Least Expensive House To Build – Or some may ask, “What is the cheapest way to build a house?” Finance is perhaps a better term. There are several ways to build a house. This article covers the cheapest to mid to high end, starting with the affordable ones. And here’s some news: having an architect design it for you might be one of the best ways.
Since this firm’s Chief Certified Architect, Rand Soellner, ArCH, NCARB, was first licensed as an architect decades ago, he and his firm have learned all kinds of ways to design and build homes for their clients. First: HOME ARCHITECTS ® designs houses. They are built by contractors. What this company has discovered over the decades is the basis of this article.
Least Expensive House To Build
The contractors that this architect asked and their own experience informed this architectural office that the most efficient and cheapest way to build a house is: to make it two stories on almost level ground.
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Keeping the footprint tighter, going 2 stories (or 1-1/2 stories) while having a single roof gives you more bang for your buck. “SunBird” (C) Copyright 2013 Home Architect, PLLC, All rights reserved worldwide. Additional savings can be made by eliminating arches and wood framing details and still result in a great home with cathedral ceilings that is good value. Click on this image to view this plan from the architect.
The reason: a 2nd floor loft is relatively cheap and easy to frame, and you only need a simple, straight staircase if you design it with efficiency in mind. What you get: half the amount of foundations, which are usually not cheap: concrete is expensive and formwork is expensive and so is steel reinforcement. Also, your cap amount is halved. You only have about half the roof and foundation you would have on a single story home.
Also, if you’re building on near flat land, your foundations will likely be simple and relatively shallow, unless there are some other geological conditions that would dictate otherwise.
Now, all that said: another aspect of this financial approach: KISS (Keep It Simple, Stu***). So, the simpler the container, the less work for the contractor. Also, be careful with your choice of materials for the interior and exterior. If you want genuine roofing stone, be aware that this advanced feature will increase your cost. Listen to your architect’s advice.
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Also: Location. If you build in a remote location, the chances are that your builders will charge you more for the pleasure of longer drives and other situations that arise due to displacement from resources. In other words: the land is fine as long as you have electricity, water and paved roads not too far from utility yards and the people who will build your house.
Ideally, you’d have a crawl space that’s shallow enough: enough for contractors to get in there and install their systems and allow for future maintenance, but not so much that it adds too much height to the house. Maybe 3′.
Also: it’s cheaper to build a 2nd floor if it fits into the main roof that starts above the first floor load bearing walls.
In other words: the cost for the 2nd floor is only for the stairs, railing, all pipes and finishing. The rest of the house is already there.
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And: Your architect can draw in even 4′ increments in floor plan whenever possible, which eliminates a lot of the material cutting.
And one more thing: Your architect can design your home to have the least external area, using more square proportions in the floor plans (if your property and setbacks and functional relationships allow).
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Why would you want the smallest footprint if your goal is to build in the least expensive way possible? Because this results in the least amount of material (saves labor, saves material) and you will also have the least surface area in contact with the outside, so the effect that hot or cold weather can have on your exterior will be minimized, thus reducing your monthly your electricity bills (related to heating and cooling);
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However: there are other factors that might be more important: like having lots of windows with a great view. Your architect can help you assess what is most important: they are trained to do so.
A. Shed roof: A shed roof with a low pitch (simple: like a large rectangle) can reduce roofing costs. It doesn’t get much simpler than that. Once you get down to about 4-by-12 or 3-by-12, it’s better to switch to a metal seam roofing finish, albeit machine-sewn, according to the metal roofing manufacturer’s recommendations.
B. Metal cladding. There are some metal siding available through Home Depot, 3′ wide x 16′ long with a 45 year factory paint warranty, for about $47. That’s about $1/sf, which is ridiculously cheap for a prefab exterior. The screws are pre-made to fit, for about a penny each, with rubber washers and small covers to protect them from UV (Ultra-Violet sunlight). But you need a very skilled architect to make it look good. Maybe a combination of mostly this and some other seemingly more traditional treatment can get you the main savings, with enough traditional hardware processing to make it all work. Try Home Architects. they can design your home with it, saving you money and reducing your maintenance. For example: most houses need painting about every 7 years. And it can cost $10,000 +/-, depending on the size and complexity of the home. If your exterior walls are good for 45 years or more, that’s maybe $50 you can avoid by maintaining your walls for half a century. Therefore, this not only means savings on initial costs, but also less maintenance.
One of the HOME ARCHITECTS farmhouses with one main floor over basement. (C) Copyright 2011, Home Architect, PLLC, All rights reserved worldwide. Click on this image to view the project index of this architectural firm.
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However, some mistakenly believe that the basement level will be empty or almost non-existent, as they say it will be “unfinished”. It’s a trick contractors can see coming a mile away. Contractors even have terms for it. They call it the “Underground Profit Center” because they KNOW you’re going to finish underground and you’re going to do it in small “nipples”. The contractor, who has done this before, knows that you will actually end up with a finished house in hopes that you can get your builder (or others) to help you finish the basement at a lower price.
The reality is that your contractor will end up charging you a premium for this when you try to subdivide this work into your main building project.
What you’re dealing with is that this type of house is pretty compact, in terms of the ratio of exterior area to interior usable space, similar to the 2-story approach above.
However, don’t kid yourself: it will always be cheaper to build a standard frame wall above ground (See the most cost-effective method above) than to dig a huge hole in the ground and form and pour a steel-reinforced 8″ to 12″ thick concrete wall that will then need to waterproof the outside, insulate and frame the inside.
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And if you have a steeply sloping ground, you will no doubt want to walk out to the basement. Most people do. This means that the foundation, foundation walls and scaffolding around the house need to be carefully designed and scaled to cope with sloping ground. This of course adds cost to the build in the form of additional complexity.
The second most economical way to build a house is probably to go single storey. Whether this is #2 or #3 can be a toss-up, depending on each individual’s situation.
Long Pine Estate was designed by elite architect Rand Soellner. (C) Copyright 2011, Home Architect, PLLC, All rights reserved worldwide. Click on this image to view stories about this architecture firm.
This confuses many people because they see it as the SIMPLE way to build. Is. However, the ratio of external materials to internal space is more common. There are also more foundations, foundation walls, main floor construction, more shear walls to support the additional space between walls, and more roof and more insulation in the attic. In short: this approach, although the simplest to construct, also has the largest surface-to-space ratio. So you have some savings on scaffolding and other work-related items, but this method usually has the largest amount of materials: especially for roofs and foundations.
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All other forms now come into play and become more complex.