of bringing the house to full readiness by hired workers.
Complete - communications are connected, stationary household appliances are in place and ready for use. Interior finishing has been done, but exterior finishing and insulation may not be provided for by the terms of the contract (see below). The kitchen, bathroom and boiler/furnace room are fully equipped, you can cook, wash, start the boiler and heat. All that remains is to bring and arrange furniture, lay carpets, hang curtains, paintings, arrange trinkets, etc., so that you can live in the house without bothering you.

About contractors

A bona fide contractor, firstly, must be properly registered legally - as an individual entrepreneur, LLC, etc.; Accordingly, he must immediately, without a reminder, present to the customer a package of documents confirming state registration. No special licenses are required for ordinary construction work; professional certificates (“credentials”; now cards) of performing workers are sufficient.

Secondly, the customer must be offered a contract on paper. An offer (public standard) or individual, it doesn’t matter, the main thing is that the rights and obligations of the parties must be clearly stated there. Thirdly, the warranty period for this stage (stages) of work and the conditions for compliance with warranty obligations must also be indicated there.

Good contractors on a budget offer a 2-5 year guarantee. Less is not possible due to technical interruptions. In good conscience, it’s also impossible to do more, because... local operating conditions of the building may change for the worse. They can be taken into account (“incorporated” constructively) by using more expensive materials and technical solutions, but this will no longer be budget construction.

About extensions

In popular sources and prospectuses of contractors, you can come across recommendations in your mind, accompanied by preliminary (without reference to location) projects: they say, first we build a 6x9 house very cheaply, and then, as we accumulate funds, add more rooms to it (the original layout allows), until children and grandchildren will not be left with a huge mansion. This approach is fundamentally wrong.

Anyone more or less familiar with construction knows that adding a residential building to an existing one is a complex and not always feasible technical task. First, the old foundation has already completely settled, and the new one will give the calculated shrinkage only under the weight of the supported structure. That is, the extension cannot be immediately tightly attached to the main structure; you need to wait to see if cracks appear and seal them. In the common RuNet, it is difficult to find publicly available information about extensions to existing buildings; You can look for a small but sensible book by Dr. tech. sciences Ferenc Sägi “How to avoid mistakes when building an individual house.” There was a Russian translation, M., Stroyizdat, 1987. It’s funny - this little book then cost 90 kopecks. Soviet

Third, even if the house is made of rubber on a gimbal, it is unacceptable to allow it to sway and sway in time with the seasonal movements of the soil from year to year. Under a house built on a correctly chosen and laid foundation, a kind of virtual (invisible) warm “pit” is formed, in which it is never below zero; the blind area around the house expands it to the sides. An extension to a house can disrupt the established thermal balance of the load-bearing soil, which can lead to accidents in the main building. Therefore, conscientious contractors set one of the guarantee conditions - no extensions not agreed with them.

Garage in the house, or the role of layout

One of the ways to get an inexpensive house for permanent residence relative to available living space is to build a house on a common foundation with a garage. Perhaps this is only for houses made of non-combustible materials; regarding the budget ones - foam and gas blocks, otherwise the firefighters will not allow the project to be approved or the squatter construction to be legalized.

However, simply attaching a garage to the house, as on the left in the figure, does not make much sense; it will do almost nothing to save costs on the construction and further maintenance of the house. It is necessary to introduce a garage of a standard size of 4X7 m inside into the structural scheme of the house, taking into account the following:

there is no need to put a garage on a plinth, because then you will have to build an access ramp to it;
the ceiling height in the garage is permissible 2.5 and even 2.2 m, less is simply not possible;
It is highly desirable to have an entrance to the garage from the house, but then it is only permissible from the hallway/hall and should have a steam-tight fire-resistant door.

