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The Essential Guide » Initial Stages of a Project » How Long Does it Take to Self Build?
How Long does it take to build a New Self Build Home?
Along with “How much will it cost us to build a new house”, this is one of the most commonly asked questions by anyone thinking about “having a go” at a Self Build project.
Unfortunately there will never be a definitive answer to the question (it’s about as answerable as “How long is a piece of string?).
What I will say is this:
To build a 1500sq ft 4 bed detached house as a Self build project. – If it is a simple design, if everything is straightforward and you don’t hit any “practical” problems. If there are no “unusual” aspects to the design or the materials, if everyone and everything “turns up” on time, if you don’t run out of money, if you organise it properly and you do what you should do, when you should do it, - It should take you between 18 and 26 weeks to build.
However, if we then go right to the other end of the scale, some projects which, for one reason or another are not “straightforward”, can easily take 2 or 3 years (or more) to complete (in fact there is a project which I drive past regularly near to where I live, which was started soon after I moved to the area, and which is still not complete. - I have lived here for 9 years! )
I think that even from just reading those few lines you will probably already understand why there is no easy and definitive answer to the question!
Now I’ll answer the question from my own experience:
I have built possibly a couple of hundred houses over the past 20 years, spread between my own private housing development business, my Self Build Consultancy work, and working with some of the medium sized, and larger Commercial Housing Developers.
I tend to “plan” and “build” fairly quickly. The shortest time I have taken to build a 4 bed detached, traditionally built house is 10 weeks (NOT something I would recommend anyone trying!). - Believe it or not, some of the housing developers were programming 7 weeks for their 4 bed houses when I worked for them in the eighties! – To my mind that is a bit of a “daft” timescale. – It CAN be done, but the quality of the finished product is NEVER going to be high at that speed. You literally need men working all day, every day. You don’t get time to let concrete “go off” (strengthen) properly, or to let the mortar set properly, plaster to dry etc. – This (literally) “throwing up” of some commercial developers properties is one of the main reasons Self Builder consider having a go themselves. – You want something cheaper, bigger AND BETTER BUILT.
If I take an average of all the properties I have planned, designed and built, I would say that on average, my timescales have been between 14 weeks and 26 weeks, dependent upon a number of factors
So: What are the main factors in dictating the length of time it takes to build new?
1) Design:
Usually, “simple = faster”. A simple “box” shaped timber framed house on flat site, with a simple strip footing, standard trusses, dry lined, with a standard “plastic” plumbing and a simple electrical installation will generally be the fastest type of project to complete.A complicated house design with piled foundations, varied ground levels, curved external and internal walls, split internal floor levels, complicated roof structure, feature glass panelling, home automation, “wet” plaster finish, complicated electric s and plumbing, and feature tile and floor finishes will not only cost FAR more than a standard house, but could easily take 4 or 5 times longer to build.
As soon as you start to “wander away” from what is “the norm” in term of design, you usually start to prolong the building time.
As an example: To take it to a “basic” level: A bricklayer can build a solid straight wall pretty quickly. One brick “after another after another”. He gets into a routine, and, given decent weather, can usually make “good speed” ( and good money on this sort of work.
Now, - start to add standard windows and door openings to that wall: He now has to stop part of the way along each brickwork course, get his spirit level out, mark the position of the window, possibly cut a brick or alter a few bricks so that the “bond” works properly. Then he has to measure the openings, one at a time and possibly “mess about” with the bond at the other end of the course to make it work and look right. - This has to happen on each course, and it takes a lot longer that it would take to build the wall “solid”. NOW, if you change the window opening to be “round”, or “arched”, you add another level of difficulty and extra work, taking extra time. Now, – as well as setting the opening positions out, “support frames” may be needed, and “Soldier courses”, and a lot more “cutting” of bricks to form the opening. – Each opening could take hours to form.
By going away from the basic “straight solid wall” and adding features, we have increased the time taken to complete the brickwork significantly. – Possibly by a factor of 2 or 3.
