You’ve finally got all the trades lined up to work on your project. Contracts for the subcontractors and trades have been signed. The paperwork and costs should have also been completed for obtaining any permits from your local City’s planning department. Plus – the builder’s risk insurance has been sorted because you could get an excellent quote for it.
Congratulations! You have reached a day that seemed so far off only a couple of months ago, and you’re finally ready to start building your new house. Today I’m going to run you through the correct order of building your new home.
Firstly the placement and position of the new house need to be in place. The last thing you want to happen is the home being incorrectly placed on the lot.
To overcome any difficulties in placing where the new house will be built, I recommend hiring a registered land surveyor. A land surveyor will use wooden stakes and stake out the corners of the house, and use lines to map out the building site. This is often called “staking the lot” because you will literally be staking the building’s shape, location, and size on the lot.
It is essential to ensure you survey and stake the lot in this way, as it has been known that houses have been placed in violation of setbacks and restrictions. However, if the surveyor does this, they are responsible for any costs involved in correcting mistakes. This is why hiring professionals to help throughout your new build project is so important.
There have been instances where surveyors have made errors and had to pay for rebuilding the entire foundation. Of course – this is a rare case – but it is always better to be safe than sorry, especially with steep construction costs. In other instances, builders have built houses either too close to property lines or straddling them.
Using a surveyor and having the lot staked, you can rest easy knowing that it has been checked by a professional.
As we have discussed in previous blog posts of this series, you want to keep construction costs low if you can, and the cost to stake (or re-stake) a lot should be minimal and therefore worthwhile doing for peace of mind.
It is a good idea to be on site when the staking takes place so that you are happy with the placement and direction of the house. If it does not get suggested, ask to meet the surveyor on the lot before they get to work on staking. If you are unable to meet them, you can always put some stakes into the lot over the weekend to indicate your thoughts on location and direction. Following this, the surveyor can do it accurately for you to inspect when completed.
Next, the lot will be cleared, and the basement is dug out (if you have one). You may wish to have the surveyor re-stake the house at this point in the project. Often the surveyor will put in offset stakes that are the original four or two corners offset by up to 25 feet. This is so they will still be intact during the clearing and excavation. If offset stakes have been put in, the second visit should be a quick one to find the exact locations.
Generally, your house should face the same direction as others on the same side of the street as you. However, if you have a considerable lot, it doesn’t have to. Sometimes building code will demand the house to be in the same direction, so always check with your professional team on the project.
Another thing to consider is the terrain of your lot. Does it slope more than 3 or 4 feet? If so, you may need a topographical plat (or topo) from a surveyor. These are expensive but will be required to ensure the house doesn’t slope. A topo also certifies that water will go around the house as it drains away. Always shop around and ask for quotes from different people and get the best price.
On the subject of water – it can be a big problem when constructing buildings. It is nature’s strongest force and cannot be eliminated. You have to control it through gutters and good drainage.
Plot Plan
The plot plan is a map of your lot and will show you where the house should be positioned on the land. This plan will then be the guide for your surveyor or footing contractor to stake out the lot. In terms of who can do this job – a surveyor engineer is the best; however, an architect or designer will consider solar energy, wind, sun, and location of other houses so they can position the house on paper.
Always make sure that you communicate your ideas and preferences to the person doing the positioning of your new house before they start any work. And if you are unclear or need advice, the professionals will be able to help you.
Here are a few things to consider:
Lighting the Interior: The position of your new house on the lot will impact how light or dark it is inside the house when it’s finished. A north-south-facing home will be dark when compared to an east-west-facing one.
Water Flow: This will inevitably affect the landscaping and basement drainage, so make sure to ask questions.
The other houses on the street: Each street will have different setback requirements. These are determined by local zoning and deed restrictions. Your neighbors’ homes will also influence these setbacks.
What about the street itself: Should the house be parallel with the road and follow the same or similar positioning to the other houses on the street? Is the street curved in any way? Have you got a corner plot?
Privacy: This is super important for all sides of the house, so you will need to think about where your windows are positioned in relation to your neighbors. What will they see? And what will you see? You may want to revise window placements based on this.
The sun: You should strive to get the most benefits from the sun’s energy. Therefore homes should have as much surface facing south as possible. Broad expanses of glass on the south side are also significant, with minimal doors and windows on the north.
Legalities: Make sure you are within the boundaries of your property and check with a professional working on your project if you are unsure of this.
There is a lot of information covered in this blog post! And this is by no means to frighten you with this amount of considerations, but having built many houses over the years, I still need to think about these decisions and considerations.
The position of your new house is highly personal to you and something to consider carefully. If you are unsure of which direction to proceed with, you should enlist help from an architect or designer. It is a crucial decision to get right!