In this case, the garage floor slab will serve as the floor of a one and a half floor, less taxable, but quite spacious. For an example of this type of layout, see the right in Fig. The space utilization rate there is not so great, but there are a lot of amenities:

A one-and-a-half superstructure is not an extension; no special measures are required for its construction on an existing, established building, i.e. You can build on the garage later, as your family grows.
The staircase to the one and a half floor is low and fits into the existing hall without any difficulties.
Heating a garage can also be done without problems, and economically, because... it is slightly heated from the hall and kitchen.
In the lobby of the 1.5th floor, a pressure tank of an autonomous water supply is perfectly located under the ceiling; You can also move the dressing room there, increasing the area of the living room and bathroom.
Since the bedroom floor is heated to some extent, in turn, from the garage, it can be done with a French window even in a fairly harsh climate.
One wall of the basement is shared with the garage. Communications are, of course, in the basement. That is, a sewer riser can go from the bedroom to the basement, to which a washbasin, shower and even a jacuzzi are connected upstairs.
Access to the basement is also internal, through a hatch in the hall or from the garage.

Agree, a house for 4-5 people with a separate dressing room, a living room of more than 25 square meters and a French bedroom, which also has a hydromassage - this is really cool. And the total area on earth is much less than 180 square meters. m, from which increased taxation begins. Even if in your state the basic area norm is 150-160 square meters. m, the tax authorities will still have to register the house as budget.

Foundation and soil

When choosing the foundation of a house or checking the option proposed by a contractor, you need to take into account the geology and soil mechanics of the construction site. The soil mobility factors that most affect the cost of a house foundation are:

Load bearing capacity.
Degree of heaving (amount of frost heaving).
Standard freezing depth (NFD).
The highest height of groundwater.

Load-bearing capacity and heaving

Massive, low-cost development is possible on non-heaving and slightly heaving soil with a bearing capacity of up to 0.7 kg/sq.m. cm, but only based on the results of thorough preliminary surveys over the entire building area with a decent margin at the edges. An experienced contractor can build a separate reliable house on medium-heaving soil with a bearing capacity of 1.1-1.3 kg/sq. m. Self-construction can be done on soil up to medium heaving with a normal load-bearing capacity of 1.7 kg/sq. cm or higher. On heavily and excessively heaving soils, budget development is impossible with rare exceptions (see below).

Note: The bearing capacity of the soil directly at the building site can be determined on your own without complex instruments, but how is a separate article.

Oil and gas reserves and groundwater

Some potentially budget houses cannot be built on a shallow foundation (see below). The heel (sole) of the foundation must be buried below the NGP by at least 0.6 m on medium heaving soils and by at least 0.3 m on slightly heaving and non-heaving soils. The base of the foundation should not reach the groundwater level by 0.5 m or more. Typical limiting cases for budgetary development: dry sandy loam (slightly heaving), NGL 1.5 m, standing water 2.5 m; foundation depth 1.8-1.9 m. Or - moderately moistened podzol (medium heaving), NGP 1.2 m, standing water 3.5 m. Foundation depth from 1.8 m.

What if there is a fire?

The question of what would be cheaper to build a house in a given location must be decided taking into account the fire danger. Hoping for the best and preparing for the worst is a universal principle, and the harmfulness (or compliance) of firefighters here ranks fifth to seventh after their own safety. Regarding possible damage from fire, the properties of materials for budget construction are divided as follows. way:

Fire safety (this is not the opposite of fire hazard) - how difficult it is to set fire to a given material and whether it can burn outside the source of fire. In fact, is it possible to extinguish a timely detected fire using improvised means without significant damage to the structure of the building.
Fire resistance - how long a material can resist fire without losing mechanical properties to the point of collapse of the structure and/or without emitting toxic gases. In fact, how much time do you have, if extinguishing on your own is impossible, to evacuate and remove property.
Fire resistance - how much, after being in a fire for at least 20 minutes, the material restores its properties. In fact, suddenly the frame of the house is completely burnt out, is it possible to refurbish it as housing?