NOW, multiply the concept of “easy and quick”, versus “complicated and slow” by EVERY SINGLE item that is going to be needed to complete the construction of a new property (and there are literally hundreds of areas where the “simple” can be made “complicated” and “time consuming”) and you should be able to see how much of an affect the “design” of a property can have on the “speed of build” (and on the cost too!).
You need to take time to think about every decision your make when you are designing your new home and try to think through the “implications” of each and every decision. If you do, you should find that you are more able to keep a tight rein on the proceedings!
2) Timber frame / Traditional
Timber framed houses have the potential to be built faster than Traditionally built properties, due to the fact that the frame itself is a fairly major “chunk” of the building, and comes in one “lump” which goes up very quickly. Once the frame is erected, and the roof structure completed and covered, you have a “structural shell” finished. This can all have happened sometimes within a couple of weeks of pouring the ground floor slab.
Compare this to more like a minimum of 5 weeks (often more like 10 weeks + ) to get to the same point if you opt for the “traditional” build method, (possibly much longer if the weather is poor).
As soon as you get the roof onto a Timber Framed house, and get at least the “felt and battens” fixed you can then get straight to work inside on the “first fixes” for the joinery, plumbing and electrical installations at the same time that you are just starting the brick and / or blockwork on the outside.
If you have little or no experience of building, then a timber frame may be the simplest and fastest option for you.
(Read more about timber Frame in later sections).
(Note: You would also be advised, if you can, to get the windows and at least “temporary” external doors fitted in order to give the house some level of “security” before starting the internal works)
3) Land / the Building Plot itself:
If your plot is level, clear, with good access, and has no underground problems which could slow you down, - you can simply set out the building, bring in your excavator, and dig the footings. – Often they can be dug and poured in a couple of days.
However, at the “other end of the scale”, if your site is sloping, with existing buildings on it, and is made up of “poor” ground which needs piling, and a reinforced foundation and / or retaining structures. To reach the same point of the footing being poured, could easily take 3 months or more.
I recently completed such a project: A sloping site (of 8 plots), each needing piling and retaining walls. It had had a drain running across the site which needed to be diverted before we started, - and by the time we had reached the “ground floor level”, we were over 4 months into the contract (having also spent the best part of £60,000! – Some houses are fully completed in that time and cost less than that!)
This is the site:
Excavation + fill
24 Piles per house
Stone
Slab
Retaining Works / lower GF
Retaining works / lower GF
Timber Frame
So, when you come to start to look for land, it’s a good thing to bear in mind that that flat land, made up of a good “sub strata”, in good condition, with no underground problems and good access, can make for a far easier, quicker (and cheaper project).
Weigh up the benefits of those sorts of factors against possibly the cheaper purchase price for “difficult” “complicated” land.
Because of the fact that wherever there is a problem, there is the potential for it to become a BIG problem, which can take a lot of time and cost a lot of money to sort out, where possible, especially if you are not experienced in building, I would personally always recommend tending to lean towards “flat / easy / uncomplicated” plots. “Cheap to buy” DOES NOT necessarily mean “Cheap in the long run”, and cheap to buy can mean "a long time to sort out the inherent problems!
(In case you wonder why, despite saying that, I bought the land shown in the photos? – Well, it was cheap!! But the houses took twice as long to build as normal houses and cost twice AS MUCH!
4) Weather:
Especially in the early stages of the project, the weather can cause havoc! – And time of year has nothing to do with it!
Rain and even wind can be far more troublesome tha
n frost or ice when it comes to house building.
n frost or ice when it comes to house building.During a particularly rainy spell, foundation trenches can get waterlogged and cave in, - drain trenches can get flooded, bricklayers can’t lay bricks, joiners can’t safely set roof trusses, roof tilers can’t safely lay tiles, etc.
Wind can stop progress on your brickwork, roofing, roof tiling and even external rendering
Unfortunately there is no time of year in this country when you are guaranteed good weather.
Ways to minimise the problems brought about by weather conditions include:
1) Use “mass fill” foundations (see later section), so that the amount of brickwork underground is kept to a minimum, and is therefore less susceptible to weather conditions.
2) Use a “suspended” concrete or timber ground floor, so that the preparation for the slab is kept to a minimum and is therefore less likely to cause hold ups in the work if there is bad weather.
