Home Building Process Timeline | Build a New House: construction phase

Establish an accurate construction timeline

One of the first steps to building a new house is establishing a comprehensive and accurate timeline for completion. And if you’re planning a new custom home, you should think high-performance from the start.

In this post, we give you an overview of what to expect during the construction phase, and why high-performance homes require greater consideration and specific expertise from your builder.

Custom home building: Construction phase

The exact amount of time it takes to construct a custom home will depend on the size of the home, the quality of construction, the amount of specialty or custom features, and the proficiency of your builder.

Before you hire a contractor to build your high-performance custom home, ask the company to provide you with a fixed start date and completion date – including major milestones along the way. Ideally, your contractor should be able to list dates within an overall timetable of the work, along with a material list of everything that will be required.

Your builder should also have experience with high-performance projects, and be able to communicate a plan for ensuring that your new home is healthy and eco-friendly. A builder that’s familiar with the nuances of high-performance construction will help you navigate the vast array of options including sustainable construction materials, solar electric power systems, energy-efficient windows, HRV system, and on-demand tankless water heaters.

Generally, your construction timeline can be broken down in the following phases:

Preparing the lot

Digging, pouring, and laying the foundation

Laying the floor’s underlayment

Framing

Roofing, sheeting and siding

Sheetrock, flooring, and carpentry

Electrical, plumbing, and special electronic features

Painting, wallpaper, carpentry, cabinetry, and all the finishing touches

Again, every custom home building project is unique and will be subject to its own set of challenges, but you can expect the construction phase of a high-performance home to take about 1 year to complete.

Choosing a high-performance home builder with a deep understanding of local building practices and weather conditions will ensure that your timeline most accurately reflects the construction process. But even an accurate timeline may be interrupted by unforeseen changes in the availability of material or labor resources.

How to speed things up from your end…

Throughout the design and build process, you’ll find that there are many facets outside of your control. This makes it very important to stay on top of the decisions that you can control, namely choosing a knowledgeable and experienced builder, keeping on schedule with material selection deadlines that they set, and being cautious about design changes mid-construction.

Want to learn more? Check out the free, step-by-step High Performance Home Building Guide that we’ve put together to make your journey easier and help you prepare for success.

If you’re interested in learning more about how we build new custom homes, call Clarum Homes at 650.322.7069.