Materials

Now it's time to choose material for a home in the budget price category. Houses made of brick, corrugated timber and chamber-dried logs are, unfortunately, excluded from the budget category. They have a lot of advantages and relatively few disadvantages, but you can move into a brick house no earlier than the 3rd year from the beginning of zero: a year to settle the expensive buried foundation, a year to shrink the frame, and only then can it be delivered turnkey, plus time for the interior finishing. In addition, at current energy prices, a brick house requires expensive external insulation.

Note: houses made of wood concrete (fibre-reinforced concrete), reeds, straw blocks, etc. are not considered, because their reliability has not yet been confirmed by time and there is no established construction industry for their construction.

Chambered corrugated timber and logs, impregnated with harmless antiseptics and fire retardants, are expensive in themselves and require solid carpentry experience to build a residential building. The houses from them are considered prestigious; as a result, the cost of work is high. Also, prefabricated panel houses do not fit into the budget category: they are erected very quickly, but their construction requires qualified personnel and a high degree of mechanization of work. Given these circumstances, the choice of widely available materials is quite limited. To compare the cost of a fully finished house per unit (100%), you can take a frame house made of non-laminated veneer lumber and conventional air-dried boards. The result looks like this. way:

Country wooden frame house made only from boards – 0.6-0.8
House on a thin-walled steel frame - 0.85-0.9.
Residential wooden frame house made of timber and boards – 1.00.
A log house made from ordinary air-dried timber is 1.4-1.8.
House made of SIP panels – 1.9-2.00.
House made of foam or gas blocks - 2.00-2.15.

Frames and timber

The general advantages of and are low sensitivity to ground movements, they “play” with it. Therefore, it is possible to build such houses on a shallow columnar foundation, which is the simplest and cheapest. It is also possible to build a residential frame/timber budget house on highly heaving, weak soil by laying a TISE pile-strip foundation under it. A 2-story frame house cannot be built without a detailed design, but in budget construction this problem is solved by the Siberian attic, see above.

A log house is good because in regions with fairly mild winters it does not require additional insulation: a 200 mm thick timber is equivalent to 600 mm brickwork. Internal cladding in both log and frame houses can be made of plywood or non-combustible materials: chipboard, OSB. Exterior sheathing made of OSB (oriented strand board, OSB, Oriented Strand Board) will give the house additional rigidity in the wind and resistance to weather conditions. The plaster inside is dry here and there, with plasterboard (gypsum plasterboard) on shingles (15-20) x 40 mm; It is impossible to sheathe gypsum boards without sheathing even on completely flat walls.

The design of a timber frame house is well known (on the left in the figure). Without impregnation with biocides and fire retardants (which can be done independently), all the fire-fighting qualities of such houses are low, and fire resistance is generally zero; they burn completely. Fire safety and fire resistance can be increased to acceptable (10-15 minutes for evacuation) if the insulation is made with ecowool (cellulose insulation). It will cost approx. 25% more expensive than mineral wool, but when heated, ecowool releases a lot of water vapor that retards fire. In addition, ecowool prevents wood from rotting: it contains an antiseptic - borax. Ecowool that gets wet does not fall off and retains 75% of its insulating qualities, while when it dries, it completely restores them. Insulation with ecowool is possible manually without experience; no fasteners or sheathing are required. Hydro- and vapor barriers for ecowool need inexpensive, simplified ones. The estimated service life of an all-wood frame or timber house with mineral wool insulation and without external cladding is 25-40 years, depending on the quality of the wood and local conditions; the same with ecowool insulation - up to 70 years or more.

Inexpensive dacha house with frame construction measuring approx. up to 4x6 m it is possible to build from just boards with your own hands without experience, just like air drying lumber. But if the total area of the house exceeds approx. 25 sq. m and/or the number of openings in it is more than 3-4, it must be built by an experienced carpenter. In this case, the frame of the house is needed with the main load-bearing elements made of timber from 150x150 mm.

