5 Top Tips to reduce building costs
There’s no avoiding it, building costs are astronomical right now. Tradespeople are in high demand so (lucky for them!) they can cherry pick the easiest/biggest/most lucrative jobs. They don’t have the time to waste on providing itemised quotes, and because they are in such high demand, they no longer need to do this to secure work. This is a problem for customers as it makes it hard to budget or to know if you’re getting good value for money.
On top of this, materials are in short supply and due to a combination of factors, the cost of basic building materials such as timber have shot up in the past 12 months. Not only is your project subject to delay from labour and material shortages, but it might cost more by the time these are available! So what can you do about it? Here are my 5 top tips:
DIY: invest in some basic tools and equipment and do as much as you can yourself. Go on a course or learn a skill (where safe to do so!) from YouTube videos. Where you do need a professional, get the job started (such as pulling the carpets up or stripping the wallpaper) or do the finishing off (such as painting) yourself to keep costs down.
Source building materials yourself: as tradespeople are so busy that they don’t have time to shop around for the best deal. I’ve been caught out having been billed for plaster double what it cost in B&Q, because it came from a small local supplier who my builder was able to collect from on the day of my works. I don’t blame him for this, but I could have saved money by taking this task on myself! You’ll need to ask your tradesperson what they need if you’re not sure, but this will save them time so they are usually happy to provide a shopping list! Whilst I would always recommend shopping local if you can, it’s important to recognise that this is a privilege that not everyone can afford, so don’t feel guilty about buying from a big shop if that’s what your budget dictates.
Use community groups to find trades: reducing the size of the job saves you money but makes it harder to find someone to take on the work, and if you can’t get an itemised quote, you really need to have a tradesperson you trust! That can be hard if you don’t know your neighbours or have just moved to an area. Join your local Facebook community group, ask in your local café or knock on the door of a recently renovated house to get those recommendations. Sometimes people who have been working in the trade for a long time are happy to take on smaller jobs as they work towards retirement, and you can bet they know their stuff!
Shop savvy: the product you see (kitchen, bathroom suite, flooring) is likely to be the smaller portion of your budget compared with labour. This is where the wiggle room is. Shop on eBay, Builder’s Bay and Facebook marketplace for overstock. There are a lot of brand new products available that people are selling at a discount because they are unable to return them to the shop. Ask your local carpet fitter to see their offcuts – you’ll be surprised the sizes available and a fraction of the cost of ordering from the books. Companies such as The Used Kitchen Company sell ex-display kitchens, and you can reserve ex-display items for a discount in most furniture shops.
Use your existing space better: I’ve seen a lot of open-plan rear extensions in homes where the front room no longer gets used – what a (costly) waste! Book a Spatial Planning Consultation to see how you can make better use of your existing space before spending out on an expensive, messy and time-consuming extension. A little internal building works could make all the difference by improving how you can live in your home, and saving tens of thousands of pounds!