How to develop a home building construction timeline

Planning your home construction

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.

With all of the new green, sustainable technology available, you have an incredible array of options for building a new home that will greatly reduce your energy and water use. Plus, high-performance homes are healthier, smarter for the environment, and a great long-term investment.

There are two distinct phases to consider when establishing a homebuilding timeline: pre-construction and construction. High-performance homes present unique challenges and require greater consideration and specific expertise from your builder and design team.

Custom home building: pre-construction phase

You may be surprised how much work has to happen before construction. Pre-construction components like budgeting, financing, property selection, topographical surveying, permitting, planning and design require a significant amount of time.

Planning and design are especially rigorous for high-performance projects. During this time, your builder and design team will lay the course for your custom home, analyzing site characteristics and developing a waste-efficient construction plan.

Below is a typical timeline for the days leading up to the construction phase for a high-performance home. Keep in mind that every project is unique and subject to its own set of challenges.

In particular, the complexity and duration of the permitting process can surprise future home owners. Your builder will package and present your plans to a number of governmental organizations for review, revisions, and approval prior to starting construction. So having a design professional and a contractor who are familiar with the local planning and building departments, in addition to the latest in green-building technologies, can make a big difference.

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 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:

1. Preparing the lot
2. Digging, pouring, and laying the foundation
3. Laying the floor’s underlayment
4. Framing
5. Roofing, sheeting and siding
6. Sheetrock, flooring, and carpentry
7. Electrical, plumbing, and special electronic features
8. 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.

Most importantly, 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.

Want to learn more about the home building process? Check out our free High Performance Home Building Guide, or call Clarum Homes at 650.322.7069.