With the decision to build a home comes many questions, but perhaps none bigger than ‘when is the best time to build?’ Getting the timing right when building your home is very important in order to minimise construction delays and subsequent unplanned costs.
The most important consideration when building a home is weather. In poor weather conditions, your build can be dramatically slowed down or even halted completely until conditions improve.
Waiting for the weather to improve is a frustrating time for anyone building a home. As impatient as you may be to get into your new home, there is unfortunately nothing that can be done except waiting the poor weather out.
That said, it’s important that you do your research to find out when the weather conditions are ideal to build in your area. Keep in mind that heat can cause just as many delays as rain, as can extreme wind and humidity so try as best as you can to plan around periods of poor weather to avoid major delays.
Of course, mother nature doesn’t always follow plans and there will be days of poor weather regardless of when you start your build.
Get the timing right
An average home build takes between six and twelve months depending on a range of factors including complexity and size of build, weather conditions, availability of supplies and issues encountered along the way.
March is generally a popular time to start a home build in New South Wales and Victoria. The hot summer days have lost their bite as autumn’s tamer conditions take hold meaning builders won’t have to battle stifling heat as the build gets started.
Inevitably the build will run through winter and risk delays due to wet weather however it’s better to start in March and run through one extreme season than starting in winter and enduring both winter and summer’s trying conditions.
Starting in winter means shorter days therefore less working hours for your build however, contractors are likely to be more available over the winter months with less jobs.
By starting your build in March, your home should be at ‘lock up’ stage by winter. Lock up stage is when a new home can be locked up and has a roof and walls. Getting to this stage by winter means that poor weather will cause less headaches as builders can focus on interior work such as installing plasterboard, internal doors and skirting boards.
March builds will also mean you should have the keys to your new home by Christmas time depending on everything going to plan.
Depending on the weather in your area, there may be alternative ideal time to start your build. If you live in a warmer climate such as tropical Far North Queensland, you may wish to push your build back and start in winter.
In Cairns, June may be a more suitable time to begin a build. It has an average high temperature of 27°, while March’s high is 31°. It also has considerably less average days of rainfall at 6 days, compared to March’s 14 days.
Building your dream home can be a stressful time and there will always be unavoidable hiccups along the way. However, with a little bit of research and planning about the ideal time to start a build in your area, you can ensure minimal missed working days and costly delays.
