Expert advice before building a home from a kit

Building your own home from a kit can be time consuming but if you have the patience it can be rewarding and you would save yourself a lot of money.  Here's some things to look out for.

A simple kit home can usually be put together by a person with average workshop skills, but more complicated designs require a sound knowledge of house building.   Have a look at the instruction manual if you're unsure of how detailed it is. A good instruction manual will provide detailed explanations, plans and sketches for every step of assembly, and it will also outline potential problems.  Before you begin to build, you should visualize every step from erecting the walls to putting on the roof to avoid mistakes.

An advantage of kit building is that conventional tools should be enough to do the job as most of the cutting should have been done in the factory. The building manual should list exactly what tools are required.

If you run into problem, kit manufacturers are usually more than happy to provide a back-up service, and may even run short courses in the appropriate construction skills. Expect to take some time to finish but the payoff will be a brand new home made with your own two hands.