In this video I discuss the advantages and disadvantages of phasing your home construction project. Phasing intentionally and selectively plans for and delays certain aspects of a home's construction. While it saves money up front, it usually costs more in the long-term. The advantages of phased construction are:
- Lower Initial Investment - it takes less overall to get started and can spread the costs of a larger project out over time.
- Shorter Construction Time - the smaller scope of work nets a reduced (initial) construction timeline.
- Experience - living in a partially completed home while its under construction not only offsets living costs but allows you to truly experience the size and scale of the home before undertaking future phases.
- Design Changes - phasing opens the door to pivoting design ideas over time. You may decide you don't want the detached guest house planned in phase two, rather you want it incorporated into the home as an addition.
The disadvantages are:
- Complexity - overall phased construction is more complex.
- Longer Total Construction Time - even though the initial construction sequence is shorter it will take longer to realize the entire project.
- Higher Total Cost - because of the longer time frames involved, financing costs, higher design fees and the extra mobilization costs, phased projects are inherently more costly to undertake.
I discuss the details of financing concerns, planning issues, sequencing, phasing plans, staging, scheduling, and living with the mess of construction.
Phasing is an overall more complex process, but it makes sense in certain cases, the video explains those cases supported with lots of visuals.