Construct a house on a monthly salary of sh1m
Building the home of your dreams means you'll get to mold the project from beginning to end. But with this also comes the potential for unexpected expenses and going over the budget.
By Umar Nsubuga
Building the home of your dreams means you'll get to mold the project from beginning to end. But with this also comes the potential for unexpected expenses and going over the budget.
Construction is looked at as an expensive venture generally. A lot of people who would like to build their own home are many times deterred because they think that they are earning very little salaries.
In general, construction of a house from low earnings is difficult but is achievable. A lot of discipline is required to save money and to hire the right people to do the work.
Abdu-Wahab Nyanzi an architect with JR Consultants says, if a client can save sh200,000 per month as a minimum, the client can build his or her own home slowly and live comfortably without the hustle of paying rent.
With such a salary it is better to build a two bedroom unit with a lounge, dining room, shared bathroom and a kitchen.
The estimated cost might be sh50m to completion if the client follows the cost management proposals.
How you can achieve
Taking a loan where the repayment instalments are equal to the savings you have accumulated such that you don’t take a very long time, while building.
A loan helps the client get all the money in bulk to push the project to completion in the shortest time possible, says Nyanzi.
The second option is to hold the monthly savings on an account or in safe place till you accumulate enough to build. Under this arrangement, the best thing is to breakdown the project into phases.
Procurement of materials, foundation, walling to window, walling to ring beam, ring beam, walling after ring beam, procurement of roofing timber, procurement of roofing sheets, plastering and then windows, among others
Nyanzi says, once the project is broken down into these small manageable units, the client can start saving for each one of them individually without worrying about the whole project.
Every person would like to build a house at the lowest cost. Most of them are unfortunately not willing to reduce cost by following advice of architects.
“Most clients want to achieve this by asking the builder to reduce his fees as if the builder is operating with super normal profits. Our local builders (masons) working on most individual houses operate with very little margins and so can only bring down the cost of construction by compromising on the quality of construction,” he says.
Therefore, the practice of cost reduction and management starts right from the time of discussing your project with an architect.
How you can achieve your dream house at a reasonable cost;
Nyanzi says a professional plan of the house with maximum utilisation of space and with considerations of structural engineering to reduce structural cost is the major cost reduction decision that architects make.
The architect will point out most of the construction cost reduction methods as listed below and more depending on the clients’ need.
Proper supervision
The site should be supervised by a qualified architect right from foundation to completion. This will help avoid errors that might lead to demolitions, re-work, and wrong interpretation of drawings and loss of time due to delays. During such supervision, the architect might come up with some more cost saving ideas.
Christine Nankiinga a business woman in Mukono attests to what Nyanzi is explaining when she relates how her walls had to be broken down because the local mason she had hired constructed them in a crooked way.
“When my husband took over the construction it was at window level he hired an architect to look at the work and the architect recommended that all the inside walls were brought down because they were crooked. We incurred such a huge financial loss constructing the walls from scratch,” she says. The second problem Nankiinga says her plan was misinterpreted by the mason. He built some rooms larger than others and squeezed the sitting room and dining because he did not understand the plan ( lift-out). “The builder left out the garage even when it was clearly provided for on the plan,” she says.
Use of salvaged materials
This option can help reduce the cost of construction significantly. Materials like bricks, windows, doors, vents and roofing timber can be salvaged from sites that are being demolished and re-used.
It should be noted that many buildings are demolished when a lot of the above installation are in very good condition or need a little repair.
Participating in the construction
Nyanzi says Taking part in the construction to do some of the not very technical work can help you to save expenses on labor.
Work like digging the foundation, helping the brick layers, mixing mortar and painting can be done by you without putting the project at risk.
Some people, who have succeeded with this method they invite friends over the weekend, prepare food and drinks and they take part in the build activities.
That way the client gets free labour while his friends get a day out, free food and drinks.
Use local materials as much as possible
Use of materials that are readily available in the locality of your site can go a long way in saving you money. Materials like sand, bricks, timber and gravel should be sourced from the nearest source to the site.
Use of unique materials that have to be sourced long distances from the site might cause the client to incur more in transportation and duties, Nyanzi says.
Occupy the house as soon as it has a roof and is weather proof. “Whereas this might contravene the regulations of public health and safety, the client might find this a cost saving option in its own right” Nyanzi narrates.
By occupying the house at this stage, you save on rent which you can spend on fixing the fine installations like power, water floors, among others.
This also helps you monitor the project more closely since you live at the site.
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