First, it is impossible to place window and door openings in a house, any size of which exceeds 6 m, at random. Computer programs are of little help here: you need to enter initial data into them and choose a calculation method based on your own experience. There is no computer construction program that would “do everything itself” yet.

Secondly, a residential frame/timber house must have at least two load-bearing partitions. Their location can be taken from a standard project, but a beginner is unlikely to be able to correctly connect the partitions to the external walls; especially if the house is made of timber.

In a log house built without experience, the problem of caulking may arise. Only a very experienced specialist can reject timber that is highly susceptible to warping when purchasing. If a seasonal country house splits, the problem is not great; the cracks can simply be plugged. In a large residential building with cracked walls, it will be possible to survive 1-2 winters, spending a lot on heating, and then it will quickly fall into disrepair due to weakening of the structure.

Houses on a thin-walled steel frame (on the right in the figure) may be somewhat cheaper than solid wood ones, but this is an apparent cheapness. The main thing is that the fire resistance of houses on a thin-walled steel frame is zero: in a fire, the frame instantly (in less than 3 minutes) loses strength, and the house collapses. In addition, it is very difficult to take into account the fatigue of elements of a complex thin-walled structure, and cases of sudden collapse of such houses for no apparent reason are not isolated in the world. In general, the service life of 100-120 years declared by manufacturers is not maintained, therefore, in a number of countries, only non-residential small architectural forms are allowed to be built on a steel frame.

SIP

A structural insulated panel (SIP, Structural Insulated Panel) is a cake made from slabs of plywood or OSB with extruded polystyrene foam (EPS) or polyurethane foam between them. SIPs made from OSB and polyurethane foam are suitable for residential construction; SIPs filled with EPS fill emit huge amounts of toxic gases in a fire. The main advantages of SIP houses are, firstly, the speed and ease of construction, see video:

Video: example of building a house from SIP

The time it takes to bring a SIP house to move-in readiness is further reduced by the fact that they can be built on a shallow foundation such as a Swedish or Finnish slab. These foundations are cheap, their “ripening” period is within the warm season, so a slab foundation for a house made of SIP can be ordered/laid with a reserve for future extensions or for a large veranda, see fig. on right. The exterior decoration of a house made of SIP can be anything and it will look more than decent, see there.

Equally important is that SIPs themselves are an excellent heat insulator and a house made from them does not require additional insulation. The disadvantages of SIP houses include the need for a ventilation system, because the walls don't breathe. In Russian conditions, it is significant that houses made of SIP are unsuitable for stove heating; the filler of the panels heats up and gradually emits toxic substances. Manufacturers also claim that the service life of SIPs is short, 40-70 years. Finally, the SIP box cannot be left over the winter; the house must be built at least turnkey during the warm season.

Foam blocks and gas blocks

You can very inexpensively, doing construction on weekends, put it together with glue from spring to late summer, without being a mason at all; She will be able to overwinter once under a roof and wrapped in film. There is no need for a technical break to shrink the box.

The main enemies of a foam/gas block house are, firstly, moisture. There are plenty of pores for condensation in its walls, and it is difficult and time-consuming to dry a damp house made of foam/gas blocks. Therefore, in this case, complete (and expensive) vapor barrier is needed both outside and inside (there are household fumes and from breathing) and good external thermal insulation that “prevents” the dew point from entering the walls. As a consequence, the statement that a house made of foam/gas blocks breathes is, to put it mildly, just talk. Who lived in such a house is unlikely to argue.

In fact, the only way to 100% prevent dampness in a house made of foam/gas blocks in any conditions is a ventilated façade. Which works great, but is by no means relevant to budget construction. Comfortable and even luxury houses from foam/gas blocks can and are being built, but in warm regions and not in the budget segment.

