UM Surabaya lecturers share tips on how to save money on building or renovating a house

• 16 Jul
• 2022

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UM Surabaya lecturers share tips on how to save money on building or renovating a house

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• By Uswah Sahal
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Economical shopping is certainly coveted by everyone, including when building or renovating a house. Various methods will be used to save money, from finding cheap masons to choosing good and cheap materials.

However, not many people are successful in being thrifty when building or renovating a house. Most of the costs spent exceed the budget provided. Moreover, the house is a type of building that is personal and involves many things that are subjective in making it happen.

Vippy Dharmawan, a lecturer at the Faculty of Engineering (FT) Architecture Study Program, UM Surabaya, shared several tips on how to save money building or renovating a house so that your dream home can come true.

The first tip is to have careful planning. Before building a house, someone must determine what will be built or renovated, how much budget will be provided, how long the work will take, and who will carry it out. This will prevent someone from committing a waste.

“Drawings of buildings, even in the form of simple drawings, must be owned. The more thorough and complete, the easier it will be to carry out in the field," Vippy explained Tuesday (26/7/22)

According to Vippy, pictures are also needed to calculate the costs to be spent. So that savings measures can be planned from the start. Generally, light renovations or building a small house just require a simple sketch that you can do yourself.

“In many cases, using the services of a building planner or architect is highly recommended. Unlike before, in the 80s or 90s, architects were still scarce and expensive. Nowadays it is very easy to find architects who can help you make the desired house design," he added.

The second tip for saving costs is building knowledge. Even if someone is a layman in the field of building, there's nothing wrong with someone looking for references on the internet, bookstores, or building shops about all things related to building.

“Simple knowledge of materials as well as construction really helps. With this knowledge one can choose the cheapest but most appropriate materials and construction to use when building a house," he said.

According to Vippy, the last tip is that someone must determine in advance who will carry out the construction or renovation work later. If someone has a lot of free time, enough patience, and the house to be built or renovated is not too complicated, someone can do it themselves to save on the cost of contractor services.

"In contrast, if someone is bound by work and doesn't have much free time, using the services of a contractor will be much more economical," he said.

According to his explanation, supervising and directing workers in the field takes time, energy, and emotions, as well as finding and selecting building materials to buy. So the risk of wastage due to wrong work or buying wrong materials is far greater than the savings from using contractor services.