It is the dream and need of everybody now to own a home with individual requirements. For every developing country, the economy is the pivotal point, as the construction of houses is highly impacted by the cost-based construction strategies. There is a wide range of cost-effective techniques that are involved in the construction of houses; among all of them, some techniques are highly efficient and easily adaptable. Low cost construction of houses refers to houses that are very economical to build, but it does not mean that the house will be cheap to live in.
The main purpose of low cost construction is to save your money while maintaining the quality of the building of the house. There are few things that can reduce the cost of construction while retaining the quality of housing, they are listed below.
- Improved technology and constructive skills
- Locally available material
- Without compromising the strength of the building, efficient performance of the structure
The government has decided to offer shelter to all homeless people in order to meet the growing demand for accommodation or houses. They have also planned to build quality disaster-resistant houses in all urban and rural areas. There are a lot of housing schemes planned by the government in order to cater to the need of shelter. All those houses that are constructed under mass housing schemes are extremely low energy houses. Nowadays, as most of the people prefer to build their own houses, efficient architectural designs and cost-effective construction techniques have become the most growing concern among all people. Because if your construction project goes off schedule or exceeds the anticipated budget limit, it can be a disaster, and it may include the following negative impacts.
- The extravagant total building cost
- Eventual decline in ROI (Return on Investment)
- Heightened pressure from money lenders
- Going through financial difficulties as the owner
- Delayed schedule of project completion
Cost and time optimization is an essential part of cost-effective housing as it can minimize the overall cost of the housing project. This time and cost optimization can also help you achieve the chief benefit that is affordable and cost-effective home construction and designing. The whole process of construction takes a lot of effort from the client or owner, engineers, architectures, and especially contractors in order to be successful in the optimization of cost and time. During the whole process of cost-effective construction, you may switch between different approaches, eventually in order to attain the lowest cost. For example, investing in advanced equipment could be very cheap in the long run, while outsourcing in one area can reduce the cost. You will be switching between these approaches.
The effective and better working conditions in the job of construction often begin during the architectural building phase. The significant part of the constrcuction process is that the architect should plan and communicate well and also develop a fine communication link with their clients. When an architect boards on a construction project, in order to make a drawing of a building and get other specifications, then they are supposed to spend a lot of money during this phase.
The first step of this phase consists of designing work and the second step is all about putting that design work into reality. The total fee charged by the designer is just a small percent of the total construction cost. If a client has a better plan, he is bound to save more money in this process, therefore, all the marking and detailed descriptions from architectural designing are needed to be preserved.
The sole purpose of building cost-effective houses is to save time and money while maintaining the quality of building as well. A right planning and a good communication link between the client and architect is very important for a cost-effective construction in order to achieve the desired results. The utmost important part is that the whole team of suppliers, designers, contractors, and sub-contractors should put their best in work. Let’s have a look at some essential construction techniques which are required to be considered in order to attain the low-cost houses.
- The basic need for human existence is the shelter after food and clothing. The advanced applications of cost-effective and sustainable technologies are the utmost need for acquiring good housing in urban and rural areas.
- People should adopt robust, sustainable, durable, energy-efficient, cost-effective, and ecologically appropriate materials and technologies for construction purposes.
- If you adopt these sustainable technologies and material with great care in a creative way, it could lead you to a unique architectural appearance. In order to develop a construction technique, you need to have the proper materials as wood, bricks, and stones are one of the basic materials which are required in any sort of construction.
- The overall cost of the construction of a house can be divided into two main parts, which are labor cost and the building material cost. The smaller the project in terms of its size or the number of square feet, the more it will be the cost per square foot. Every construction project has a different level of details and complexities.
- Distinctive construction complexities can greatly enhance the cost of the project like if you want to renovate a house, it will require moving or altering components that can be costly because it demands destruction as well as building it again.
- Specialized construction techniques are used to shield the surrounding spaces from any kind of hazards like fire or noise.
- Factors that can really affect the budget of constructing any structure are Material cost, labor rates, project accessibility, Time of year, and General economic pressures.
The cost-effective construction and building materials are easily accessible in every country as they are developed by various research and development bodies in the country named as:
- Structural Engineering Research Centre (SERC)
- Central Building Research Institute (CBRI)
- National Environment Engineering Research
- A centre for the application of Science and Technology to rural areas (CASTRA)
- Regional Research Laboratories (RRL)
There are some important tips to be considered in order to get a cost-effective construction project in the future.
- The most important step in the reduction of construction costs is to plan well.
- It would be best if you got your contractor involved right away.
- The estimators use the construction takeoff software in order to help estimate the cost of a construction project.
- You should choose cost-effective materials for the construction of houses.
- You must keep the track of all metrics that are involved in this process.
- Adopt lean construction principles.
