When you’re in charge of your home renovation or build project, the buck stops with you. Here’s how to manage your finances, control your budget spend, project manage your tradies for maximum efficiency and minimum cost and how to ensure your compliance with building regulations and permits is always up to date.

1. Weigh up the pros and cons

Before you launch into an owner-builder arrangement, make sure it’s the right choice for you. The more successful owner-builders are usually people with trades or at the very least project management and budgeting skills. Some of the pros might be a significant cost saving by doing some of the work yourself and not outlaying big bucks for a builder to manage the entire project. Some of the cons may be a lack of time or resources if you have a demanding day job. But, if you’re confident, fire away!

2. Know your responsibilities

To become an owner-builder you must first apply for a permit, and the government departments that handles these vary within each state and territory. Remember you are responsible for this work just as a licenced builder would be – and the next owner of the house will expect a guarantee on your work. Obtain all necessary council and authority approvals you’ll need as well as ensure all insurance requirements of the building work are met and fully comply with all laws well in advance. That way you can get the paperwork out of the way and fully concentrate on building your dream home or extension.

If you want more information about the responsibilities of owner-builders, check out the Consumer Affairs website.  

3. Plan ahead and invest in the right people

Do your research on qualified and licenced builders, labourers and specialist tradespeople and firm up contracts with them. It isn’t enough to just go with the cheapest quote. You will be working with these guys for some time, and you want to know they have a good track record of not only quality work, but are capable of troubleshooting issues if they should arise and not ripping you off over and above the agreed contract if their own estimates of how long the work should take is exceeded. Get several detailed quotes for delivery of materials, estimated time needed to complete each stage of the build and how many man hours you’ll be expected to pay and choose the best.

Through the project, communicate with them daily to make sure things are progressing as they should and, if not, nip problems in the bud before they affect your timelines.

4. Set your budgets and stay on target

Spend as much time as you can planning how much the project will cost – but remember it’s likely to exceed this. Calculate the cost of your permits, tradesperson quotes, materials, internal and external fittings, windows, doors, delivery costs for all materials, tiling, painting and landscaping and keep that as a base cost. Then set up a contingency fund from which you will inevitably need to draw from to cover extra material costs, overspending or stuff you just didn’tconsider or decided to add at the eleventh hour. Have this money aside for your own peace of mind – no one needs added stress in the middle of a major project! Keep a running tab of how your budget is going throughout the job – every few days is ideal – to make sure you don’t have any nasty surprises.

5. Be a puzzle master

Building is like a jigsaw puzzle and fitting all the pieces together isn’t always a neat process if there are delays for various reasons, so have Plan A, but also a Plan B – and C – should things go awry. Create a workflow calendar for your suppliers. Engage your tradespeople and confirm their respective start dates so the project can flow easily – the bricklayers do their bit and then the carpenters are ready to do theirs etc. Make sure there is clear communication about any delays as an extension by one group by a few days could throw out your entire calendar – and blow out your costs.

6. Keep smiling!

Being an owner-builder can be a stressful experience, and sometimes you’ll just need to step away to take the edge off. Enjoy a night or two off, so whatever it is that relaxes you and spend time with friends and family. And make sure you get plenty of sleep and have a balanced diet – work won’t go so well if the boss is off sick!

Being an owner-builder is an enormous responsibility and a very challenging one. But the sense of achievement you’ll feel once your project is completed will be well worth the hard work and the many hours of planning, supervision and hair-tearing.

If you decide that being an owner builder is not for you, find a list of building contractors that can do the job for you. Yellow Pages is a great place to find quality tradespeople in your neighbourhood.