Building A Home? Here Are 5 Ways To Lower Your Cost Of Building Materials

Every owner-builder will tell you that building materials form the largest expenditure when building a home. That followed by the cost of labour, which includes architects, engineers, builders, and workers, and then the machinery. If you want to lower your building budget, therefore, it only makes sense to start with the building materials. In this article, find out how you can do that in five different ways.

• Embrace new building technologies 

It may sound a little cliche, but this is probably the most effective way you can lower the cost of your building materials. As opposed to building in the very same way others have done before, try newer modern methods that have been proven to cost less. Great examples here include tilt-up panels, insulated timber panels, and pre-fabricated concrete panels. All these take less time and labour to install. Plus, they need little finishing to complete once installed.

• Buy recycled building materials

Another great way to drastically lower your building costs is to use recycled materials. This refers to materials that have previously been used either in a building construction or otherwise. Such materials cost just a fraction of what new materials cost. They are also screened and tested to ensure they are of good quality. Often sourced from demolished structures, these building materials include roofing, trusses and rafters, windows, doors, and indoor fixtures like cabinets and electrical wiring.

• Buy wholesale

Take advantage of the economies of scale and buy wholesale. That is, as opposed to buying some supplies from one place and others from another. Go to a large outlet and buy in bulk. This way, you are able to enjoy benefits such as discounts, free transport and wholesale prices. In addition to that, buying in bulk saves you from making marginal purchases afterwards, a practice which tends to stretch your budget.

• Buy off-season

This is a tricky one, but it works if you can pull it off. However, you need to plan in advance, have ready financing and be patient. What you do is wait until the building season is on a slow-down, e.g. during winter or high autumn. You then scour suppliers and buy building materials at low prices due to little demand and high trader competition. Once done, you store your materials and wait until you're ready to build.

• Avoid unnecessary finishes

Lastly, bring your material costs down by eliminating unnecessary finishes such as external cladding or external rendering and painting. If you do not have the finances at the moment, you can put off some of these extras until a future time when you're better placed to do so.

By incorporating some of the above, you can make building your dream home that much more affordable and closer on the calendar dates.