The second enemy of a foam/gas block house is the natural wear and tear of concrete. Let's say it chips only 0.01 mm per year. In this case, it will take 300-400 years before the reinforcement in the concrete monolith is exposed, which can be ignored in the calculations of conventional buildings. But the partitions between the pores of foam/gas blocks are about 1 mm, and their safety margin of 100% will be exhausted in 20-25 years, because destruction comes from 2 sides. Therefore, the estimated service life of a house made of foam blocks or gas blocks of up to 60-100 years is clearly exaggerated. Confirmation of this is the massive (and unsuccessful) sale of aerated concrete villas in Spain, not even by cost minus depreciation, but by how much they will take. When we were building, we forgot about the microwear of the blocks, and now what to do with all this?

Summing up

So, taking into account all the accompanying circumstances, we have few options for truly budget-friendly construction:

The main one is an all-wood frame house, insulated with ecowool.

Of course, to this difficult task - building your own house, as they say, “from scratch”, It is necessary to involve specialists at all stages of construction.

But the question is that there are almost always several options for solving a given construction problem. The choice of options is always yours.

When entrusting work to reputable contractors, and even more so when hiring a team of construction workers, it is necessary to constantly monitor the correctness of the chosen design solutions and technologies, the quality of the work and the materials used.

Very often, family members carry out construction work themselves, choosing materials, designs and technologies.

Knowing how is a prerequisite successful completion of building a house for yourself.

Building a house should begin with gaining knowledge:

Read books, magazines, websites and forums, watch video clips on the construction of private country houses and cottages. Necessarily Find local magazines, websites and forums about this theme.
Exhibition centers in large cities and regional centers regularly hold regional exhibitions on the topic of low-rise construction. Be sure to visit such exhibitions. There You will find information about construction technologies, materials, services and prices available in the region, and also look and touch different options for technologies, designs and materials.
Chat with friends, acquaintances, make new acquaintances at exhibitions and forums - get out of them their experience of building a private house.

Already at this stage, collect information and feedback on the work of local organizations, private entrepreneurs, teams and individual workers specializing in performing certain work on the construction of low-rise buildings.

First of all, choose a designer, to whom you will entrust adjustments and linking of the house design to the conditions of the construction site.

Building a house is a complex, multifaceted activity. Even if you read a lot of materials on the topic of construction, then Without experience, you still won’t be able to fully control the quality and understand the logic construction work.

A professional technical supervision engineer will help you:

Select a project and materials for building a house.
Select a contractor and draw up an agreement with him.
Check estimates for the scope of work, materials, costs and prices.
Monitor the execution of work for compliance with SNiP and established practice.
Monitor the purchase and consumption of materials by the contractor.
Accept the implementation of hidden stages of construction work, check the work completion certificates drawn up by the contractor.
Be your representative at the construction site, defend your interests before the contractor.

Search and selection of construction site

If a building site already exists, proceed to the next step. If not, start searching for a site, keeping in mind first of all the criteria of the locality, in which you would like to live.

If possible, choose an area with a slight slope for water drainage, not flooded, with a permeable top layer of soil, with a low groundwater level.

Try to purchase a plot of land that has, at a minimum, a road suitable for truck traffic and an electrical network. Such a site usually costs more, but the presence of communications will significantly reduce further construction costs and speed up the start of construction.

If there are no such communications near the site, then from the village administration you will receive information about the timing of their construction and how much will it cost you? Look at the documents confirming the reality of the communications construction plans. For example, the existence of an agreement between the village administration and the grid organization on the technological connection of the village to the electrical network.

Find out how the administration’s obligations to you for the construction of roads and other central communications will be formalized. This could be your membership in a cooperative, partnership, non-profit partnership or entering into an agreement. Assess the risk - buy a plot and wait for communications for many years! This is not uncommon in Russian practice.

Find out the results from the seller of the plot or the village administration radiation monitoring of the intensity of release from soil

Home design

Conditions for connecting a house to networks

Immediately after purchase and receiving registration documents for the site, issue a permit for

If there are other central networks in the village - water supply, sewerage, gas pipelines, obtain permission to connect to these networks. The owners of the networks will conclude an agreement with you and issue technical conditions for connecting your home to the network, requirements that must be taken into account in the project.