3) Build using a “Timber Frame” rather than using “Traditional Build” methods. That way, the frame will usually be completed quickly and whatever the weather after the roof is covered, you can at least start work internally. – You will then usually find that you are able to complete the external brickwork (etc) within the time that the internal works are being progressed and completed.
(Note: - I am not saying you SHOULD use any of the options I have just mentioned, as opposed to others that are available, - I am simply putting them in front of you as thoughts you can consider whilst you plan the project. – You should look into all options and make up your own minds. - No particular method of foundation construction or floor slab construction is necessarily “better” or “quicker” than another, - each one has its own benefits and drawbacks depending on the circumstances where it is being used. - The same goes for every element of the project).
5) Labour:
Labour shortages often occur during the summer.
However, everyone tends to think that the weather is going to be better in the summer, and therefore tend to plan for projects to start during the late spring or summer months.
The down sides of that thinking are that@
1) During these periods prices tend to increase, mainly because there more work available and Tradesmen know that if they don’t get your contract, they will easily find another. Suppliers also tend to get more sales during the summer months, so may not feel the need to be as “cut throat2 with their prices as they may be in December, when most people are thinking about Christmas and are not buying bricks or bathrooms!
2) Labour availability is reduced because “everyone is busy”. – You have to think and plan further ahead (sometimes by a few months) to make sure you get the people you need, when you need them. Even then, there may be a hold up on another job which, because everyone is “flat out busy” means that your job is delayed by a couple of weeks or more.The effect of this reduced availability of labour, along with the other problems that it brings, can have a “knock on” or “snowball” effect: If you find yourselves having to wait a couple of weeks for the groundworkers to start, you may have to put off the timber frame. – When you finally ring the timber frame company to tell them you are now ready, you may find that they are busy on other work for possibly a further 2 or 3 weeks. This puts you 5 weeks behind programme, so the brickies have to take on other work to fill the gap, and are not free for another 2 weeks when you are eventually ready for them - and so on.
If this sort of thing happens, the effect on the overall length it takes to complete the job can be dramatic. Sometimes a delay on one part of the project (once all the “knock on” effects come into play), can add up to 50% to the time it takes to complete the project.
How do we avoid the problem of delays? - Think about building “out of season”.
I personally like to start work on new housing projects in January / February!
Apart from having to get up and go out into the cold every morning, I usually find that: 1) Labour is far easier to get hold of. 2) Deliveries are usually quicker and more often “on time”. 3) I tend to get more competitive quotations as Tradesmen and suppliers try to keep busy during their “quiet” months.
As an additional bonus, as I start to excavate the trenches during January / February, I often find that the ground is usually more solid due to the cold conditions, and therefore “trench collapses” are less likely. Rain is less likely in January. - It tends fall as snow, which doesn’t cause as many immediate problems as rain, and gives you a chance to take action to make sure that WHEN it melts it won’t start to cause problems (i.e. get the concrete poured quickly and / or remove the lying snow from the area of the building, using the excavating plant / shovels etc).
I actually find that the worst time to start a project is spring, when we tend to get a lot of rain JUST at the time when the foundation trenches are being dug. – Apart from January / February, I don’t find that starting work at any one particular times of year has any great advantage over any other.
6) Organisation:.jpg)
As with most things:
Good organisation will usually = time saved
Bad organisation will normally = time lost.
Some of the most important work of any Self Build project is done before anything is started “on site”:
The research, the “fact” compiling, the costing, planning, programming, phone calls, comparing quotes, contracts, and all the general organisation that is needed to make sure that, from “day one / hour one” on site, EVERYONE and EVERYTHING you need is WHERE it should be WHEN it should be.
One small omission or error can cause major delays and can add considerable time (and cost) to the project.
Here’s an example:
Your bricklayers come to start work on the site a Monday The building has been set out and you are raring to go.
You are waiting for the first “mix” of mortar to go into the mixer when the labourer comes over and says “Have you got the “ad mixture” for the mortar?” – You have never heard of “ad mixture”! – “What the heck is that?” – “We need it to make the mortar “workable”, we won’t be laying bricks without it, you’ll have to get some”.
