Building a more affordable house can be a major challenge. People are often searching for housing that is more affordable or searching for ways to lower their construction costs. However, it seems that too often housing that is intended to be more affordable is just smaller and poorer quality housing.
I agree that creating smaller, well-designed homes can be a good way to reduce the cost of construction and create more affordable homes. However, I sometimes wonder if we could also explore other possibilities. We need to find ways on how to create housing for the wider section of our community that struggles to purchase or build their own home.
You should expect compromises to reduce a home’s construction cost. However, the construction quality and functionality of your home should not be sacrificed.
Our homes tend to always look a certain way. Hence, when we are building a home on a tight budget, we still want it to have the same look, style and characteristics as that of the larger, more expensive homes.
I believe that to significantly reduce the cost of construction in our region, it may require us to rethink how we see residential architecture.
If you are looking to reduce the cost of the construction of your home and make it more affordable, here are some things you can consider.
1. Raising The House
Site excavation and other foundation works can be a costly part of the construction. We tend to clear away the site to create a flat area to build our home. This can be a major headache on sloping sites. Excavating large areas of the earth can become a very costly ordeal.
It may be better to raise your building above the sloping site or let it step with the slope. This will eliminate having to cut into the site. Apart from being more economical, this can also be a more responsive approach to the site and sustainability.
2. Use More Of The Site
If your home is on or close to grade, consider using more of the site as usable space for your home.
Many of our homes are designed in such a way that all activity happens on the inside of the enclosing walls of the house. As such, the land around the house is not used as a functioning part of the home.
This is particularly evident with the land on both sides of a typical home. That area of your lot can often go unused apart from being a way to get from the front to the back yard.
I think that if we are to create housing that is more affordable, then we need to be as efficient as possible. This includes the usage of the land.
In tropical climates, exterior spaces can be habitable almost the entire year. These can be some of the most pleasant spaces created in your home.
Covered outdoor spaces are often incorporated in middle and upper-income homes. However, these exterior spaces are usually underused as they are secondary spaces to the main interior space they serve.
Placing part or all functional public spaces on the exterior will reduce the square footage of the built home. However, rooms can open or extend to exterior spaces, making the useable area for you and your family, uncompromised.
3. Prefabricated or Modular Systems
Prefabricated or prefab homes are typically built off-site in a factory or other similar location. The components are then transported to the site and assembled.
Using prefabricated or modular systems are known to reduce construction cost. The ability to construct these homes in a controlled environment makes it easier to build more efficiently than on a site. On-site conditions along with the overlapping of trades can sometimes cause time wastage.
Also, prefab systems are usually carefully designed and made to make full use of the materials. Hence, there is usually a lot less wastage of material than projects built on site.
They are also usually standardised. Having standardised components allows for better efficiency and quality control.
All of these elements create a system that can be of a higher quality while more economical than traditional on-site construction.
4. Use Different Materials
The materials you use in the construction of your home is a major part of any building project’s budget. Usually, we use the same building materials used in typical construction to build a low-cost home. Using the same materials and construction methods will not have a major impact on reducing construction costs unless we significantly reduce the quantities of the materials.
Hence, I believe we should consider other building materials that might not be typically used in residential construction.
For example, in Barbados, the typical material used for constructing the wall of a residence is concrete blocks with sand and cement render. This is usually then primed and painted or finished with a trowel-on texture coating.
However, if we consider using alternative low-cost construction materials such as wood, cement board or corrugated metal, it could start to have a greater effect on construction costs.
In Caribbean culture, I am aware that this will be an unpopular idea. This is primarily because these materials are typically associated with the cheapest forms of construction. Corrugated metal on walls in the Caribbean is usually restricted to fencing for low-income homes, storage sheds or animal enclosures.
Incidentally, these same materials are used in residential construction in other parts of the world and create stunning homes. Some world-famous architects have used corrugated iron on the walls of their home designs. When you take a look on Pinterest, you can find some amazing designs that use corrugated iron as a wall cladding. Hence, as much as it may be a cultural shock to use such materials for your home in our region, I think it’s worth exploring.
Conclusion
Creating affordable housing by reducing construction costs is a major concern of governments and potential homeowners all over the world. We are actively searching to find ways to reduce construction costs without sacrificing quality.
In the tropics, exploring ideas such as reducing groundworks and using more of the site can assist in reducing the cost of construction.
Using alternative materials that are more economical could perhaps have a significant impact on cost as well. Prefabricated systems could also be used as these tend to be more cost-efficient.
To truly find ways of making housing more affordable, may require us to rethink how we see residential designs.
Featured image by Laura Cleffmann on Unsplash