Rules for site development from the village administration

At the village administration it is necessary to obtain an architectural and planning assignment for the design and construction of a house. Or it may be another document containing the necessary information and requirements for construction on the site (construction rules, etc.). Look at the village development project.

You need to know the layout of the street near the site construction - boundaries of the roadway, sidewalk, lawn, location of central communications for electricity, water, gas supply and sewerage, street lighting.

Administration documents usually contain requirements for the placement of buildings on the site. It is necessary to place a house, a garage, outbuildings, a septic tank, and a well (borehole) on the site not the way you want, but according to the standard site plan.

All developers in the village must adhere to a certain plan so that, for example, the septic tank on your site does not end up next to your neighbor’s well, fire breaks are maintained between buildings on neighboring sites, etc.

To make the streets of the village look attractive, establish requirements for the number of storeys of houses, for the appearance of facades and fences, for the height of plantings on street lawns and near the house. The facades of all houses must be located on the same line.

Be sure to find out how the village organizes (or will organize) the collection from sites and drainage of surface water from the territory of the village. The construction of roads, fences on strip foundations and other construction activities block natural routes for water flow. The areas will gradually become swampy or periodically flooded. Moreover, visible traces of waterlogging may appear only after several years.

To drain surface water, underground storm sewer pipes are usually laid or surface gutters (ditches) are installed along streets or along property boundaries.

In Russian practice, village administrations often do not plan, and site developers do not require, the installation of organized storm drainage in the village. As a result, each owner tries to solve this problem on his own and is not always successful.

Your plans for the placement of buildings, the construction of a fence and the construction of paths for water drainage coordinate with the owners of neighboring plots.

The requirements of the village administration must be taken into account, otherwise you will not receive permission to build a house.

Buy a ready-made house project

Be sure to select and buy a ready-made house project. The house design is selected based on certain requirements -

Before purchasing a project, show it to a specialist (architect, builder with experience), listen to his opinion about the project. If possible, try to visit a house that was built according to the chosen project.

Pay attention to the technologies used in the construction of a house according to the chosen project. Is the construction technology suitable for you and how does it fit in with the planned method of building the house? Are you going to carry out the work yourself or will you use the services of private teams or a reputable construction company for turnkey construction.

Make sure that the purchased project is sufficiently detailed, then during construction there will be no additional difficulties.

When purchasing, check the climatic conditions for which the project was made - outside air temperature, snow and wind loads.

Linking a house project

Outsource to local designers tie (adjust) the project to the conditions of the construction site.

Be sure to tie the foundations to the ground conditions of the construction site. and the design of the house will provide the necessary minimum costs for its construction.

Major changes in the project: replacing the material and arrangement of walls, the size of openings in the walls, installing additional windows, replacing floors, must also be entrusted to specialist designers.

Be sure to think about what engineering systems will your house be equipped with?.

In addition to traditional and mandatory engineering systems - power supply, heating, water supply, sewerage, ventilation, decide on the need to have in the house and on the site:

Air conditioning system.
Security and fire alarms.
Intercom.
Video surveillance system.
Devices for receiving television and Internet signals.
Central vacuum cleaner.
External lighting of the site and access to the site.
Plumbing on site.
Backup electric generator.
Control system for entrance gates to the site.
Protecting your home from lightning strikes.

The design of the systems must be provided for in the house design. Often the solution to this issue is left for later, and this inevitably leads to alterations; it is necessary to adapt options that are not the most effective, convenient and cheap.

Make all changes to the project before construction begins. This will allow you to avoid rash decisions and additional costs during the construction process.

The designer will develop a drawing - a plan for the location of the house and other structures on the site, taking into account your wishes, the requirements of the village administration and SNiP.

On the site plan it is necessary to select in advance and indicate on the drawing the location of not only the house, but also the well or well, outbuildings, driveways, for recreation and parking, as well as the route of water supply pipes, sewerage and the place where electrical wires enter the house.