Off you go to the Builders Merchants (10 miles away), dutifully get a few litres of “ad mixture” and bring it back. – Its now 10.00am and the brickies have gone off to their favourite cafe for breakfast. They return at 10.45am and put the first “mix” in.
Within an hour the labourer comes over again and asks for “the walls ties”. – You didn’t think you needed them until above the slab level, so you didn’t get any yet! – Off you go to the Merchants again, and return at 12.30pm. The brickies say “It’s not worth starting before lunch now”, - so they head off early for lunch.
Friday comes, and they want paying. They hand you their invoice for the week and on it is an item for “standing time”. It says:
“Monday: Waiting for materials 5 hours x 3 bricklayers plus 2 labourers
Bricklayers £20 / hour
Labour £10 / hour
Total: £400
When you pick yourself up off the floor, you realise that, not only have you just lost half a day’s progress, you have also lost the price of a decent washing machine into the bargain!! - You promise yourself you will get better organised!!
That is a slight exaggeration of what would probably happen but it is just to make a point. – There are hundreds, if not thousands of individual constituent parts that come together to make a Self Build project work. If ANY ONE of them is not planned correctly, or missed out altogether, it can have “knock on” effects, not only in time, but also in cost. – Those brickies lost half a day due to your poor organisation. They could have had “half a lift” done in that time. – If you carried on like that along the same path of “disorganisation”, you could lose literally weeks of progress and £1,000’s over the whole project.
So: Do you research, and Do everything you need to BEFORE you start work. Read as much of this guide as you can, to help you get a basic knowledge what you need to do and what you need to know before you start work on ANY major project.
7) Indecision:
Shall we, Shan’t we? - Will we, won’t we? – “I like it”, “Well I don’t!” – Can we? Can’t we? These are questions which can bring about situations which can add weeks and months to a project.Indecision can lead to “further investigation and discussion”, and “more choices and more confusion”, and that can lead to “further investigation and further confusion”!
You could end doubling the time it takes to complete your project by not making up your (usually “joint”) minds over different parts of the project.
If you are still “umming and arring”, when you need to be “ordering” (so that the item can be incorporated into the works when they need to be), you could end up with a “stop / start” project, which takes much longer, costs much more, and is much more hard work than it should be.
Sometimes it comes down literally to tossing a coin when there is a difficult decision to be made and two people may have differing opinions. – And sometimes that’s actually the best way to come to a compromise! - You will have to accept the fact that you won’t agree on everything and you have to learn to give and take. BUT - the most important thing to bear in mind is that if you want to get the thing finished in a “decent time frame” you will simply HAVE TO make the decisions “BEFORE” OR “BY THE TIME” YOU NEED TO.
Remember with most of the decisions in these sorts of projects, there is not ONE RIGHT WAY and ONE WRONG WAY to do things. There are usually many “shades” in between the “RIGHT” and the “WRONG” way, and there many choices that can be made for each action which will be “just fine in the scheme of things” at the end of the day!
Once the project is finished, there are not many of the decisions that you make along the way that will make the end result seem in any way to be a failure. - Once it is all finished and you move in, it all tends to just become “The house”! - No house is perfect. – But, you can usually be fairly sure that “overall” your Self Build project will give you a far better quality and value for money product than you will get if you buy a standard developers house.
We can sometimes get hung up on the “details” at the expense of the “project as a whole”. Sometimes you just have to:
“Bite the bullet”, “give and take”, and get on with it!
8) Cash Flow:
Cash flow can cause your pro
ject to stall or fail completely! – It’s as simple as that!
ject to stall or fail completely! – It’s as simple as that! If you can’t pay for tradesmen, materials or services, you just “ain’t gonna” get the job finished.
Being careful with your cash flow and making sure that you “cost” the whole project properly at the outset is CRITICALLY important:
Make sure you have enough funds when you start. Don’t over spend on that “fantastic” kitchen or bathroom if your budget is tight. – You might hit problems “underground” which can cost a lot of money.
