Imagine waking up in a customised home with a layout, flooring, architecture, fixtures, or its finishes matching your preferences. Sounds too beautiful to be true, right? But it is a reality you can achieve with a custom home builder.
If you are looking for custom home builders in Melbourne, you must prepare yourself for every stage of the building process. Because it is likely to feel confused in specifying your ideas when collaborating with a builder for a house plan or design.
In this guide, you will walk through the tips, ideas, and inclusions to customise your home before signing a final deal. So, keep reading the blog till the end to make an informed decision.
Customisation Tips At Every Stage of Building a Home
Customisation is beyond aesthetics. It involves choosing a house plan, planning its features, materials, colours, acquiring building permits, and finally seeing its construction. To build a custom home, here are some steps to follow before closing a deal with a builder.
- Prepare for Initial Discussion:
The first step is to familiarise yourself with a unique house plan. Some reputable custom home builders in Melbourne have a standard and best-selling house plan. But if you have specific needs, custom home builders accommodate your choice in floor, foundation, framing, electrical, and plumbing plan.
How to Make the Most of It?
- Have a vision of your home.
- Think about the layouts of your new house plan, like size and location of bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and storage. According to your lifestyle, this major idea can transform your house design within the available space.
- Gather photos and plans to communicate your designs effectively. Keep a realistic budget in hand. Open dialogue between you and the builder about your goals, timeline, and expectations is helpful for a cost-saving idea.
- Plan the House Design:
Once your builder maps out a final house plan, the next stage is to select materials for floor, roof, cabinet, and finishes. As it gets done, your builder first reviews and approves this design before beginning the construction.
How to Make the Most of It?
- Speak about the changes you need in the initial design, if you think it doesn’t feel right. Custom home builders in Melbourne agree to certain changes for future-proofing needs like more accessibility for senior citizens, or more rooms for a future family expansion.
- Enquire about the included features for an energy-efficient building to reduce utility bills.
- Match materials for floor, roof, cabinet, and furniture, with right finishes and home’s paint colours to maintain the aesthetics. It is good to consider the durability and maintenance of your chosen materials.
- Clarify how long the design and construction process will take. Also, ask about extra costs for upgrades or alternatives of materials.
- After finalising a house plan and design, builders request permission from the local council on your behalf. In some cases, you may also need to obtain other approvals like building permit and developer approval.
- Despite the complexity of the paperwork, custom home builders in Melbourne understands the know-how and local building requirements before seeking approval of the authorities
- Keep Yourself in Loop During Site Preparation:
The next stage in the home customisation process is the site preparation. In this process, builders clear the site, mark a house on a block, excavate and level the land, make utility connections accessible, and set up a temporary infrastructure.
How to Make the Most of It?
- Double-check the orientation, views, and if the house has access to a natural light.
- Decide which trees, large rock, or hedge you want to keep for landscaping to align with the drainage early on.
- Discuss drainage like septic tanks, drainage slopes, and utility meters to make a liveable space.
- Keep an Eye on the Construction:
During this phase, custom home builders in Melbourne construct foundation walls, establish roof structures, and install the drywalls.
How to Make the Most of It?
- Keep a note of everything in progress.
- Visit the site to see how the final orientation looks and document it with photos or videos.
- Determine if the room sizes, ceiling heights, and location of doors and windows are in line with the approved house layout.
- Raise any concerns on finishing style and types for external and internal features.
- Consult with interior designers to learn about the modern tapware installations.
- Consider the Final Home Quality for Assurance:
A reputable company specialising in custom house design has a team of quality assurance specialists. Although the team works to ensure the best quality construction of your custom home, you must collaborate in the following ways.
How to Make the Most of It?
- Inspect for scratches or dents in all rooms, test the fixtures, electrical access points, and door and window functionality.
- Check for even paintwork and smooth wet flooring installation.
- Walk over the roofs, assess the quality of roof gutters, and determine the optimum functionalities of energy-efficient solar panels or water septic tanks.
- Create a list of defects and hand it over to your builder for a quick fix.
- Ensure to receive warranty cards, appliance manual, and product information.
- Take a copy of the builder’s warranty that guarantees workmanship.
- Schedule a post-handover inspection if you found any settling cracks, drainage issues, or electrical failures after moving in.
- Follow the builder’s maintenance plan to clean and maintain your gutters, ventilation systems, and finishes of your fixtures and furniture.
Final Words
We hope that you found this blog helpful. As you see, preparing yourself ahead of scheduling a time with a builder for customising a home is beneficial. It is important to prioritise your vision, needs, and changing preferences before working with custom home builders in Melbourne.
The idea is to be confident, have a clear approach, and start asking for clarifications at every stage of the custom home building process. So, whether you are at the stage of an initial meeting, house design planning, site preparation, construction phase, or reaching to the final inspections, preparing with the right questions and collaborating with builders is helpful. If you have any questions, contact Shri Homes, a custom home builder company, for further enquiries.