A drawing with a site development plan will be required for obtaining permission to build a house.

At the design stage, if there are already neighbors’ houses nearby, try to find out their experience:

what kind of sewage system they have and where;
who has what foundation;
what is better, a well or a well, how deep and where they are located;
what is the level of groundwater in the area in spring and autumn;
what soils lie and at what depth.

This information will help you, together with the designer, choose the optimal solutions for the location and design of water supply systems, as well as the design of the future home.

Vertical layout of the site

I advise develop a drawing. The plan will indicate the vertical marks (height location) of all buildings and structures on the site. In addition, the slopes of the ground surface, paths and driveways on the site will be specified, which will make it possible to plan in advance and direct the surface water flow in the desired direction.

The plan also identifies places on the site where it is necessary to cut or, conversely, add soil, and how much soil should be moved from where and where. For example, you must know in advance what to do with the soil remaining after the construction of a foundation, well, septic tank or sewage treatment plant.

Lack of a vertical layout plan usually leads to problems that need to be addressed. additional costs will be required. For example, a house or other structures end up being too deep into the ground and problems arise with water drainage.

Soil, which with rational planning could have been left on the site, has to be removed, or vice versa, it suddenly turns out that there is not enough soil, etc.

Project, estimate - why are they needed?

A project is a plan of what and how to do, how much and what materials need to be used for this. Our grandfathers cut down huts and built huts with a project in mind.

A modern house is a much more complex object, which uses a large number of different materials and technologies, and is saturated with engineering communications. An object that must comply with numerous rules and regulations.

An attempt to build a modern house according to a “project in my head” will inevitably lead to alterations, a decrease in quality and increased construction costs.

Based on the project, an estimate is made - an estimate that determines the cost of materials, machinery and labor required to complete the work. Estimates are made for individual stages of construction, for example, building a foundation, laying walls, installing windows, and for the facility in general.

Estimate for installation of heated floors - example. All work is scheduled (the top line is for reference). You clearly see what and how much you are paying for.

An estimate is a plan for your construction costs.

The project and estimate should form the basis of the contract contract between the customer and the construction contractor. If you have these documents each party clearly knows what needs to be done and how much to pay for it.

As a rule, work on a construction site begins only after the following entry appears on each sheet of the project: “For work”, under which will be your signature, and the signature of the contractor - foreman, foreman or director of the construction company, certified by a seal.

What happens if the developer tries to build a relationship with the contractor without a project and estimate?

Without project and estimate

What happens if the developer tries to build a relationship with the contractor without a project and estimate.

It is good if the mutual understanding with the contractor reached at the start of the project is maintained until its completion. But what to do if at some point the desired understanding disappeared, or perhaps developed into rejection?

Very often in this case the case goes to court, and the construction company that started and carried out the construction of a house without a project will most likely lose this court. Its only salvation is if you sign the following phrase in the contract: “The customer insists that the house will be built without a design, and assumes all responsibility, including negative consequences.” I very much doubt that you will agree to sign such an agreement. Yes, and conscientious a responsible contractor will not agree to work without a project.

But it’s quite the opposite with small offices and private teams. They, unlike serious companies, will be happy to build without a project, because they understand that without a project and estimates, they can build as they want, as quickly and easily as possible.

And most importantly, You will always have to pay them extra for everything, because you will constantly hear from them the phrase: “We didn’t agree on this, we need to pay extra!”

And later, when you realize that there is a budget overrun and they didn't build you what you wanted, you will hear in response: “E khazyaIn, you yourself hatEl, and so they did it...”.

It will be useless to sue them, and what’s the point - time is wasted, and alterations will cost even more.

So, if you have a lot of money and time, there is an opportunity to “live” at a construction site in order to manage the process that you have in your head, then construction without drawings, estimates and projects is for you.

Permission to build a house

The next stage of building a house is the procedure for obtaining a building permit. It is taken from the administration of the locality in which the site is located.

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