The motivational speaker will tell you that the best time to build is NOW! However, in reality there are a some important boxes that need to be checked and cross-checked before embarking on an expensive undertaking like house construction. Having a plan and doing a bit of research prior to the construction process can save you from costly mistakes and help avoid unnecessarily prolonged delays.
Finances for the House Construction
Can you afford it? Cost Planning for your house construction project is one of the things that have to be carefully considered before everything else.
The quantity surveyor is the cost expert and will need to be engaged to get accurate building estimates. Once you have a definitive cost, ensure your finances can be able to fund your construction vision to completion.
Apart from the construction cost, large development projects will need to factor in other costs such as the cost of Land Purchase, cost of Finance (e.g interest rates if planning to borrow from bank), Professional Fees, Legal Fees, Preliminary Costs, Management Costs, Marketing Costs (If Development is for Sale) and the Anticipated ROI (Return on Investment).
For small residential projects, we already discussed how you can get a budgetary estimate for your dream home. There is abit of flexibility here since we’ve seen many people opting to build their homes in stages as they pool together resources, instead of waiting to get the full amount before they start. Ensure that the entire construction period is not prolonged as there are consistent overheads such as cost of security, that will be incurred even as the project lies idle and this could significantly increase your overall cost.
Weather
Kenya’s location at the equator means that we get pretty good weather with not much extremes. As a result, we have construction works going on throughout the year. The only thing you need to be wary of is the rainy period since certain tasks are best suited to be carried out when its dry.
Tasks such as earthworks and foundation works should be scheduled to be done during the dry season. Doing these when it’s raining will not only be more expensive but can further lengthen your construction period.
Excessive rain can also cause muddy conditions that make some construction sites inaccessible, posing a challenge during delivery of materials.
Most builders will work to get the roof and walls built when the weather is nice and dry since often a lot of interior work can proceed even with the onset of the rainy season.
Areas in North Eastern Kenya are prone to high winds which affect construction activities where cranes are involved. Carrying out roofing works when its windy is also hazardous for construction workers and these works will need to be planned for the calm parts of the day/year.