How To Build An Affordable Barn Home - Cost Saving Tips

Marvellous barn homes made from beautiful designs, high-quality barn frames and excellent craftsmanship are a wonderful choice. They have a lovely atmosphere that’s hard to replicate, and they can truly make you feel welcome.

Many New Zealanders think of one day having their perfect home built. However, we all know that building a new home isn’t cheap and will be quite a financial investment when you finally do. 

However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t things you can do to lower the price while still having great results. You can do plenty of smart, straightforward things to reduce the cost of your beautiful home without sacrificing top-tier quality. 

What You Can Do To Save Money While Building A Quality Home

What exactly can you do to save money while building your dream house? Don’t worry; you don’t have to drastically change your house plans or opt for a completely different type of home barn frames than the ones you want. Instead, you can:

Choose a simple home shape. Using a barn frame for the architectural feature of your home provides a very simple shaped rectangular structure which is simple to build. Having hips and valleys and multiple roof levels adds a lot of detail and each details adds cost in materials but especially in labour. Our recommendation is to put the labour into the manufacture of the barn frame instead.

Choose A Smaller House Plan. In many of our heads, we picture our perfect homes being large, but most people don’t need that much space. Knowing how to use a smaller space can help you save money, space and make your home more compact and cosy.

Even downsizing a little can save you money. Think about how you’ll use a smaller space when selecting your home plans and imagine how you can properly utilise that space. Clever interior design will help you bring out the true potential of any home, no matter how big it is.

Open plan living spaces can make your home feel much larger. The high ceilings of a barn frame and having your space open up onto verandas is a great, cost effective way to extend your space. 

With innovative design, you can make the most of the second floor, or loft of your barn home by using the cozy space for compact bedrooms where you can relax and sleep at night.

Consider a kit-set barn process. A kit-set barn process may save you money.  A kit-set process is where you receive several predetermined building materials, such as barn frames, for your new home. 

This can save you money and time because you won’t need to choose these things yourself. People who don’t have the right experience and training might not know how to choose the right quality materials or frames while making cost-effective choices. With a kit-set barn process, you won’t have to worry about the things included in the service, so you can focus on other important things in the home-building process.

The standard frames also give you the best value because they provide optimal size for the timber used, and they’ve been pre-engineered to have lower overall costs.

Reduce The Number Of People You Need To Hire For Various Tasks. You shouldn’t handle every task yourself, especially if you’re not an experienced contractor, but that doesn’t mean you should hire someone for every job you need completed. You can save money by reducing the number of hired help you hire.

Working with an experienced contractor is a very smart choice in this situation because they’ll be able to help with many different types of tasks, whether that’s setting up your barn frames or choosing the best spot to build. Naturally, if there’s anything that you don’t have the right equipment or knowledge to handle, you should always leave those tasks to someone who can do them safely and correctly. 

Consider Using Metalcraft Insulated Panels For The Roof And Walls. Barn frames provide the perfect structural skeleton to attach insulated panels, and Metalcraft panels are very cost effective and easy to install. This can save you up to $500 per square metre, and save months of on-site building time.

Consider Your Cladding Choices. Coloursteel is a very cost effective cladding type and is well worth consideration. Timber cladding can be beautiful, but the detailing around windows and doors can be time consuming. If you like timber cladding, look at limiting it to areas like the gable ends of the building and look at using timber like macrocarpa, lusitanica and even douglas fir rather than cedar, which is much more expensive. Also, use a salt solution to grey off the timber before fixing it in place, rather than having to stain or oil it regularly.

Shop Around For Fixtures. When it comes to things like light switches and furniture, you should always look at all of your options before you select yours. This will give you a great idea of your cheapest and most expensive options so you know what you can get to save money. Plus, looking at all of your choices before making your decision will allow you to see more things that you might love.

Create Budgets And Monitor Your Spending. Always keep an eye on your spending when you build your home. Otherwise, you might spend way too much money on something like barn frames and not have enough for other important materials. Various budgets, like a budget for materials, will help you keep everything in line. 

Work With Builders Who Have Plenty Of Experience. Perhaps one of the very best things you can do to make money-saving decisions while having a beautiful, quality home built is to work with people with the right knowledge and experience. 

Always work with builders who have done this before and can give you fantastic service. Even if you run into issues, they’ll have the experience to resolve the problem satisfyingly. 

Additionally, be sure to choose people who know about the specific type of home you’d like. For example, if you want to build a gorgeous rustic barn home, choose people who specialise in barn homes. This way, they’ll know the best ways to utilise excellent barn frames cost-effectively. 

Work With Heritage Timbercraft To Have Your Gorgeous Dream Barn Home Built

At Heritage Timbercraft, we’re passionate about what we do. Our hardworking team loves to help people like you plan out your perfect barn home, choose the best spot for it and build it from the ground up.  With us, you’re not just working with builders who want to get the work done; you’re working with friends who want to build the barn home of your dreams.

Call us at 0273799213 to get in touch. We’d be thrilled to answer any thoughts or questions you have about building an affordable barn home. 

Heritage Timbercraft barn homes have that wonderful welcoming atmosphere that makes a house feel like a home.