If you are building using a “stage mortgage” which releases your funds either in advance, or in arrears, make sure that you apply for each stage in plenty of time (see sections on “funding / mortgages” to get an idea of what the best type of products will be for your personal situation and project).
Basically: If anyone needs paying, - PAY THEM. – Don’t say to yourself “I’ll try and hold off paying for “X, Y or Z”, so I can buy something else I want instead”. – It’s not their fault if you have not calculated your costs correctly. – These people do their jobs to make a wage, just as you do. – They won’t take kindly to being messed about. People who work in the Building Trade are not usually noted for being the most patient people when it comes to money! They do the job, and then they want paying! If they don’t get paid, they will often take swift and decisive action!
Basically you need to avoid any problems that “poor cash flow” planning will bring about. It can hold up a job, or if a trade simply walks off site, it can stop a job. - Once that happens, it can be hard to get “back up to speed” again once you get the problem sorted out, especially if you then find that you have to start to look for new tradesmen to take over part completed work after the original men have walked off site for good.
9) Location:
If you are in a more rural or isolated area where suppliers are fewer in number, and deliveries harder to make, you may find that you need to plan further ahead than normal to get materials and labour “where and when” you need them.
This makes the planning side of your project more important if you want to be able to build up and keep momentum going on your project.
Ordering materials well in advance and keeping good communications with your sub contractors regarding programming, can mean the difference between a site which “stops and starts”, and one which manages to build up and keep a good level of momentum, and which is completed in good time.
10) Unforeseen Problems:
There will be problems that occur on every project, which “hit you in the face” like the proverbial “rake in the grass”! 
You will end up sometimes end up just standing there saying “Well blow me down”! (Or words to that effect!), - and then you quickly have to think of a way to solve the problem.
When the job is finished, often these are the bits you will remember with most pride (“Do you remember how we got around the problem with the drainage? - We did really well there”. ). - However when these problems hit you, they can sometimes literally “stop everything”.
Near to one of my projects in North Wales, another Self Build project started up, and while they were digging the strip footing on the first day, a hole opened up underground! – It was a disused shallow mineshaft! – The job had literally only been started for a few hours and it then stopped for many weeks while they sorted out the problem!
I seem to remember they ended up pouring concrete into the void where it crossed their foundation, and that cost them months of progress and a number of thousands of pounds.
Ok don’t worry that’s an extreme example! BUT, bear in mind that simple things can cause you to lose time and try to “look ahead” for problems.
For example: You measure up for “special order bricks” for a “feature” on the front wall of the house. The manufacturer makes the wrong number or the wrong shape of bricks. - You take delivery, but you don’t check how many have come, or that they are the right size - and you don’t find out about the problem until its too late to be able to get extra, or the right shape re made in time to avoid the job stopping. - This one small problem could delay progress on the brickwork by a couple of weeks or more and you could possibly lose the brickies to another job for a further couple of weeks after that, as another consequence of the delay.
Try your best to avoid these sorts of problems by making sure YOU do everything YOU need to do. If you are in tight control of the project, there are going to be less chances for unexpected problems to arise. - However, when they do occur, to make sure they have the least impact possible on time and cost, - just to take a deep breath, accept the fact that “This sort of thing happens”, and get on with finding a way to sort it out as quickly and with as little fuss as possible.
11) Countrywide Economics:
If economic conditions are good, there is “more work about”, for “more people”. Sub Contractors can be choosy about the jobs they take on.
So, you may find that in good economic conditions, you will struggle to find good quality Sub Contractors who can “slot in” quickly to your plans. – You can reduce the effect of this by “Planning” well ahead.
At all times, but especially when there is “plenty of work about”, try to get everyone you need “booked” as far in advance as possible. AND keep in regular contact to let them know how you are progressing with the stages that lead up to them starting their section of work.
12) Special / unusual materials:
Anything that you need to order, which ventures away from “the Norm” will often take longer to manufacture, deliver and install than “off the shelf” products.
Any time you come up with an idea during the early stages of planning, which is “a bit different”, bear in mind:
a) It’s possible going to cost you more,
b) It will possibly take a while to get hold of the amount (of whatever it is) that you need. – Check and confirm delivery times, and order as early as sensibly possible.
13) Specialist Trades:
Again, if you initially have ideas which will require “specialist” trades, make sure that you plan ahead for their involvement in the project. – Piling installation, complicated foundations, “stonework” walls, roof thatching, cast iron rainwater goods, handmade kitchens, feature glazing panels etc. -These are just some examples of sections of projects which will need to utilize the services of specialist trades people, - and may need to be given thought early on so that you can work out when they will be needed.
If you can “provisionally” book them for a time which may be “some months down the line”, you can then keep in regular contact to let them know where you are up to, to make sure they are available when you need them.
If you are not ready for them when you say you will be, and you haven’t kept in touch to let them know how your are progressing, then you could find that they busy when you DO need them, which can lead to substantial delays to your project.
14) Personality:
You may wonder how your personality can affect the length of time it takes to build a house!
Well it can! – It’s simple!
Consider every section you have just read. – You may agree with them all, you may not. You will have “your own take” on what I have said and you may feel that you “know better ways” to do things than I have suggested.
That’s fine. You have your own opinion and ideas based on “who you are”, and you will make your own decisions.
My only comment here really is:
If you are someone who takes a lot of time on “detail”, and “getting everything perfect”, you may find that you have a harder job building your own home than someone who is easier going and who just wants the job doing to a “reasonable standard in a reasonable time”.House building (unfortunately), is not a “perfect art”. It never has been, it never will be.
I have found over years that the people who can see “the big picture” and who don’t spend too much time on the “minute detail” tend to get the job done faster and more successfully.
If you are the type of person who would have the bricklayers knock a wall down because it’s “7mm (1/4 inch) out of plumb” (and I know someone who tried to do that once), you will probably end up with MORE than just the wall being knocked down! – You may face the possibility of finding out whether a human being (YOU!) can swallow a 2ft spirit level!! - AND you will also probably end up looking for new bricklayers!
If you are the sort of person who likes “every detail to be perfect”, there is nothing wrong with that. – I am in no way saying that you are “wrong” or that we should be happy with shoddy work! - I just mean that, due to the nature of the building industry, and the fact that most things are “one offs”, which we only get one chance at getting right “first time”. Managing to “pull that off” for every single item included in a new building is a trick “I” have not yet managed to perfect (and I doubt I could find you anyone who would say differently)
All I am saying here is that if you are a “perfectionist” and you bring that fact into every detail of the project, you will probably find that it the whole thing is going to take a very long time, be very hard work, very expensive, very stressful, and will be likely to give you grey hair (if you have ANY left at all at the end of it!
A word I use a lot during the building process (and which is also used in most building contracts) is “REASONABLE”. To my thinking, the word “reasonable” means “Not perfect, but good ENOUGH for any REASONABLE person to be satisfied with it”.
If you make that your “gauge” as to whether something is ok or not, you should generally be ok!
Programming the works:
To get a rough idea of how long your individual project will take you need to put some work into preparing a “programme” for the work. – This will not only help you to plan the work, but will also give you help when assessing your “family’s needs” with regards to where you will stay (caravan / B & B / rented house) whilst you build your new home.
“Programming” is dealt with separately later in this guide, but once you have prepared yourselves properly for the project (by reading this guide and doing other “homework”), you should be able to “knock up” a fairly reasonably accurate programme for your project.
This will be an extremely useful tool to help you to keep to your “time schedules” and keep to your “completion target date”. – If you find at any time that you are falling behind programme, you can quickly look into taking steps to “catch up”.
All commercial building sites use programmes. – They are considered to be a very important part of the building process and they appear on the table at every site meeting!
Conclusion:
You will probably realize by now that anyone who tells you: “It should take you 6 months to build a house” is talking through their hat! – Every project is different. Every person adopts different ways of planning a project and every new building that has ever been built is in one way or another a “one off”.
You can use the guidelines I gave at the start of this section as a VERY ROUGH indication of potential timescales, but there is no substitute for “working it out yourself”, based on what you will learn from this guide and from everywhere else you look for information and guidance.
How long it will take is basically up to YOU!
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